Watch the Gap!

Over the course of this two year grant cycle, we have continued to support those in our community disproportionately impacted by the Pandemic with weekly food assistance. We have been able to leverage our NJHCN funding and our local and statewide partnerships to secure additional funding and food resources to provide families with shelf stable food boxes, and vouchers for fresh produce and meat products, as well as a week of breakfast and lunches provided by the school district through the expanded free and reduced lunch program.

However, nearly 18 months after the start of the global Pandemic a number of resources have been scaled back or eliminated altogether.  Weekly Emergency Food Boxes were replaced with smaller biweekly food boxes which are now monthly, and with students returning to school we are no longer distributing free and reduced breakfast and lunch.

And while these resources continue to shrink, the economic impact of the Pandemic has not subsided for many.  The families we continue to support through supplemental food assistance are still struggling.  A significant number of these households do not qualify for SNAP benefits and still cannot meet their family’s nutritional needs.

As we continue to work on strategies for sustainability of our healthy eating and physical activity initiatives, we will be surveying the families we serve to learn more about their ongoing challenges so we can identify and provide services and/or further leverage resources that may close the gaps in their economic recovery.

At this tenuous time in our Pandemic recovery we must remain vigilant and Watch the Gap on behalf our vulnerable.