Free Food & Services

Free Food & Services

Find a food pantry near you and explore the free services that can help you and your family.

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Apply for Food Assistance

Apply for Food Assistance Programs

Get free help applying for Food Assistance Programs and accessing the benefits available to you and your family.

Apply For WIC 

Apply For SNAP

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Job Training

Job Training

Sign up for one of CFBNJ’s free job training programs that can prepare you for a career in the culinary or logistics industries.

 

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Healthy Recipes

Healthy Recipes

Healthy recipes, cooking videos, and tips are all here. Browse through the info provided by our Nutrition Education team to get the most out of your grocery budget without compromising on nutrition.

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Donate

Donate

Learn about all the ways to give a monetary gift, including recurring donations, planned gifts, tributes, and more to CFBNJ to lift up our neighbors.

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Volunteer

Volunteer

Explore the many opportunities to volunteer – whether that is packing food with your company, family, and friends at either our Hillside or Egg Harbor Township locations, distributing healthy food at one of our partners, or making phone calls from the comfort of your home.

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Advocate

Advocate

Take action to support our advocacy efforts that address the root causes of hunger and learn more about how CFBNJ collaborates with legislators.

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Fundraise

Fundraise

Coordinate a virtual or in-person fundraiser with friends, family, or coworkers.

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Donate Food & Goods

Donate Food & Goods

Over one-third of our food is donated by generous supporters like you. Set up a food or special product drive, join our retail food donation program, and more.

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Make a Corporate Donation

Make a Corporate Donation

Manufacturers, retailers, corporations, and small businesses can donate food, funds, and time.

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Events

Events

Attend a CFBNJ event to show your support and meet other like-minded supporters.

Bake For Good

SOUPER Bowl Saturday

24-Hour Pack-a-Thon

Blue Jean Ball

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Youth

Youth

Opportunities for youth engagement includes fundraising, food drives, and service days.

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Sign Up to Volunteer

Sign Up to Volunteer

Sign up to sort and pack food with your company, family, and friends at either our Hillside or Egg Harbor locations.

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Corporate Groups

Corporate Groups

Use your next company outing to give back to your community.

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Special Volunteer Programs

Special Volunteer Programs

View the opportunities available for regular volunteers to level up their participation at CFBNJ.

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Youth

Special Volunteer Programs

Opportunities for youth engagement includes fundraising, food drives, and service days.

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About Us

About Us

Discover how our journey began almost 50 years ago, and how we are committed to ending hunger in New Jersey.

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Our Programs

Learn about what we do to help our neighbors in need.

Learn about what we do to help our neighbors in need.

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How a FoodBank Works

How a FoodBank Works

Understand how food and hygiene supplies get from our two warehouses to your community.

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Leadership

Leadership

Meet our executive leadership team and Board of Directors.

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Annual Report & Financials

Annual Report & Financials

Get a clear picture of our finances, how our programs impact the community, and how it all ties together.

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Careers

Careers

Check out our career opportunities and don’t miss a chance to put your talents to work for a great purpose.

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News & Press

Keep up to date with the latest news about our work to end hunger.

Keep up to date with the latest news about our work to end hunger.

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Our Locations

Locations

We have locations in Hillside and Egg Harbor Township, each with their own events and volunteering opportunities.

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Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan

Explore the roadmap of the future of CFBNJ and how we plan on helping hungry neighbors going forward.

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Join Our Movement
& Make a Difference

Thank you for joining us in the fight against food insecurity in New Jersey.  Together, we can make a difference in the lives of our neighbors in need.

There are many ways to make change happen.

Learn

Understand the current landscape of hunger and the public programs that combat it.

Connect with Legislators

Let our lawmakers and community know you support our work.

Volunteer

Check out the many ways you can give your time.

Donate

Your generosity makes a critical difference in the work we are able to do

Learn To Be An Advocate

Key programs at the federal, state, and local level protect our communities from hunger. It helps to learn more about how they work, how they are funded, and to hear in their own words about our neighbors’ experiences with food insecurity.

