Raising $1,000,000 to help us provide 1 million meals to soup kitchens throughout NJ, purchased from small, local restaurants!
We are a top-rated hunger awareness charity that connects people in need to free meals near them. Our flagship program, FeedNJ, is designed to combat food insecurity while helping to keep struggling restaurants afloat by purchasing nutritious meals that are served to communities in need. Since the start of the pandemic, this campaign has purchased over 650,000 meals from numerous locally-owned restaurants, which are delivered to soup kitchens, food service groups and other pop-up distribution programs.
It's a unique problem-solving social program that also stimulates local economies. Not only does this program help our hungry neighbors, but it also saves restaurant jobs and helps small businesses survive.
In 2018, 9% of New Jersey Residents struggled with Food Insecurity. COVID-19 has the potential to double that number globally.
Nationwide, 1 in 6 restaurants shut down because of the pandemic in 2020 alone.
In New Jersey, 36% of restaurants have been forced to shut down.
The Community Food Bank of New Jersey expects food-insecurity to nearly double as a result of COVID-19.
In the Summer of 2021, FeedNJ launched a partnership with the NJ State PBA and the State Troopers NCO Association to serve more communities while strengthening community-police relations at this critical time in our country's history. We've brought over a dozen local chapters to events in their communities to distribute meals to their food-insecure neighbors, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from police, communities and restaurants.
This very successful program has been expanded to include participation by the NFL Alumni Association. Retired professional football players will join in the police-led distribution events reaching into communities of need. This series of partnerships has already received extensive print and TV news coverage, including News 12 NJ, News 12 Bronx, Trenton Daily, Union Daily News, TAPinto and NJ Cops Magazine.
FeedNJ is actively exploring expansion of the program to include other metropolitan areas restaurants and food distribution partners.
Relying on traditional (pantries, soup kitchens, houses of worship) and non-traditional (municipal departments, PBAs, community-based groups) distribution partners to identify areas of need, and vet and distribute the meals we purchase from qualified small restaurants.
“Hunger is not a partisan issue. Our purchasing of meals in bulk provides a supplemental form of business to small, mostly-family-owned restaurants in our local communities. This allows more employees to return to work, for restaurants to pay and continue providing healthcare to workers and to have a greater safety net. Just as importantly, delivering quality meals to soup kitchens ensures that the soup kitchen staff has a day to catch up, rest, and prepare to serve their guests for the other days of the week.”