Meal to meal: New Jersey neighborhood center addresses food desert

The mobile food distribution program by the Mind of Christ Ministries and Bethune-Cookman University has been feeding families since 2013. The program addresses local food insecurity while also providing university students with a meaningful way to give back to the community and earn required volunteer hours. The program estimates it reaches more than 200,000 people each year.

FoodCommune aims to reduce food waste by rescuing food before it ends up in landfills, redistributing about 6,000 pounds of food per week. FoodCommune gathers food from farmer’s markets, grocery stores, restaurants and other sources, redistributing enough to feed about 300 people each week.

Watanda is a bulk-shopping system that helps ensure low-income families have access to meat during the Eid-al-Fitr celebration following Ramadan. In Watanda groups, members contribute money to a collective fund to purchase cattle that is then split between all the contributors. Amidst the rising cost of cattle, Watanda groups help ensure families have food on the table and can still participate in celebrations.

The Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church works with other area organizations to help locals facing a range of challenges, from food insecurity to addiction. The efforts particularly focus on Black residents to fill the void left by local, state and federal government agencies. The church provides support and necessary supplies through its Showers, Health Care and Outreach Program (SHOP), as well as domestic violence counseling, housing assistance and addiction treatment.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, several locals are joining together to occupy land and avoid further displacement. Community members have worked together to address food insecurity by creating community gardens and have also cleaned and repaired abandoned buildings in the community to turn them into food banks, housing options and resource centers for those in need.

The Westside Food Bank has been distributing food to community members in need across the city since 1981. Today, they provide nutritious food and fresh produce to 153,000 people facing food insecurity.

Local groups like Pima Animal Care Center (PACC) have employed several methods to help families struggling to keep their pets stay together. PACC does regular outreach events to collect pet food donations and also gives out supplies like beds, leashes and collars to those in need. PACC also has a nonprofit arm, Friends of PACC, that helps owners struggling with veterinary expenses and a safety net program that connects pets with foster families.

The Manhattan Afghan Resettlement Team (MART) helps Afghan refugees escape Taliban oppression and build new lives in the U.S. MART helps to connect refugees with the local Islamic Center for meetings about adjusting to life in the U.S. and language courses, as well as help getting a Social Security card, a job and enrolling their children in school. To date, over 100 refugees have been successfully resettled.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic making access to groceries more difficult, The Walker River Paiute Tribe created a food pantry to support members of the tribe and local farmers. The food pantry has since become the largest in the state, by volume of distributed food, having distributed about 6,500 bags of food to over 355 households.

The RVA Community Fridges addresses the issue of food insecurity by setting up household or industrial refrigerators outside of a host business, like a restaurant, non-profit or church. Anyone can swing by a fridge and take whatever they need or leave whatever they can. To fill the fridges, community members, local businesses, and other organizations donate purchased or cooked food.