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Asbury Park Mayor ’s Wellness Committee
November 14, 2025
ACTION ITEMS
 Need list of food from football team, police, PAL
 Johnson’s Locust Hall Farm (Jobstown) – field trip to pick apples. Let Karyn know
if you’re interested.
 Discuss website next meeting.
Celebrating Our Fall Successes (October–Early November Recap)
 Football Team feedback
o Kids don’t eat lunch from the cafeteria. Kids are used to eating healthy.
Biggest problem.
o Not just football; other teams too. After school they run to McDonalds.
Want to introduce the kids to eating nutritious food.
o Mercy Center delivered food after games to kids last year. Processed
food so not great.
o Kids go home and there’s no food prepared. Not eating nutritious food.
o Karyn in contact with the Head Coach. Trying to coordinate to support
them for the new season of winter sprots (boys/girls basketball; wrestling;
volleyball).
o Middle school kids need food too. After practice works best.
o All donations have to go through the AD and the school Principal.
o Wendi: her Committee is going to the school and will be eat the Sodexo
food. Have started a pilot program at the Middle School with MacroBites.
Small rollout this week. Want to expand it. Want to work with more
restaurants to do this.
 PAL feedback
o Same situation; kids aren’t eating lunch or snacks before they work out. Hit
the gym at 4:30pm and feed them afterwards.
o Used to do community outreach to offer food; brought meals to gym. Not
sustainable. When SNAP benefits stopped we’ve been providing home
cooked meals.
o Exploring sustainable solutions.
 Police program
o Age 8-16. Sister Circle program (29 girls every other Tuesday), basketball
team (28 girls) and boxing (15 kids all year round), bowling league. Total:
60-80 kids.
o Nina offered to support.
o Same issues. Need food for kids.
Let’s take a moment to celebrate all the amazing things we’ve accomplished together:
 Trunk or Treat Apples THE most popular trunk! Who new?! (Holly, Nico, Shekira,
Shawn, and Karyn)
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 Professor Jack (Rutgers) and his practicum class's trip to Asbury Park (Nico,
Shekira, Karyn, John). Evaluated our grant! Bigger evaluation is coming.
 Project WriteNow 11th Anniversary! (Meredith). Red Bank event.
 Jai at Play Autism Friendly Workshop in partnership with the AP Library (Shekira,
Jai,and Nico). Recently launched library tour! Bringing free workshops to the
nation.
Other Mayor’s Wellness Committee’s Update (Karyn and Shekira)
 Apples to the AP Football Team for half time and future partnership ideas (Coach
Leroy Hayes, AD Ardizzone, and Mr. Zarella)
 Big thanks to all the volunteers, partners, and community members who showed
up with such great energy!
 Shekira has a campaign to raise funding. Reaching out to other Mayor’s
Wellness Committees to partner and connect – Long Branch, Bradley Beach and
Red Bank already responded.
What’s Coming Up
November Events
 Gratitude Dinner with KYDS and community members November 19th, 6-8 PM
(Ericka and Karyn) at the Conscious Community Center.
 AP Library Winter Fridge Initiative (Nico) – produce giveaway is 30+ people!
Karyn and Nico met with Flying Pig Market. Will be providing dry goods to
continue market through the winter. Every other Saturday.
 Shawn and Karyn visit to Mr. Soto from the Asbury Park/Brookdale Culinary
Program (Karyn and Shawn). Wants to partner…his son has a vegan restaurant.
He’s coming up with a menu so they can pilot it. Have $3,000 left in our budget
to allocate to this effort. Great facility; lots of opportunity. Will start with 25-30
students on Fridays.
December Events
 Holiday Party!
o Location: Kula Farm
o We’ll share an amazing plant-based meal prepared by Luna Verde of
Bradley Beach.
 The Center
o Hosting Worlds AIDS Day at Trinity Church at 7PM on December 1st.
Singers, speaker, band, etc.
o Center Creates event on Dec 3rd at Jersey Shore Arts Center. Art program
and display and on sale.
 Meredith - event at AP Book Co-Op Saturday November 15.
 Lisa Lee – this Sunday – World Day of Remembrance for traffic victims.
Looking Ahead: Planning for 2026
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 New Theme Ideas: What wellness focus should define 2026? Should we continue
with Blue Bishops Living Well? One thought is to focus this year on the children
of our community
 New Chair: Discuss nominations and timeline for our next committee leader
 Website Refresh: Let’s brainstorm idea on how to really focus on getting the word
out about our amazing work (Shekira)
 Fresh Events: What new activities or partnerships could bring even more energy
to our community?
 Sound Byte 2.0?
5. Open Conversation & Member Updates
Space for everyone to share updates, ideas, and good news.
Grant opportunities, local collaborations, or projects in motion.
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