North Jersey Food Pantries Try to Meet Growing Need with Fewer Resources After Fed Cuts

Editor’s note: This article was aggregated from NorthJersey.com. Click here to read the rest of the article.

NorthJersey.com’s Matt Cortina takes a look at how North Jersey food pantries are trying to meet growing community need with fewer resources due to recent and proposed changes in federal funding. Table to Table’s Executive Director Heather Thompson was asked to weigh in on what we are hearing and seeing from our community partners. 

“Some are seeing longer lines for food, so we are endeavoring to increase our amounts; others are shifting times and locations of their food distributions to avoid being targeted based on the makeup of the populations they serve, so we are adjusting our delivery schedules accordingly,” she shared. “There is so much uncertainty right now around funding for nonprofits and benefits programs for our neighbors, the best we can do is keep our lines of communication with our partners wide open, listen to what they are experiencing and do our best to respond. No matter what happens, the need for fresh food is not going away.”

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.

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• New Jersey School Food Waste Solution Leader Heather Thompson