It's a soggy job, but somebody's got to do it.  Since Project Main Street hung baskets filled with dragon-winged begonias along Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell in late spring, Team H2O has been in action to make sure the flowers survive and thrive.  About four times a week, Team H2O volunteers walk the borough's "waterboy" up and down the avenue to soak the 35 baskets of flowers. The whole process takes about one and a half to two hours, with a stop at ACE Hardware for a refill. Project Main Street volunteers, members of the governing body, local landscapers, Boy Scouts—and now Patch—have been …

Patch employees from Essex County spent Thursday morning building cardboard boxes to be filled with food for New Jersey residents served by the Community FoodBank of NJ.  Editors from the Caldwells, Bloomfield and Belleville Patch sites, along with New Jersey Regional Publisher Joe Ornegri, worked assembly-line style to create several pallets of boxes while learning about the important mission of this Hillside-based organization. The Community FoodBank of NJ fed 900,000 residents in 18 of the state's 21 counties last year. The non-profit also welcomed 30,000 volunteers in 2010, who after …

One of the many, many things that drew me to Patch is the company’s emphasis on volunteering. “Give Five” is what Patch calls the handful of days a year that employees are encouraged to do service in the communities they cover.  As I near my six-month anniversary with Caldwells Patch, today was my third Give Five day. In the past, I have helped out at the Caldwell Food Pantry and at the Grover Cleveland Senior Center. Today, I turned to a group a little closer to my heart. My son is a kindergartener at Trinity Academy in Caldwell, where the lunch program is run completely by volunteer parents…

It's easy to work hard when the results are so rewarding. Bloomfield Patch Local Editor Lia Eustachewich and I joined the staff of Caldwell's Department of Human Services Thursday to help out with the Grover Cleveland Senior Center's annual Holiday Luncheon. When I got there around 10:30 a.m., preparations were already well under way for a party that would feed and entertain more than 40 area seniors. From setting and clearing tables to serving a three-course meal, there was plenty to do before the guests arrived at noon. But when I was greeted by friendly and grateful smiles, it hardly felt…

I arrived at the Caldwell Food Pantry on Park Avenue Thursday morning a little after it opened at 10 a.m. with a tote bag filled from my cupboards with non-perishable food items: cans of tuna, beans and crushed pineapple, a package of brown rice and a box of fruit juice drinks. The Caldwell Food Pantry, which is operated by the Caldwell Department of Human Services, is currently serving some 55 households in both Caldwell and West Caldwell. Most of the recipients have a temporary need for food assistance, explained Tamara Bross, Human Services assistant, although some, she said, are "lifers…