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Category: Media

Media and News Articles On Table To Table

Editor’s note: This blog post was aggregated from an article by the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College. Click here to read the entire article.

Government has always tracked food security through the lens of affordability through the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which is distributed annually to about 40,000 households.

The definition of food security as adopted by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, is a condition where all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Related: 1 In 10 NJ Households Experienced Food Insecurity, New Report Shows

Dr. Jenny Schrum, the director of research and evaluation strategy at the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate (OFSA), sought to go deeper with a new food security measurement model. The OFSA, headed by Executive Director Mark Dinglasan, is the first and only state-level food security agency in the country.

“We always associate food security with money, which is incredibly salient, but not the whole story,” Schrum told the New York City Food Policy Center. “If people have enough money, if may give you access. But there are many reasons people are food insecurity.”

As an outgrowth of the research, OFSA created the New Jersey Food Security Strategic Plan, a three-year initiative to guide and coordinate actions in addressing food insecurity statewide. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture released shows that one in 10 New Jersey households were food insecure between 2022 and 2024.

Related: New Jersey Publishes 3-Year Food Security Strategic Plan

Schrum’s research also led the OFSA to survey more than 2,000 New Jersey residents from communities with high rates of food insecurity. Those findings were documented in the OFSA’s Exploring the Six Dimensions of Food Security in New Jersey. The report has an interactive dashboard that lets readers explore results from the survey.

“With inflation, a changing economy, and climate change reshaping what we can grow and where, food insecurity is going to affect far more people than it does today,” Schrum told the New York City Food Policy Center. “If we only ever respond to the emergency, we never address what’s causing it. Better definitions, better data, better program data, that’s how we start to get ahead of it.”

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane.

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Four women sit around a table indoors, each holding an orange and smiling or looking toward the camera. Yarn, cups, and craft supplies are spread across the table, suggesting a casual group activity or social gathering in a cozy room with wooden furniture and framed photos on the wall.

Editor’s note: Essex News Daily published an article featuring Table to Table partnering with the Bloomfield School District to rescue freshly-prepared food from school cafeterias and deliver it to our hungry neighbors. Read the original article here.

The food rescue organization Table to Table has launched a program, with help from the Grotta Fund for Older Adults, that is designed to provide local seniors with nourishing food for free, including a wide variety of fruit, meat, cereal packs, frozen meals, and Hello Fresh meal kits. 

Table to Table’s new program brings fresh rescued food, including prepared, ready-to-heat meals, whole fruit, salad cups, and cartons of milk. directly to participants of the Oakeside Seniors Program in Bloomfield, a bi-weekly social and wellness program for older adults run by the Township of Bloomfield and Neighbor to Neighbor Network. 

Table to Table also delivers to Manna Food Pantry and Toni’s Kitchen. These pantries then distribute the food to seniors through their soup kitchens, home delivery programs, and community distributions, ensuring that older adults who are homebound or have limited mobility can access nutritious food, according to a press release from the organization.  

Receiving this food from Table to Table at Oakeside is very beneficial to me. Not only is it always fresh and natural, but I also like the fact that it helps since I’m on a fixed income and have to stretch my pennies from month to month.


— Michelle, an Oakeside Senior Program participant

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane.

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Editor’s note: Table to Table Executive Director Heather Thompson appeared on Healthy In The Garden State’s “A Dose of Health” short-form series highlighting the people, places, and resources supporting physical, mental, and emotional well-being across New Jersey.

In this episode of “A Dose of Health, Kate Cherichello Tente sits down with Heather Thompson, Executive Director of Table to Table — New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue organization. With Earth Day right around the corner, this conversation highlights the powerful connection between environmental health and human health. Table to Table is on a mission to reduce food waste, lower harmful methane emissions, and deliver fresh, nutritious food to neighbors facing food insecurity across northern New Jersey.

In this minisode, Kate and Heather explore:

From mobile markets to community partnerships, this episode is a reminder that small actions can create big change — for our health, our communities, and our planet.

Whether you’re looking to volunteer, donate, or simply learn how to waste less, this is a conversation that matters.

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane.

Related:

Fighting hunger while reducing food waste is the mission Table to Table, a nonprofit making a meaningful impact across New Jersey communities. This summer, Table to Table is expanding its reach through a new partnership with Goya Presents Flag Cities. Heather Thompson, Executive Director of Table to Table, spoke about the organization’s mission and this partnership on ONNJ’s “Mornings with Ken Rosato.”

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane.

Related:

Editor’s note: Table to Table Executive Director Heather Thompson wrote this opinion piece. It originally appeared on NJ.com Sunday, March 29, 2026. Click here to read the article.

Nearly three billion pounds of surplus food is produced each year in New Jersey — the majority of which goes to waste, despite being perfectly edible.

At the same time, more than 1.1 million New Jerseyans are food insecure, with limited or uncertain access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for themselves and their families. Of that number, a staggering 270,000 are children.

The amount of good food being discarded while so many people struggle to access food represents a significant disconnect. But there is good news in New Jersey.

A New Law Pushes Food Waste Reduction

A law passed in January mandates county-level solid waste management districts to reduce annual food waste by 50% by 2035. It is a significant step that will benefit the environment by reducing methane gas emissions and has strong potential to benefit neighbors facing food insecurity.

While national goals to reduce food waste have been in place since 2015, and state goals since 2017, this marks the first time New Jersey has implemented legislation specifically aimed at driving action at the local level.

