St. Mary’s Food Pantry serves hundreds of our Pompton Lakes neighbors who are struggling to put food on the table. The pantry has only a limited number of free parking spots in the Pond Hole Parking Lot. Because demand regularly exceeds those spots, especially during the short pickup windows the pantry operates, visitors are frequently forced to park in paid spaces.

The result: our most financially vulnerable community members are receiving parking tickets they cannot afford, on top of needing food assistance in the first place.

This is not a hypothetical problem. St. Mary’s Food Pantry staff have raised this issue repeatedly with town leadership, including written letters, phone calls, and appearances at town council meetings. To date, no action has been taken.

We are asking the Pompton Lakes Town Council to adopt one or more of the following solutions:

Designate additional spaces in the Pond Hole Parking Lot as free during food pantry operating hours
 • Direct parking enforcement officers not to ticket vehicles in the vicinity of St. Mary’s Food Pantry during operating hours
 • Work with the pantry to establish a simple pass or exemption system

No one visiting a food pantry should leave with a parking ticket. This is a matter of basic dignity and community compassion. Pompton Lakes can and should do better.

We respectfully request this petition be entered into the public record at the next Pompton Lakes Town Council meeting.