Teresa Williams on Hope and Healing

Teresa Williams (at center in photo) is very familiar with the power of resilience. Fresh off a family missionary experience in South Africa, and only months after arriving in town with her four young children for her husband’s new position as pastor at Bethel Church of Morristown, Hurricane Irene hit. The storm flooded the church fellowship hall and kitchen, destroying both. “It was an overwhelming time,” says Williams.

But it wasn’t only the flood damage that overwhelmed her. The community support also made her emotional. “The resiliency of this community was so amazing,” she says. Other local churches helped them clean up the flood, and people donated supplies to help them get back on their feet. “It was an incredibly challenging time for us, but it was also so rewarding. It was overwhelmingly joyful to see the community coming together no matter their beliefs or their backgrounds. It gave us tremendous hope and literally put tears in our eyes.”

The flood brought more good things. Around this time, an anonymous donor stepped forward, not only offering to help the church rebuild, but also offering to fund the construction of a commercial kitchen. “It was never our plan,” Williams says. “But when we started talking to the donor, we realized the potential this had to really help the community.” Table of Hope was born. 

Serving the Community

Table of Hope, Williams says, isn’t just about passing out meals cooked in that commercial kitchen. “Our volunteers are extremely passionate and want people to feel safe, to feel seen and heard,” she says. “It is the community coming together to help others in the same way they came together to help us.”

These days, Table of Hope serves dinner at its soup kitchen five nights a week, runs a food pantry where people can select their own groceries, and operates a mobile food pantry that serves Morristown and Parsippany. The impact is noticeable: Table of Hope and its volunteers serve hot meals to about 350 people each week and about 1,000 people visit the food pantry. 

The organization touches other corners of the community, too. Before it started serving food, the church was running SOAR (Student Outreach and Academic Reinforcement). The program, which has academically supported more than 400 kids over the years, offers tutoring, mentoring and summer programs. Each year, a small group of students is selected by teachers and school administrators to participate in what Williams calls “meaningful, intimate help.” 

“We help a lot of students who are Latino or first-generation,” she says. Through a partnership with Valley Bank, SOAR brings kids to meet executives at the bank “who look like them and who can speak to them in their language,” Williams says. “It introduces the kids to people who have achieved a great deal of success and shows them what’s possible for their own lives.” 

Hope From the Ashes

In 2022, a fire destroyed the Bethel Church parsonage, where the Williams family lived. “We lost almost everything,” Williams says. 

Once again, people rallied around them, cementing for Williams the power of community. “It was amazing to see the people we work with in the community—the sheriff’s office, the firefighters, all these organizations—come together to help us. The love we felt was unbelievable.”

Then, about a year ago, Table of Hope had to shut food service operations while it dealt with a mechanical issue. “We were serving food outside, in the snow, and the town brought over an outdoor heater for our volunteers,” she says. “This is the community resiliency I’m talking about. We didn’t ask for that. It was brought to support us out of pure kindness.”

Table of Hope’s latest work for the community is a house for 10 mothers in recovery and their children, called The Delaney House. “We will be supporting these women and their children,” Williams says. “We will offer job training and workforce opportunities.” 

Williams says she never dreamed that Table of Hope would end up touching so many parts of the community. “When we arrived in Morristown, I thought I’d be working with kids. But then we had the flood and started running the soup kitchen and partnering with other local organizations. We just kept seeing more ways to help people. So, it’s not at all what I imagined, but it’s so rewarding.”