Community food bank of New Jersey

In New Jersey, almost one million people benefit from the support of local food banks, which represents around one in nine residents. While food insecurity remains an ongoing challenge in this Northeastern state, organisations like the 50-year-old Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ) play a crucial role in fostering a healthier and more resilient community.

Food banks like CFBNJ are warehouses which store food and supplies for safekeeping.  Their size is often significant, allowing them to hold millions of pounds of food and supplies at a time.

CFBNJ’s warehouse is 285,000 square feet, roughly the size of five football fields.  Its contents are regularly distributed to community partners, including 800 of New Jersey’s food pantries – community centres where locals can come to receive food for free, or shop (for free) in a grocery store experience.

Tackling food insecurity

Food insecurity is complex and solving it requires a multi-faceted approach. What if, as well as providing food and essentials, New Jersey’s 1,000-plus food pantries were able to offer more than food?

A collaborative effort among New Jersey’s five food banks, including CFBNJ, is aiming to do just that. 

Through a multi-year initiative called Growing Healthy Pantries, the group aims to turn pantries into health hubs that link food access with nutrition education and support services. The goal? Moving beyond emergency food relief to begin addressing the root causes of food insecurity.

Building capacity for long-term impact

Growing Healthy Pantries has been three years in the making. The practical, flexible guide has the big picture at its core: evidence-based approaches on nine key areas ranging from volunteer engagement and trauma-informed care through to technology use, nutrition education and advocacy. 

The work started with a toolkit that will help food pantries improve their nutritional offerings, offer culinary education to participants, and connect people to community services like healthcare coverage and housing assistance.

While this valuable resource is a good first step–and empowers local pantries to adopt the practices at their own pace–many of these volunteer-heavy services require additional support to help turn it into action.

That’s why Growing Healthy Pantries is now focusing on providing hands-on implementation, peer learning and technical support.

The collective funding model including Goodman Foundation is helping fuel this important implementation phase. One new tool will be a "Community of Practice," where select pantries will receive grants and technical assistance to implement the Toolkit’s strategies.

Through its support of Growing Healthy Pantries, Goodman Foundation is helping to build a more dignified, health-focused food security network across the state of New Jersey.