Founder of Lunch Break, HABcore passes at 88
Ed Rogers’ legacy includes four decades of helping area’s less fortunate

Ed Rogers of Middletown, a lifelong community activist, died last week. One activity among the many Rogers was instrumental in helping establish was Lunch Break, Red Bank’s soup kitchen and food pantry nearly 20 years ago.

MIDDLETOWN — Ed Rogers, a longtime community activist and one of the original founders of Lunch Break, died last week.

Rogers, 88, died in his Middletown home after a long battle with colon cancer, according to his wife, Bettie.

In addition to his work with Lunch Break, Rogers also was instrumental in establishing the county’s first homeless shelter, working with St. Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church in Holmdel.

Rogers used to drive to the area train stations and take the homeless to the Holmdel church, where they would receive a warm, dry place to stay for the evening.

In 1983, Rogers, who was a member of the Religious Society of Friends, The Quakers, in Shrewsbury, worked with other church and community members to start the area’s first food kitchen, which eventually became Lunch Break, 121 Drs. James Parker Boulevard (formerly West Bergen Place).

Those founding members, which included Rogers’ future wife Bettie, called themselves the Community Soup Kitchen Task Force, and began serving meals to the needy in the basement of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, West Sunset Avenue,

After the group established Lunch Break, the organization also formed HABcore in 1988 to provide housing for the homeless, disabled, and those unable to care for themselves.

In the 1960s, Rogers worked for Shore Citizens for Better Housing, a group that worked to end racial segregation in housing, and he worked with Checkmate, a Monmouth County antipoverty program. He also was part of a group that worked to help establish a homeless shelter at Fort Monmouth, Eatontown.

A lifetime member of the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union, Rogers was a member of the board of trustees and was secretary for the Monmouth Center for World Religion and Ethical Thought.

He received undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Fordham University, The Bronx, New York. He went on to do post-doctoral studies at the University of Illinois with renowned biochemist Roger Adams. Rogers also studied abroad in Rome and at Oxford University, England.

He spent 35 years working for Merck Pharmaceutical conducting research, which led to numerous patents.

One of those patents, according to Bettie, was for Amprollium, used in corn feed to combat the disease coccidiosis, which afflicts chickens, and allowed Rogers to follow his passion of helping feed the world, Bettie said.

His opposition to the Vietnam War led to his joining the Quakers, where he remained a member for the rest of his life. One of his activities included counseling men facing the draft during the war.

Rogers was born in New York City and grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y. Bettie, whom he married in 1994, described him as an avid New York Mets fan, gardener, and acrostic puzzle solver. He also often indulged his passion for playing poker and checkers, and competed in the national tournament of the American Checker Federa-tion in Las Vegas last August.

In a life marked by helping others, as a final gesture, Rogers donated his body to the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for use in research.

He is survived by Bettie; his five sons, Peter, David, Sam, Ben and Joel; three stepchildren, Emily Pena Murphey, Susan Pena and Ted Pena; and 12 grandchildren and six step-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Ann Fleming.

A Quaker memorial service is scheduled for the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1475 West Front St., on April 20 at 2 p.m., and will be open to the public, Bettie said.