The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, founded in 2006 by the musician John Bongiovi Jr., a.k.a. Jon Bon Jovi, to address hunger and homelessness in the United States, is establishing a food bank to supply and deliver food to a central location in East Hampton Town for distribution to its food pantries.
"Individuals, whether local businesspeople, ordinary citizens, or those who have a particularly higher status in the community for whatever reason that might be — it's just really overwhelming to see the generosity here for the local community," East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday.
Mr. Bongiovi owns a house in East Hampton Village. His JBJ Soul Kitchen restaurants in his home state of New Jersey serve both paying and in-need customers.
East Hampton's food pantries "are finding it difficult to source the much-needed dry goods and other grocery items for their food-insecure clients," according to a resolution passed unanimously by the town board on Tuesday, and JBJ Soul Kitchen offered the food bank to help.
With a resolution passed on Tuesday, the town board formally accepted the offer.
Concurrently, the owners of East Hampton Indoor Tennis in Wainscott offered the complex's camp building to serve as a food bank for the JBJ Soul Kitchen's donations. "Locating a food bank in close proximity to the East End that could secure food donations and make this food available to our local food pantries" would permit them to "focus solely on serving the needs of their food-insecure clients," the resolution states.
Food pantry volunteers will now be able to pick up groceries at the East Hampton Indoor Tennis complex, rather than having to travel UpIsland to collect provisions. The arrangement will continue during the coronavirus pandemic, mass unemployment and food insecurity having put unprecedented demand on food pantries.
The board's resolution also authorized signs to direct delivery trucks and volunteers to the food bank. Signs have already been erected at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Wainscott-Northwest Road and at the intersection of Route 114 and Daniel's Hole Road.
In addition to music and philanthropy, Mr. Bongiovi, whose band, Bon Jovi, has sold more than 130 million albums worldwide, is known for political activism. In August, he hosted an event for Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, then a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president, at his East Hampton residence. He previously supported the presidential candidacies of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry. President Obama appointed him to the White House Council for Community Solutions in 2010.