Redevelopment Corporation reopens family building, food bank says it fed hundreds after EBT-card scam

Jill Lombardo, executive director of the Redevelopment Corporation, told viewers of the county program Spotlight on Cumberland County that the nonprofit’s recent renovation of “Building 3” on its Mays Landing Road campus created seven efficiency-style family units with a combined 45 beds and allowed intact families and single fathers to stay together at the Cumberland Family Shelter.

The expansion, Lombardo said, was funded in part through recovery money coordinated by the city of Vineland and recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with local officials including Vineland Mayor Anthony Fanucci and city economic development director Sandy Forsinski helping to secure the grant. Lombardo also described operational upgrades made during the COVID-19 pandemic — including an air purification system and revised protocols — and said those measures helped keep reported COVID cases at the shelter low.

Why it matters: The redevelopment project directly increases space for families experiencing homelessness in southern Cumberland County and, Lombardo said, corrects long-standing building disrepair that previously forced the shelter to split some families across separate buildings. The Redevelopment Corporation also runs the Southern Regional Food Distribution Center (SRFDC), a regional food bank Lombardo said moved nearly 4 million pounds of food last year and coordinated emergency food distributions after a recent EBT-card compromise.

On the shelter expansion and services

"We have seven rooms. Each one of them has a kitchenette and full bathroom," Lombardo said, describing Building 3 as a set of small efficiency apartments with space for playpens and cribs.…