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The Star-Ledger printed a front page article today entitled “Food pantries’ cupboards are closer to bare.” It highlights the perfect storm that is impacting the ability of emergency food providers in New Jersey. It is as the Star-Ledger stated “a two-way crunch — rising prices are making it tougher to keep the shelves stocked at the same time more people are coming in the door for help.”

The article highlights our fiends at Elijah’s Promise and CUMAC/ECHO. To read the full article click here.

The article notes these dramatic increase “CUMAC/ECHO, a Paterson food pantry run by the Rev. Pat Bruger, the client base has grown close to 30 percent since January, raising the monthly average of people served from 2,000 to 2,600. The number of senior citizens has grown by more than 30 percent, the number of children by 11 percent.” They quote Rev. Pat Bruger of CUMAC/ECHO “Pantries were serving people who were in emergency need, and they were mostly on welfare. Now they’re … working families and people on fixed incomes. We did not foresee this. Not at this level.”

According to Kathleen DiChiara executive director of the Community Foodbank of New Jersey “a number of factors are at work. The high price of diesel fuel has made it increasingly expensive to distribute food. Although the state has committed millions of dollars to aid emergency food providers, the federal government drastically cut the Emergency Food Assistance Program. And as supermarkets and food distributors work to cut their own costs, they’ve reduced donations.”

“What was donated before is now being sold,” she said, explaining companies used to donate truckloads of mislabeled or lightly damaged goods. “Food companies have become more efficient, they are making fewer mistakes.”

As a result, the Foodbank has been forced to spend precious dollars directly on food — and even wholesale rates haven’t protected it against the price squeeze.

According to DiChiara since 2006 the price paid by the Foodbank for tuna has gone up 29 percent. Peanut butter is up 32 percent. Eggs prices are 27 percent higher, and milk costs 37 percent more.

This is a perfect storm we must resolve!

To read the full article click here.

Related Monarch Blog posts

• Texas Group Drives Meals to the Homeless (0)
• Partnership between Elijah’s Promise and farmers bears fruit (0)
• New Jersey ranked 45th in numbers enrolled in Food Stamp program (0)
• Mayor Palmer signs America’s Road Home Principles (1)
• Hunger on the Rise in New York City (0)

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