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Photo of fresh vegetables for the hungry - Click to enlarge
For Immediate Release: January 22, 2008
Contact: Lynne Richmond
(609) 633-2954

(TRENTON) – The six Emergency Feeding Operations throughout the state will start the New Year with funding to feed more residents in need.  Checks totaling $770,000 were distributed last week to the agencies, as the third quarterly fiscal year payment in the Governor’s Hunger Initiative.

“Providing assistance and improving the quality of life to those affected by hunger is a key element of this initiative,” said Governor Jon S. Corzine.  “Through this funding, we are able to offer a year-round resource for emergency food providers to purchase nutritious foods for distribution to local food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters that ultimately helps our citizens makes end meet.”

The State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) was created to distribute the Hunger Initiative funding, which totals $4 million this fiscal year and is distributed on a quarterly basis to the Emergency Feeding Operations (EFOs). The final fiscal year payment is scheduled for April. 

“Thousands of New Jersey residents have benefited from the Governor’s Hunger Initiative, which not only has provided additional food for the hungry, but healthier offerings,” said New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Charles M. Kuperus.  “The program also has the potential to benefit our state’s farmers, who provided the emergency feeding operations with a supply of fresh produce during the last growing season.”

The State Food Purchase Program began in 2006 with a $3 million allocation for nutrient-dense food purchases for the hungry, which enabled the state’s food banks to purchase 3.9 million pounds of food that fed an average of 69,110 recipients each month in that first year.   The program also included $1 million for infrastructure improvements for local food pantries, homeless shelters and soup kitchens, which was used to buy items such as refrigerators and freezers and other equipment. 

The SFPP requires food purchases to focus on locally grown or produced items first, then regionally and finally outside of the area.

The amount of funding allocated to each of the emergency feeding operations is based on the number of people they serve and other criteria.  The third quarter payments are as follows: $535,586 for Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Hillside; $108,376 for Food Bank of South Jersey, Pennsauken; $62,200 for Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Neptune; $34,623 for Mercer Street Friends, Ewing; and, $16,220 for NORWESCAP, Phillipsburg; and $12,992 for Southern Regional Food Distribution Center.

For information on the State Food Purchase Program, visit:
www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/fn/fooddistrib/foodpurchaseprogram.html.