Brokers Matt Culkin and Joe Ferri participated in CUMAC Echo’s Thanksgiving Feast on November 21st. The two professional liability brokers traveled to CUMAC’s headquarters in Paterson, New Jersey, serving many underprivileged senior citizens at their Freedom village housing facility.
When asked about his participation, Joe Ferri had this to say. "CUMAC is an organization that's near and dear to both our company and the local community. The very least that we could do, during the Holiday season is provide them with a few cooked turkeys and hams plus serve the seniors that helped serve those before them."
Mike Smith, CEO of Axis Insurance Service also commented on the company’s relationship with CUMAC. “I have personally supported this great organization for several years, both individually and as a member of this company. We have seen them grow tremendously over the last decade and have seen their evolution from a small food pantry to a place where many underprivileged citizens of our state can get the necessary supplies to live on.”
About Axis and PLRisk
Formed in 1999, Axis Insurance Services, LLC is a nationwide leader in the retail professional and management liability insurance industry, developing innovative risk management solutions for today’s evolving businesses. PLRisk was formed in 2014 to serve the retail brokerage community with the same array of products and services. Combined, they offer Professional, management and Cyber liability insurance products to over 5,000 insureds nationwide from their headquarters in Franklin Lakes, NJ
About CUMAC
CUMAC began its mission in the late 1970s when Hugh Dunlop, a Paterson teacher, noticed that his students could not focus in school due to a lack of adequate nutrition. With the helping hands of his church congregation, he began to collect food donations and started to chip away at the problem of hunger with his students and meet their needs. Hugh soon realized that the problem he saw among his students extended far beyond his classroom, but was and still is embedded in the community. A small pantry was created in Paterson to start alleviating this burden on individuals and families in his community.
In 1985, the Center of United Methodist Aid to the Community Ecumenically Concerned with Helping Others, CUMAC/ECHO, was incorporated.
The very people who CUMAC was formed to help are now partners in the journey to build a strong, vital community where everyone will have access to the resources they need to thrive. The CUMAC team invited the community to tell us their whole story and learned that choice is too often taken away in poverty and so we built our Choice Marketplace. Families are now invited to choose what food they desire to eat including fresh produce and lean meats. We are also helping the community connect with resources such as SNAP and Medicare through our Benefits Enrollment Center, but it goes far beyond choosing groceries and accessing benefits. Families are taking back their dignity, advocating for their needs, helping create a future where we all return to our roots of neighbors helping to lift up neighbors and transforming community through shared hope.