Nestor Bedoya, Morristown High School Class of 2000, was directly impacted by the statewide curfew and stay-at-home order in March limiting bars and restaurants to open only for delivery and take-out due to the COVID-19 virus. As Co-Owner of Chef Fredy’s Table in Morristown, the fine dining restaurant did little to no take-out business prior to the pandemic. Nonetheless, as he saw the influx of needs at Morristown Medical Center, two or three times a week he started putting no-charge meal trays together for those in the hospital seeing the greatest number of patients.

As it evolved, Nestor and his wife, Judy, began discussing the needs of the community. As residents of Morristown since 1996, they know it is made up of a large immigrant community, which includes himself. This community of hard-working people are mostly hourly workers, many of whom are undocumented. Without government assistance, they wondered how they could help them and their children during this crisis?

Quickly, they created a grassroots campaign to collect food to bring and handout through their nearby church, St. Margaret’s. They started by asking neighbors to donate and put two bins at the bottom of the driveway with a sign that said “Help Morris Now.” The next morning the bins were full.

Nestor reached out to St. Margaret’s Church to make an announcement that Help MorrisNOW would be collecting goods for neighbors in Morristown and Morris Township. To further spread the word, he contacted Jeff Haag to post about the effort on the Morristown Stimulus Facebook page. Without hesitation, Jeff agreed and Nestor instantly started seeing donations come through. In fact, the amount of food donated was incredible. Those in need started to line up for food the same day it was shared. It began with helping one to five people, but it quickly grew to 50-400 people at a time as it continued to grow each week.

A second message was posted asking for donations and contributions to fulfill the large need as evidenced by a Facebook video showing a long line of people. It became a community fund project, where donations could be made to purchase more food for the masses. Jeremy Gulish shared an idea of a fundraiser through his local real estate agency, Keller Williams Metropolitan, and they agreed to match dollar for dollar up to $10K of the campaign via its GoFundMe page. Within 45 minutes of publicizing the fundraiser, they raised their goal.  

Nestor also connected with members of the Morris County Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce to help source, buy and transport boxes of food out of state at a low cost. Chairman Ralph Tejeda, President of Tropical Sourcing and Vice-Chair, Morris Township Police Officer and Morristown Latino American Supermarket President, Victor Gallardo were instrumental in the process.

By partnering with local food distributors, churches and non-profits, Nestor, his brother and General Manager at Chef Fredy’s Table, Luis Bedoya, and their team were able to provide neighbors a full grocery cart needed for a balanced meal – every Saturday morning. 50K pounds of food, which included non-perishable goods as well as chicken, eggs and milk were purchased to feed those in desperate need, which at its height reached 500-600 at a time.

In the end, 1,500-2,000 families were fed, three times a week as Nestor and a team of volunteers worked tirelessly to ensure those in and around Morristown received the food they needed. They finished the campaign on July 13 as restaurants were allowed to open for indoor dining. Nestor and Judy graciously put their careers on hold to organize, voice the need and to support their community. It was time to get back to Chef Fredy’s Table to support the restaurant staff and family and for the local nonprofit organizations dedicated to food insecurity to continue their work, including Interfaith Food Pantry and Table of Hope – two pillars in the community.

“The biggest highlight of this effort was helping to bring the community together,” said Nestor Bedoya.  “The catalyst of neighbors helping neighbors to connect the dots and put people on the right path – collectively. There was not one single person, but a shared effort to create a big umbrella to weather the storm together.”

Nestor is a passionate and driven restaurateur with over 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry. He also volunteers his time with many local organizations including Interfaith Food Pantry and Morristown Medical Center.

Nestor and Judy live in Morristown with their three children who attend schools in the District; Sofia (17 yrs old – Senior at MHS), Mia (14 yrs old – Freshman at MHS) and Nico (10 yrs old in Sussex Ave).