With the passage of this bill, county officials, municipal leaders and local organizations are mobilizing to explore strategies that will be most effective for their own communities.

The legislation also highlights the donation of perishable food as a key strategy, reinforcing what organizations like Table to Table have known for many years: food rescue — where food businesses donate surplus fresh and prepared food that is quickly delivered to pantries, shelters and other community organizations — is a highly effective model that benefits everyone involved.

Donation Before Composting

When many people think about reducing food waste, composting is often the first solution that comes to mind. Composting is far preferable to sending food to landfills, but when food is still edible, donation should be the first step.

Take an oddly shaped apple, for example. A shopper may pass it over at the supermarket in favor of something that looks more perfect.

After a few days, a new shipment arrives, shelves are cleared and that apple is removed. It does not need to be thrown away. It is perfectly edible and likely quite delicious.

Through food rescue, that apple can be safely donated and end up in a child’s lunch box the next day. If it is badly bruised, it can instead go to a local farm for animal feed. Only when food is no longer safe for consumption of any kind should it be composted.

It Takes a Village to Rescue Food

Building a sustainable and scalable food rescue system requires collective effort. Several food recovery organizations across New Jersey play critical roles in linking surplus food to those in need. Hundreds of food businesses have committed to donating quality surplus food.

Thousands of volunteers conduct rescues, support outreach and assist local pantries and food distributions to ensure food reaches neighbors who need it.

With this new law in place, those local networks can grow and coordinate around shared goals — ensuring more good food ends up on tables instead of in landfills.

Food rescue is an efficient solution to reducing food waste while directly addressing food insecurity. It is a win-win model with room for everyone to participate.

As New Jersey counties embrace food rescue as a core strategy, our air will get cleaner, landfills will grow more slowly, and, most importantly, our neighbors and their children will be nourished.

Heather Thompson is the executive director of Table to Table, a New Jersey nonprofit that bridges the gap between food waste and food insecurity by mobilizing refrigerated trucks and volunteers to rescue fresh surplus food — the equivalent of more than 25 million meals annually — and deliver it directly to pantries, shelters, and community agencies.

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane.

Related:

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on TAPinto Wayne. Click here to read the original article.

The Wayne Rotary Club, working alongside the Wayne Volunteers and nonprofit Table to Table, is organizing a large-scale meal-packing event Saturday, April 18 at the Wayne Community Center.

The goal is to prepare 2,000 meal packs for more than 10 organizations across Passaic County, TAPinto Wayne reported. Table to Table volunteers will collect the meal packs and deliver them to the partner organizations.

Making sandwiches and creating meal packs are just two of the ways volunteers can give of their time and energy to our 26-year mission of rescuing food, reducing waste, and relieving hunger.

For ways you can volunteer to help Table to Table, click here.

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane.

Related:

A new 2026 law requires local districts to reduce their food waste by half by 2035.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Waste 360. Click here to read the article.

A new 2026 law requires each New Jersey solid waste management district to develop and implement a strategy that will reduce food waste by at least 50 percent by 2030. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection needs to approve the strategies.

The bill increases the local focus of food waste reduction. Districts are required to increase the donation of “surplus edible food,” develop food waste diversion methods that also reduce methane emissions, and increase public awareness of surplus food waste.

Table to Table Executive Director Heather Thompson praised the bill’s passage.

“I think this bill will strengthen county- and community-level awareness of the impact of food waste. And it will strengthen the commitment to implement solutions locally, instead of seeing the problem as too large to solve or too removed to be concerned about. We are already seeing positive impacts in a couple of counties,” Thompson told Waste360.

Thompson also said it allows Table to Table to build deeper partnerships in our five-county footprint, “and it opens opportunities to work more closely with county and municipal leaders to explore and implement strategies to expand our work and achieve food waste reduction goals.”

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 million meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane saved.

Related:

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on WMBC-TV News.

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 million meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane saved.

Related:

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on TAPinto Ridgewood. Click here to read the entire story.

Surplus meals and snacks have been a welcome surprise at Ridgecrest Senior Apartments.

Ridgewood Public Schools and Table to Table, an organization that brings surplus meals to those in need, have teamed up to bring surplus meals and snacks from the district’s seven cafeterias into Ridgewood’s senior apartments.

“We are proud of this shared mission to eliminate food waste in our cafeterias and redirect those resources to those in need,” said Ridgewood Superintendent Dr. Mark Schwarz. It’s a powerful lesson for our students: when we work together, we can turn a logistical challenge into a community solution.”

Since the partnership began in October, 132 rescues have been completed, rescuing more than 10,000 pounds of surplus food.

“The impact that the Ridgewood School District is making for our neighbors in need as well as our planet is nothing short of amazing,” said Table to Table Executive Director Heather Thompson.

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 million meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane saved.

Related:

North Jersey towns will host World Cup Fan Festival events this summer, officials announced Wednesday. Here’s how to get involved.

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Ridgewood Patch. Click here to read the entire article.

A host of World Cup soccer-related fan events will take place in North Jersey — including in Jersey City, Newark, Bergen County, and the Meadowlands region — this June and July, with live music, food, and more, officials announced Wednesday.

Events will take place at county parks, including Bergen County’s Overpeck Park and Secaucus’ Laurel Hill Park, as well as neighborhoods and downtowns.

Goya Foods, NJ Transit, and other agencies, companies, and charities will be involved in the events. Table to Table will serve as the “official food security partner,” educating attendees and allowing food contributions to the needy.

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 276 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 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,542,863 million meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 612 metric tons of methane saved.

Related:

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