State Leaders meet to Discuss Hunger Issues

Despite New Jersey's rank as the nation’s wealthiest state, according to Census Bureau Data, hunger is a growing problem for hundreds of thousands of families. Officials from the Anti-Hunger Coalition discussed this problem at the Congressional Forum on Hunger hosted by the College shortly after Thanksgiving.

Congress Representatives Rush Holt and Frank Pallone joined several agencies and their consumers at the College on November 27 for a roundtable discussion, moderated by Reverend Bruce Davidson, on hunger in the state. The forum was co-sponsored by the Hispanic Directors Association, the Black Ministers Council and the College’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, and the Leadership in Public Affairs program.

A presentation from the Statewide Emergency Food and Anti-Hunger Network (SEFAN) provided statistics on a population often overlooked in the nation’s wealthiest state. Shockingly, the number of hungry people in New Jersey could fill Giants Stadium nine times. Six regional food banks in the state serve 734,000 low-income people per month, half of them being children and the elderly.  Additionally, emergency food pantries in the state have seen an 11 percent increase in the number of people served while soup kitchens have reported a 4.3 percent increase in the past year.

In spite of the growing hunger problems, New Jersey’s hungry are not receiving food stamps at the same rate as other states.

“New Jersey is performing terribly in the food stamp program,” said SEFAN Director Adela LaTourette.

LaTourette points out that only 38 percent of New Jersey’s working poor are served by the program, a low rate compared to other states in the country. Pennsylvania, for example, offers food stamps for about 55 percent of the working poor.

"We want to make sure that all those who are eligible receive the food stamp program," said Ellen Teller of the Food Research and Action Center.

SEFAN also offered a presentation titled “The Other New Jersey” which included photographs taken by clients of agencies to illustrate hunger. Disposable cameras were handed out to the clients over the year to obtain a glimpse of hunger through their eyes.

The forum offered the opportunity for clients of food pantries and agencies to share their stories.

“At times I had to make choices—pay for rent and utilities or pay for food,” recalls Cindy Santamaria, a former client of food pantries. Santamaria, a mother of two children, used to receive goods from food pantries and take advantage of services from social agencies. Today she helps others receive the same aid that she did.

“This has been a long journey. If it wasn’t for that help I wouldn’t have made it,” said Santamaria, a resident of Essex County.

After the presentations, the Congressmen were given the opportunity to respond.

Pallone agreed that hunger is a huge problem in New Jersey but many of the Congressmen simply are not aware.

“The new Congress will look at all this and, I believe, will try to boost funding for all these problems," he assured. “I do think a lot more needs to be done."

Although the meeting mainly focused on the challenges New Jersey is facing in dealing with hunger, it ended on a positive note.

"There are a lot of problems; there are also a lot of remedies," LaTourette said. "It's not an insurmountable problem. It's a problem we have to choose to surmount."