Volunteer Barbara Zilinskas, left, of West Windsor, offers an apple pie to a person at a drive-thru food distribution in East Windsor co-hosted by Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and the Rise Social Support Center in East Windsor.Michael Mancuso
Local anti-poverty advocates say these contrasting findings highlight the reality that food insecurity doesn’t always align with the common assumption that it’s solely tied to homelessness, though it can be a contributing factor.
Instead, more people may be turning to food banks and soup kitchens because of high rent increases, ongoing inflation and the lingering effects of ceased pandemic relief programs, local experts say.
The combination of economic pressures and the ending of pandemic aid has made it difficult for “families to make ends meet,” said Elizabeth McCarthy, CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, the state’s largest anti-poverty organization.
“We work with a huge network of pantries throughout the state and are hearing from them that demand is just not going down even though unemployment is going down, even though a lot of things are doing better,” McCarthy said.
The Community FoodBank of New Jersey, which provides food to over 800 local meal assistance groups throughout the state, has had to direct its resources to the most vulnerable communities in New Jersey — including those with high immigrant and minority populations, McCarthy said.
The types of people seeking assistance from meal providers is changing too, said Carrie Kitchen-Santiago, executive director of Cathedral Kitchen in Camden.
“We are seeing more families and children coming to us for help, especially since inflation began to rise drastically in 2021,” Kitchen-Santiago said in a statement. “Many families have lost their jobs, their homes, their health insurance, or are working but still struggling to make ends meet.”
Some individuals facing this crisis have never encountered food insecurity before and are now confronted with tough choices about paying for rent, utilities or medicine, she added.
St. John’s Soup Kitchen in Newark, which went from serving an average of around 200 people at lunch in 2022 to about 300 now, also saw an increase in children and families, according to director Pete Dobbs.
Around 10% are people experiencing homelessness, but the majority of the people served by the soup kitchen are just low-income, Dobbs said.
