Good Samaritan Center forced to relocate in 2007 Social services agency will lose lease at Englishtown location BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer The shelves at the Good Samaritan Center in Englishtown start to fill up with food for those in need during the holiday season. A local center set up to help people in dire situations is currently facing its own crisis. The Good Samaritan Center in Englishtown is losing its lease and has to move out of its Harrison Avenue location by the beginning of the new year, according to Carol Puorro, the center's director. "We're a crisis center so we're used to getting people through crises," Puorro said. "This is our crisis." The center services more than 145 families in the Allentown, Millstone, Roosevelt and Upper Freehold areas, according to Puorro. The center offers a full-time food pantry, homelessness prevention services, and other goods and services for people in need. "We have food available always, no matter who you are," Puorro said. "Our crowning glory was building 87 low-income houses in Manalapan," Puorro said of the center's accomplishments during its 20 years of existence. Several months ago, the new landlord of the building where the center is located, told the center that it would not renew its lease, which expires on Dec. 31. PHOTOSBY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Carol Puorro, director of the Good Samaritan Center in Englishtown, readies a box of donations for the center's patrons on Nov. 17. "We've been leasing this building since 1986," Puorro said, "and the landlord has always been very good. But new people took over, and they want to sell and not renew our lease." When things looked their dimmest for the organization, Ray Peretti, of Manalapan, who volunteers with the center, went to Manalapan's mayor and mentioned that the center would soon be displaced. "The mayor said maybe Manalapan could help," Puorro said. "We already had a good relationship with Manalapan because we worked with it to do the affordable-housing building project. We built the homes, but they donated the 14 acres for us to build on." Puorro said Manalapan saved the day when it offered the center the use of two rooms behind its senior center, located at 211 Route 522, which is about a mile away from the center's current location. "The rooms in the back of the senior center are smaller than what we have here, but we're just going to do what we have to do to survive," Puorro said. The center will have to make some adjustments in order to fit into the space, including selling a 9-foot-by-12-foot freezer it uses to store perishable items. "We have to sell it," Puorro said, "but we already got an offer on it, and the person said we could always use it to store our Thanksgiving turkeys." The Good Samaritan Center will use the rooms temporarily, according to Puorro, and will have to work to secure a permanent location and lease. Puorro said the center has always managed to survive through the generosity of area individuals, families, organizations and businesses - a spirit that has continued since its creation by the local St. Thomas More and First Presbyterian churches. Major sponsors of the center include national organizations such as United Way and local philanthropic endeavors like those of Monmouth Park in Oceanport and the Manalapan Yorktowne Club's annual "Walk With Joe" fundraiser. All money donated goes toward programs rather than administrative costs, according to Puorro. Along with monetary donations, the center could always use food and other goods, Puorro said. Since food stamps cannot be used for goods such as shampoo, toothpaste and other hygiene products, Puorro said local families are always looking for those items at the center. "Whatever is in your closet in your house," she said, "should be in the closet in this place." In addition, the center runs a giving tree during the holiday season, and people can pick up a form to buy gifts for a particular family at its Harrison Avenue location. Puorro said the center will also require a van for its move. For more information or to make a donation, call (732) 446-1142.