The Lacey Food Bank Family of Volunteers is saddened to announce the passing of our longtime Chairman, Guy Burnett. Guy passed away today after a long illness.
Guy grew up in Montclair, NJ. He was a Navy veteran. He is predeceased by his wife Jean, two of his children, Guy the 4th, and Tracy, a grandchild, and his fur pal companions Snoopy and Duffy. He is survived by his daughter Dale and 3 grandchildren. He moved his family to Forked River more than 50 years ago and spent most of those first years commuting 12 hours a day to his job in Bayonne until he took early retirement in 1996. Not retired more than a month he spotted a notice in the Forked River Gazette that the Food Bank needed a few good men. And so in 1996, he joined the crew of the Food Bank, a crew of 3 led by Emil Ciangetti, and worked with him until he assumed the chairmanship of the Food Bank in 2000. In 2000 the Food Bank was broke. The food stocks were bug infested and outdated. But the 45 clients were desperate enough to take it. The program was sinking but Guy set out to make some changes. He threw everything out and started over, recruiting more help and raising money along the way. Under his leadership, the Lacey Food Bank grew to service upwards of 200 families with more than 75 volunteers.
To know the real reason for his commitment to the Food Bank you only have to know that he had been THERE. As a newlywed, newly discharged, and living in Sacramento CA., he faced his own impoverishment. Employment was non-existent and migrant workers flooded the town after the Fall harvest going door to door willing to work for a sandwich. The Burnett’s as young marrieds were running low on money and hope. He remembers eating oranges off the trees for breakfast and lunch, plain noodles for supper with maybe a can of tomato sauce to top it. He told me once of answering the one lone ad in the paper for a gas station attendant and standing in a line of hundreds to apply. Eventually, he was able to borrow the money to come back to New Jersey and he started work with PSE&G . And that is the END and the beginning of his story – except his family would always say there was no end to his “oranges off the tree” story. They were just very thankful that he didn’t have to walk 12 miles to school every day.
Godspeed old friend. We will miss you. Arrangements are pending.
