Get Ready Fest® 2024: Empowering Camden Families, One Resource at a Time

This year’s Get Ready Fest® was nothing short of amazing! Hosted by The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, the event brought together community members, partners, and volunteers to provide essential support to 1,000 Camden families. From health screenings and financial literacy resources to nutritious groceries, school supplies, and even free haircuts, Get Ready Fest® offered everything families needed to start the school year off right.

A huge thank you to our Presenting Sponsor, American Water Charitable Foundation, and our Title Sponsor, Five Below Foundation. Their support, along with contributions from organizations like Virtua Health, Philabundance, and Sysco Food Company, made this day possible.

Get Ready Fest® is more than just a one-day event – it’s a powerful movement dedicated to breaking down barriers and building stronger, healthier communities. We are so proud of the impact we made in Camden this year and look forward to continuing our mission to empower youth and families in need.

Stay tuned for more ways to get involved, and thank you to everyone who made this event such a success!

TMJF and ShopRite Unite to Defeat Hunger at Get Ready Fest™

Food to supplement needs for a week and other supplies help 400 West Philadelphia Families

In the United States, the roots of hunger run deep. In Philadelphia, 26 percent of households live below the poverty level and far too many children go to bed hungry. This is why The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation and ShopRite supermarkets operated by the Brown Family, teamed up for Get Ready Fest™, among the signature programs of The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation to effectuate positive change in the lives of youth, families and communities. Four hundred (400) West Philadelphia families, pre-identified by ACHEIVEability, Daroff Charter School, People's Emergency Center and Intercultural Family Services, received vouchers as a invitation to the Get Ready Fest™ event held on July 22, 2019 from 10:00 am to 2:00 p.m. at Universal Daroff Charter School at 5630 Vine Street in Philadelphia. 

Since 2014, Get Ready Fest™ has provided thousands of families residing in vulnerable commodities with access to a wide array of essential resources including 25 pounds of shelf-stable food, essential dignity and hygiene items and health and wellness products to help them thrive. Additionally, the program offers education, social service information relating to GED, job training and placement; and senior and veteran support services; and resources for children including books, school supplies, haircuts, face painting and snacks. 

“Brown’s Super Stores, who operates 12 supermarkets in the Philadelphia region, has been a key player with the Foundation on our efforts to address hunger and wellness and we are proud they have signed on for Get Ready Fest™,” said Malcolm Jenkins, two time Super Bowl Champion and Pro Bowler who is Chairman of The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation. “Since its inception, the program has served more than 7500 families (roughly 30,000 individuals) throughout Camden, NJ, Columbus, OH, New Orleans, LA and Philadelphia, PA. We are truly proud of the impact we have made so far,” he added. 

“We are proud to partner with The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation and to join in its effort to bring healthy food and other choices to families in West Philadelphia,” said Sandy Brown, Director, Brown’s Super Stores. Joining Brown’s is Pepsi, which has been doing local community events with the Brown family for over 25 years. “Get Ready Fest™ was a perfect fit for the two of us to continue our partnership to provide food and food products for vulnerable families; our organizations found the synergy with Malcolm’s foundation to be perfectly aligned and we look forward to more future partnerships.”

Get Ready Fest - Brings 800 Camden families wellness resources, food and essentials.

Since 2014, Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins has brought Get Ready Fest, his foundation’s signature charity event, to cities across the country. In Camden, New Jersey, 35 percent of households live below the poverty level and far too many children go to bed hungry. This is why The Malcom Jenkins Foundation and PepsiCo partnered with Feed the Children to kick off “Get Ready Fest: Helping Feed Camden” providing 800 Camden-area families with wellness resources, food and essentials.The event kicked off at 12 noon at Antioch Baptist Church, 690 Ferry Ave, Camden, NJ.“The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation (TMJF) is proud to team up and partner for this important event in the Camden area,” said Malcolm Jenkins, a New Jersey native.  Thursday's event was its first in Camden.

"We thought it was very important (to come to Camden)," he said. "It's that city that's right there on the other side of the bridge that you forget about, but me being from Jersey, we wanted to do something in New Jersey specifically and Camden just made sense to us.  Despite the rain, which Antioch pastor John Parker joked "baptized us all," about 800 families turned out for boxes of food, toiletries, books, school uniforms and supplies, and help with an array of social services.

Each family identified by Antioch Baptist Church received:

• One 25-pound box of nonperishable food items
• One 15-pound box of personal-care items
• One box of AVON products
• Books from Disney Publishing Worldwide
• Frito-Lay snacks
• PepsiCo beverages
• Life Original Cereal
• Quaker Standard Oats
• Chewy Granola Bars
• Variety of Campbell Soup products

In addition to providing enough food and daily essentials, the Get Ready Fest TM event offers an array of health-related services and information through the support of various community resource partners. These services include health screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, etc., education and social service information relating to GED, job training, and senior and veteran support services. Additionally, the event includes a children’s resource area that provides services, children’s books, school supplies, haircuts, face painting, and snacks.