Elizabeth, New Jersey

 The city of Elizabeth, New Jersey is just a train ride away from where I’ve been staying in the big apple so I definitely wanted to make sure to make it out for one of their Monday evening dinners.

    I know Alex from my days in Los Angeles where she spent the first couple years of her Catholic Worker career in community. After a while in sunny LA Alex decided to return to her home town and start up a CW project of her own with the support of friends.

    Initially she started by serving food and handing out whatever clothing got donated right on Broad Street, the kind of main drag in Elizabeth, earning them the monicker “Broad Street Benches” that survived their transition into their own indoor space.

    While they lost that location during everything with Covid when they decided to get back up and running again an unusual set up came their way. It turns out most people don’t host events on Monday evenings so they could rent a small event/party space every week for a reasonable price. 

 

Faux-christal hangs from the ceilings and the space is already well maintained and decorated for hosting celebrations of all sorts. Folding tables and chairs are brought out for meal time.

 

So each week on Monday afternoon Alex cooks the food for the meal and hauls it down to their banquet room. She’s joined and supported by a couple of friends and a couple volunteers.

 
Sometimes there are other items to be passed out along with the meal. During my visit there were bags full of hygene needs and other personal care items donated by some religious sisters that Alex knows and socks brought in by one of the volunteers.

For dinner we had rice and chili and salad prepped by Alex and donated cupcakes and sandwiches acquired by a volunteer with bottled water and ice tea as the beverage options. Service starts at 4:30 and clean up starts at 6:00. Everything is wrapped up by 6:30.

In my role as Catholic Worker Facebook monitor the question gets asked every month or two, “How do I start a Catholic Worker?” Alex is proof that anyone can do it.

Though she works full time at the hospital in town, she and a small caudre of folks are able to regularly and reliably show up and do the works of mercy in Elizabeth.

It might not be possible to uproot and move somewhere that already has a big or historic Catholic Worker community. It might not be practical for some folks to make the Catholic Worker their fulltime job. Not every Catholic Worker can be set up in a big mansion like LA or former music school like NYC. But we can all make a start where we are with what we have.
 

Alex and the Elizabeth Catholic Worker is a model folks can follow.