The Food Bank of South Jersey exists to provide an immediate solution to the urgent problem of hunger by providing food to people in need, teaching them to eat nutritiously, and helping them to find sustainable ways to improve their lives. Since its inception in 1985, the Food Bank of South Jersey has long held the vision to do more than provide emergency food to residents facing hunger. 36 years later, the organization is larger, and is distributing more food to more people from more communities. Looking exclusively through the lens of ending hunger, this seeming success of going from distributing 176,000 pounds of food in its first year of operation to 22.5 million in 2020, has the organization at odds with its overarching goal of putting itself out of business. FBSJ’s hunger-relief programming is guided by its mission, with distributing healthy food to families, children, seniors and veterans facing hunger in the four-county service areas of Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties, remaining at the core of our work. Nutrition education programming led by the Health and Wellness department creates pathways to healthier outcomes through targeted interventions that increase the adoption of healthy eating behaviors. In 2021, FBSJ started laying the foundation for enacting the sustainability mandate of its mission through the inclusion of SNAP Outreach, voter registration, vaccination education and the aforementioned partnership with the Camden Coalition to serve a co-backbone partner for the new Camden Food Security Collective.

To learn more about the Food Bank of South Jersey, please visit the website below.