Lunch Break Puts on its Finest for Gala

Throughout the year Lunch Break helps feed the hungry through its soup kitchen, helps provide families with fresh produce and food from its pantry, helps educate residents about social services and assistance programs, and helps people get through the holidays with food and toy and clothing drives.

Call this one for Lunch Break.

On Friday, Lunch Break hosted its annual gala at Two River Theater, welcoming approximately 400 guests to enjoy music, food from 15 Red Bank Flavour eateries, drinks and auctions and participate in the organization's largest fundraiser of the year. Dressed up in their finest, Lunch Break board members and volunteers mingled with guests who shelled out $150 a ticket to have fun and help a good cause.

"It's just amazing," Lunch Break Executive Director Gwen Love said of the turnout. "It just demonstrates all of the love and support Lunch Break receives from the community. We are totally indebted to them."

Lunch Break was founded nearly 30 years ago and over that time the organization has grown significantly, in the process helping meet the demand form the community and beyond. The organization's headquarters on Drs. James Parker Boulevard has become a one-stop of sorts for those who need help for everything from a finding a hot meal, to finding a job. 

Much of the organization's success, Love said, is due to volunteers and a generous community willing to help in anyway it can.

"I think people feel it in their heart," she said of the need to help. "They know families need to eat, children need to eat, and the fact is Lunch Break provides those basic needs; people get it."