What goes in your backpack on November 11 is your call. Mayor John V. Kelly III and the Department of Public Affairs and Health suggest that marchers in this year's Veterans Day Ruck March carry a rucksack holding either 22 pounds of weight or 22 canned food items. Carrying weight is optional. Marchers of every fitness level are welcome with any load, custom gear or nothing at all.
Both choices weigh about the same on your shoulders, but they end up in different places. A sandbag or a stack of plates goes back into your garage. Every can collected goes to the Nutley Family Service Bureau Food Pantry as soon as the march ends. The pantry is at 169 Chestnut St. The march lands in the second week of November, right at the start of the pantry's heaviest stretch of the year. That timing turns a memorial walk into the opening day of Nutley's holiday food season.
Registration closes Saturday, October 31.
The number on the pack
The 22 comes from the purpose of the march. The township says the 5K-plus walk honors military veterans and raises awareness for veteran suicide prevention, and the number stands for the estimated 22 veterans lost to suicide each day.
From the start, the event has paired that awareness with the pantry. When TAPinto Nutley previewed the 2022 march, township veterans affairs official Daniel Jacoby described two goals: drawing attention to veterans' mental health struggles and stocking the food pantry. Four years on, both goals still frame the event, and Jacoby is still the contact for registration.
Six Novembers, and a route that kept growing
TAPinto billed the 2022 edition as the "Second Annual" and quoted Jacoby saying the first march had debuted "last year." That puts the first march in 2021 and makes November 11, 2026 the sixth. The table below tracks the format through The Observer's 2023 preview, TAPinto's 2024 announcement, the township's 2025 recap and this year's TAPinto event listing.
| Year | Format reported | Route or detail |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | First march | Debut year, based on Jacoby's 2022 comments |
| 2022 | "Second Annual" march | Mental health awareness plus pantry donations |
| 2023 | 5K after the 11 a.m. ceremony, co-promoted with the Military and Veterans Affairs Bureau and Nutley Veterans Council | Through Memorial Park to Kingsland Manor and back |
| 2024 | Two marches: an "Elite" march on Saturday, Nov. 9, and a moderate-paced march on Veterans Day | 22 pounds or 22 cans suggested |
| 2025 | Two marches | 22 pounds or 22 cans carried |
| 2026 | One listed march, Wednesday, Nov. 11 | Vreeland Homestead to Kingsland Manor, Kingsland Street, River Road, Van Riper House and back |
Compare the two route descriptions. In 2023, The Observer described a loop through Memorial Park to Kingsland Manor and back. This year's listing sends marchers past Kingsland Manor, out along Kingsland Street to River Road, and past the historic Van Riper House before they loop home.
For 2026, TAPinto's events calendar shows only the Wednesday march. If you joined the Saturday "Elite" march in 2024 or 2025, ask Jacoby when you register whether it's coming back.
What you'll walk past
This year's loop strings together three of Nutley's historic houses.
- Vreeland Homestead. The march steps off here, across from Town Hall, right after the 11 a.m. ceremony on Town Hall's third floor.
- Kingsland Manor. Marchers reach it through the municipal park system, the same green corridor covered in our Nutley parks and everyday lifestyle guide.
- Van Riper House. The route reaches it after turning from Kingsland Street onto River Road. The Van Riper House organization dates the house to around 1788. It says the house is threatened by neglect and that the goal is to restore it and reuse it as a community space.
The three houses are in very different states. Nutley's historic properties tend to depend on neighbors who show up, as our post on how a backyard beer festival is rebuilding Nutley's oldest house laid out this fall. On November 11, a column of people with backpacks walks past all three in one loop.
Where the cans end up
The Family Service Bureau says Nutley residents facing food insecurity qualify for help from its pantry. Clients get biweekly personalized shopping, emergency food assistance, and grocery delivery for homebound seniors. According to the bureau, no documentation is required "at this time" for someone who self-declares food insecurity and has a Nutley ID.
The pantry runs at real scale. In February 2025 it served more than 300 households and nearly 700 people and handed out more than 1,900 food bags, according to the bureau's Scouting for Food 2025 appeal. And February is an ordinary winter month, before any holiday surge.
November is busier. When the bureau announced its 2025 Thanksgiving pie drive, it told TAPinto readers it expected to serve a record number of households with turkeys and sides. That same month, Nutley Public Schools sent families a November 1, 2025 letter warning that SNAP changes could create food-security problems. The letter pointed families to the bureau for emergency groceries, holiday meal help, utilities, clothing, pet items and benefits case management.
So every can a marcher chooses to carry reaches the pantry in the weeks before that holiday push, and a pack of 22 cans weighs close to 22 pounds anyway. The bureau stocks fresh produce and proteins along with nonperishables. In its 2025 appeal it asked for shelf-stable, unexpired food and for grocery-store gift cards, which it uses to buy fruit, vegetables, meat and eggs. Check the dates on the cans before you pack them.
Your Veterans Day checklist
- Register by Saturday, October 31. Call Daniel Jacoby at (973) 284-4951, ext. 2428.
- Be at Town Hall, One Kennedy Drive, by 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11. The ceremony is on the third floor and is open to everyone. The march starts right after it.
- Bring your own backpack or rucksack. The township doesn't supply them.
- Pick cans over plates. Weight is optional either way, and only the canned goods go to the pantry.
- Plan for a weekday. Veterans Day falls on a Wednesday this year, and the 5K-plus loop starts around midday.
Can't make the march? The bureau's calendar keeps going. Its annual Harvesting Hope Gala is on November 18. In its TAPinto notice, the bureau says it has served Nutley for more than a century. The bureau's Thanksgiving Initiative page is where it has collected shelf-stable food, turkeys and pies in past years. The pantry page lists more than one set of hours for Wednesday pickups, so call 973-667-1884, ext. 2 before you drop anything off on Chestnut Street.
If you'll be walking the Veterans Day loop, or dropping cans on Chestnut Street that week, Jessica Munoz is glad to be your neighbor in Nutley. When a question about your own home in town comes up, from a valuation to a sale, she can help in English or Spanish. Schedule your free consultation.
