How Can I Help Food Pantries This Holiday Season?

Editor’s note: Skip to the 35-minute mark for Heather Thompson’s interview.

The shutdown may be over, but the need remains.

The strain on the state’s emergency food system was felt across New Jersey during the 43-day federal government shutdown. Despite the shutdown ending, the need to support the system throughout the holiday season remains.

Table to Table Executive Director Heather Thompson spoke about the ongoing effect the shutdown had on the emergency food system and the 800,000 people it serves during a live interview on FOX 5 News in New York Monday.

“It’s important to recognize that just because the shutdown is over, the need is still present,” Thompson said. “It has been present. It unfortunately is a continuingly growing need.”

The effect of the seven-day funding halt of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was deeply felt in the Garden State.

“The impact of that was felt from multiple directions by so many of our neighbors,” Thompson said. “So they turned to their local food pantries for help. Those organizations that are really designed to be a last line of defense in general where can turn to bridge the [food] gap, all of a sudden, became a first line of defense. All of a sudden, people were relying on the support of these local pantries, these local community organizations because they simply had no where else to turn during that period of time.”

Giving Back This Holiday Season

Thompson encourages residents to reach out to their local food pantries to determine what they need.

“Every pantry is different, some have refrigerators, some don’t. Some need certain types of food depending on who they are feeding,” she said. “Reach out and see if they need extra help doing weekly distributions.”

Another tangible way to help is to volunteer with Table to Table. Volunteers can rescue healthy surplus food and deliver it to local community partners using the Table to Table I-Rescue App. Rescues take less than 1 hour and all the instructions are in the volunteer-driven app.

“Our volunteers by the end of the year will have rescued and delivered more than 2 million meals worth of fresh food, which is pretty incredible,” Thompson said.

Table to Table is New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue nonprofit, bridging the gap between food being wasted and people facing food insecurity. We bring rescued fresh, nutritious food to 303 community partners, including social service organizations, pantries, shelters, fresh produce markets and centralized distribution hubs. Food is provided free of charge. Through this, Table to Table touches a diversity of those in need, including families, children, veterans, and older adults, making good nutrition accessible while serving as a stimulus for other longer-term benefits. Since 1999 we have rescued more than 120,700 tons of nutritious food—enough for 241,400,846 million meals—and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 544 metric tons of methane saved.

Related:

• Table to Table Helps Deliver Thousands of Turkeys & Thanksgiving Meals to Newark Families
• NJ Awards $1.2 Million to Fight Food Insecurity on College Campuses
• 2 New Jersey Nonprofits Team Up to Distribute Food to Those in Need
• New Jersey School Food Waste Solution Leader Heather Thompson