CUMAC feeds people and changes lives. It works to alleviate hunger and its root causes for those in need in Paterson, Passaic County and northern New Jersey.

Description:
The primary function of CUMAC is as a Food Pantry and Depot. The Referral Office gives out food to nearly 2000 individuals and families a month in need of emergency assistance, while the County designated Depot provides acquisition, transportation and storage services for smaller area feeding programs.

CUMAC also has a Thrift Shop that provides clothing and household items to victims of fire and domestic violence. Additional items are sold, and the proceeds are used to purchase food for distribution.

The Pantry, Depot warehouse and Thrift Shop all serve as job training locations for our Pathways to Work program, created to help the residents of Passaic County gain job skills and experience, and ultimately secure gainful employment.

CUMAC also runs an after-school program in conjunction with the Southwest Paterson Cooperative Parish of the United Methodist Church, and does a number of seasonal programs, such as a school supply drive and a holiday gift program.

History:
In the late 1970’s, then Paterson school teacher, Hugh Dunlop noticed the performance of his students was lagging, particularly in the morning, inspiring him to bring breakfast for them. As their performance improved, the students asked for food for their siblings as well. After stumbling upon a wooden spoon with the Bible verse "Feed my sheep" imprinted on it, Hugh reached out to his church congregation to help him collect food, and a small pantry, then known only as CUMAC, was born in the church closet.

After a short time, Hugh began "badgering" the Conference of the United Methodist Church to allow him to use an abandoned church building to expand his new found mission to feed the poor. CUMAC was incorporated in 1985 as a nonprofit organization, and the “ECHO” was added to our name to stress that while we are an outreach urban ministry of the United Methodist Church, we serve all people in need without discrimination.

Over 30 years have passed since CUMAC’s inception, and since then we have moved into a 28,000 square foot facility in downtown Paterson that houses the largest food distribution program in Passaic County, a food depot providing transportation, warehousing and distribution to other local agencies, a thriving thrift shop which helps support our feeding program, and a job-training facility readying clients to enter or re-enter the workforce.

Unfortunately, over 50% of Paterson residents still struggle to make ends meet as working wages simply have not kept up with cost of living in Passaic County, forcing increasingly more working people to seek emergency food assistance.

We continue to serve.

Contact person: Patrick Carty, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email)
Office fax number: 973-742-8115

Address:

P. O. Box 2721 Paterson, NJ 0759-2721

Web Site: http://www.cumacecho.org

Directions:

cRoute 4 West turns into Broadway. Broadway will become Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Paterson. Pass Barnet Hospital on left. Pass McDonald's, NJ State Employment offices. Pass Straight Street drive under Railroad Overpass. Make left and second. . . (more)   Nearest Bus Stop: 744/712/703/166, 5 minute walk