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Gov, Fisher Tour Food Bank of South Jersey
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 – Today’s Sunbeam
PENNSAUKEN TWP. - Gov. Jon Corzine and New Jersey State Secretary
of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher met with food bank leaders at the
Food Bank of South Jersey (FBSJ) to discuss continuing efforts to
feed the state's hungry, an estimated 85,000-plus residents.
Under Corzine's Hunger Initiative funding, food banks are relying more on locally
produced foods, like local produce, to help sustain the state's six food banks.
Food bank leaders, like Executive Director Valerie Brown Traore, said the demand
for food is there, the supply for food is there, but the infrastructure needs
a bit of readjustment.
"We're trying to keep up with the demand, obviously," said Traore,
who pointed out at the FBSJ is seeing 42 percent more requests from feeding organizations
than last year, and just doesn't have the room for all the food coming in. "Infrastructure
funds are critically important to us."
Founded in 1985, the Food Bank of South Jersey serves Burlington,
Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties.
Fisher, along with U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition
Service Mid Atlantic Regional Administrator Yvette Jackson, sat with
food bank leaders and discussed food bank accomplishments, as well
as problems, and what new and continuing programs will be in place.
Incoming federal stimulus money will benefit the food bank programs
greatly.
"It wasn't just talk," Jackson said. "We got a huge infusion of
money."
Corzine realizes these needs and earmarked $3 million of his Economic
Recovery and Assistance Plan to help food banks.
"The needs at this time are really quite substantial," Corzine said. "It's
not just food. It's the ability for all of us to help each other."
One of those food banks that could benefit from the stimulus money
is Touch New Jersey, a food pantry with locations in Mt. Ephraim
and Camden. Director Debbie Realey said they serve over 1,000 people
per month and are unique because families have a choice of what they "shop" for.
"But, we also have infrastructure problems," Realey said. "In
order to serve the community, we need more space."
Right now, Touch New Jersey operates out of an old church building.
It gets its food from the Food Bank of South Jersey, which is a non-profit
hunger relief organization. The five other state feeding operations
are: Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Hillside; the FoodBank of
Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Neptune; NORWESCAP, Phillipsburg; Mercer
Street Friends, Ewing; and Southern Regional Food Distribution Center,
Vineland.
Kristin Valente, program manager of the children and senior feeding
programs at FBSJ, recognizes the special needs that food banks require,
especially for those that can be most neglected.
"We can really connect with existing government programs," she said,
such as Corzine's Hunger Initiative.
Valente thinks that with extra funding, maybe with stimulus money,
food banks can work toward eliminating hunger all together by education.
"The commitment of this is at the national level," said Jackson, of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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