The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen closed out 2023 by surpassing half a million meals served in a single year — the most ever in its more than 40 year history.
Cathedral Kitchen, the largest emergency meal provider in Camden, says it served nearly 70% more meals in the last year than it did at the height of the pandemic. And other local soup kitchens and food banks say the same.
Across New Jersey, food banks and community kitchens are reporting a substantial rise in demand and food insecurity within their communities — even as state officials report that homelessness had decreased.
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.
Receiving and store room specialist Jon Marchesano, left, hands out additional groceries at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen in 2020.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Statewide, the number of unsheltered people fell more than 23% as of Oct. 31 compared to the same period the previous year, according to the 2023 Homelessness Update the state Department of Community Affairs.
The report found the number of people spending nights on benches, in parks and other public places went from 10,014 in 2022 to 7,669 last year.
But, even if they are housed, many people are still struggling to afford food, local officials said.
At the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen’s dining room, the typical visitor seeking a hot meal before the pandemic likely would have been a single adult man. Now, the group is seeing more families with young children as employed and housed people struggling to afford enough food, said Michelle Wexler, the kitchen’s chief development officer.
For many, food becomes a “flexible expense” when they are faced with rising rent and a decline in affordable housing options, Wexler said.
“As soon as the rents rise and inventory decreases, people are forced to forego food in order to be able to afford to live somewhere,” she said.
Fourteen of New Jersey’s 21 counties saw rent hikes between 20% to 40% since the start of the pandemic, according to an analysis of Zillow data published last year. A different report ranked New Jersey as the seventh most expensive state to rent in the nation and found a resident earning minimum-wage would need to work nearly 80 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment.
Also, the end of pandemic relief programs that helped families from slipping below the poverty line, including the expanded federal child tax credit, is contributing to the surge in need among children, advocates say.
“When (the child tax credit) ended after the pandemic, that’s when we saw a number of families — and we’re talking about children now — going into poverty,” said McCarthy, CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.
New Jersey took measures to prolong relief efforts after the pandemic-era emergency federal programs ended by doubling the state child tax credit for eligible families and raising Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, known as SNAP, from $50 to $95, matching the minimum monthly federal assistance provided in 2021. While these efforts have been beneficial, they haven’t fully matched the additional support many families received during the pandemic, soup kitchen officials said.
Officials at local food pantries and kitchens said they have been putting a priority on educating people about available benefits and providing other essential services.
“One of the things that’s important to note about the soup kitchen model is ... we’re a one stop service provider for food, but also for programs and services that help to address the underlying causes of hunger,” said Wexler, spokesperson for Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.
People visiting the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen for meals also have access to education programs, creative arts, workforce development, job search assistance, case management and identification services, Wexler said.
The organization is also launching a mobile meal food truck this month to get help with those with limited transportation options.
At the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, the focus is also on healthy eating campaigns.
About 34% of the food the organization distributes is fresh produce, according to McCarthy, the head of the nonprofit group.
“We see that really being able to help people understand their nutritional choices and then give them the food that will help them is what’s going to keep people out of hospitals,” McCarthy said. “And it’s going to keep people employed.”
Stories by Nyah Marshall
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Nyah Marshall may be reached at [email protected].