The Ocean County’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will bring a bit of Irish luck to New Jersey food banks. Organizers are asking participants and attendees to bring one non-perishable food item to the parade to help fill New Jersey food banks, which are practically wiped out during the current economic crisis.

Collection and transportation of all the donated food will be organized by the Teamsters. Everyone is encouraged to bring an item to the parade and the Teamsters, with members of the Monmouth and Ocean County Building Trades and Monmouth-Ocean AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, will run down the parade route just before the parade starts and collect the items. The supply will be divided up and delivered to area food banks.

“The more that is collected, the more it can be spread around,” says Bernard Viggiani, PR director for the parade. “I know of some people putting up boxes at their work places so their company or local businesses can pack a box or two and bring it to the parade with their name on it. We have posters online so you can just print them out and hang them in your office, workplace or even classroom,” he said.

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