MORRIS COUNTY — 25th Legislative District candidates Christine Clarke, Dr. Jonathan Torres, and Diane Salvatore are dropping off more than 800 pounds of donated food to three food pantries around their district, collected during their ‘Petitions and Pantries’ drive to support food-insecure constituents while gathering signatures for their ballot petitions to represent the 25th District.
“Servant leadership begins long before elections, and for us, that includes volunteering to support our local food pantries. It’s important to help children sleep at night with full bellies and to give parents needed reassurances that their representatives have their backs,” said Clarke.
“Helping others is what motivates most physicians to pursue medical education. But through practicing medicine, we see how powerfully many ways of giving back, including supporting our local food pantries, greatly impact people’s lives. Working to improve our neighbors’ physical and social needs is fulfilling and serving others is vital to maintaining community,” said Torres.
“One way to practice gratitude is to remember that for some of our community members, the safety net is frayed and failing,” said Salvatore. “Giving food to those in need is a practical and profound way of making a tangible difference.”
The donations collected during Team LD25’s “Petitions and Pantries” signature drive events will be split to benefit three Morris County food pantries: the Hope House food pantry in Dover, New Hope Food Pantry in Oak Ridge, and Interfaith Food Pantry in Morris Plains, which resupplies multiple pantries around the district. With affordable housing and food insecurity challenges in New Jersey, families continue to sign up for help from pantries. Per the 2020 ALICE report from the United Way of Northern New Jersey, 37% of New Jersey families are ‘Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed’ – working but barely making ends meet. The team sees these problems as injustices of past policies and thinks the policy should change to improve outcomes for working families. They plan to legislate in Trenton from a working-class perspective.
Clarke is an environmental advocate, a grassroots organizer, and a mother-of-four running for State Senate to build the clean energy economy, improve healthcare, protect clean air and water, and lead with empathy and fiscal sense. She has lived in Jefferson for 18 years with her husband and four children and has been fighting pollution and climate impacts for years. Learn more about Clarke by clicking here.
Torres is an award-winning family medicine physician and physician educator, a Boy Scouts leader, and a father of two running for office to keep patient care between patients and their doctors, not insurance companies or politicians. He works in the Department of Family Medicine at Morristown Medical Center and founded the osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine residency program in 2016. He also oversaw a COVID-19 unit during the pandemic in 2020. Learn more about Torres by clicking here.
Salvatore is an award-winning magazine and digital journalism professional running for office to make New Jersey an excellent place for retirees and seniors to thrive in affordable, integrative communities with cross-generational benefits. She was editor-in-chief of Consumer Reports, Prevention, and Ladies’ Home Journal. She focused on creating high-quality, mission-based journalism to improve people’s lives through community and policy change. To learn more, click here.
The 25th District includes 19 towns in Morris and Passaic counties: Boonton Township, Butler, Dover, Harding, Jefferson Township, Kinnelon, Madison, Mendham Borough, Mendham Township, Mine Hill, Morristown, Morris Township, Mount Arlington, Randolph, Rockaway Borough, Rockaway Township, Victory Gardens, West Milford and Wharton.