Hunger By The Numbers

0

of New Jerseyans are food insecure.

0

of children in NJ are food insecure.

0

of Atlantic, Cape May, and Cumberland county residents face hunger.

0

of kids in South Jersey face hunger.

0

is the poverty level for a family of 4.

0

is the minimum SNAP benefit.

SNAP

SNAP (formerly Food Stamps) serves 770,000 people in New Jersey and is the major program to help low-income (usually working) families, the elderly, and adults with disabilities who suffer from food insecurity. SNAP works as a debit card that can only be used to buy food.

WIC

WIC (Women, Infants, Children) is a federal feeding program. It gives low-income families with young children a cash value card to use when shopping for important healthy foods and offers nutrition information and other services to young children.

National School Meal Program

Giving 395,000 children in New Jersey free lunch, breakfast, [and snacks], the National School Meal Program ensures that they have enough nutrition during the school day to learn. It is available in every public school and many non-profit private and 
parochial schools.

Common Myths About Government Programs

MYTH

People who use these programs may not really need them.

FACT

Poverty in America is widespread:  The Federal Reserve recently reported that 39 percent of Americans do not have enough savings to cover a $400 emergency and that between the ages of 20 and 65, about two-thirds of Americans will use one of these programs for at least a year.

MYTH

These programs are wasteful and give money to lazy people, undocumented people, or people who don’t really need help.

FACT

Poverty particularly affects the elderly, the disabled, and children: it is estimated that half of all American children will have received food stamps by the time they reach age 18. More than 75% of households receiving SNAP have at least one child, elderly, and/or disabled person living there. Only 17% of SNAP benefits go to households that don’t meet these criteria.

MYTH

The federal poverty levels are a measure of modern-day finances.

FACT

The way poverty is measured hasn’t changed since 1969, only adjusted annually for inflation.

How Does a Food Bank Work

  • Our FoodBank is a complex storage and distribution system. It allows a river of food to flow efficiently through loading docks, onto trucks, and out into communities. Our warehouses provide safe storage, while the food finds its way to soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and feeding programs around the state. Because we know what food they need and when they need it, we are able to marshal our resources to provide it in the most cost-effective way possible, to the people who need it most. Our food sourcing experts take advantage of economies of scale, bulk-purchasing power, and relationships with retailers, food producers and packagers who donate surplus, close-dated, and mispackaged but perfectly good food.

  • We also act as a contractor for the State and Federal Government, administering their food purchasing programs and distributing the commodity supplemental food they package and supply, and through our national parent organization, Feeding America®, we participate in an inter-food bank exchange that allows each food bank to balance inventory, sending a surplus of corn, say, in one direction, and getting a needed shipment of pasta in return.

    Finally, food banking reduces food waste. Last year, the Feeding America® network rescued 3.3 billion pounds of good food, which would otherwise end up in landfills. The bottom line? It costs us one dollar to provide one person with a healthy, balanced diet for an entire day.

How Are Nutrition Programs Funded?

The benefit portion of these programs are primarily funded by the federal government. The state contributes to administering SNAP and also contributes toward the cost of school meals.

Current Legislation

Understanding the Farm Bill

Emergency feeding by CFBNJ, our sister food banks, and our network of agency partners (soup kitchens, food pantries, after-school and summer feeding programs at community centers, etc.) could meet only a small portion of the need of over 650,000 of our food-insecure neighbors here in New Jersey.

The Farm Bill, passed every five years by Congress, contains funding for nutritional programs that are of critical importance to vulnerable families, seniors, and adults with disabilities. Making sure that Congress passes the strongest possible bill to provide funding for SNAP is a crucial advocacy priority.

Here are our priorities for the 2024 Farm Bill.

SNAP


Protect, strengthen and expand SNAP, simplify the SNAP application process and maintain all 
state flexibilities.

TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program)

Provide $350 million per year for TEFAP and $100 million a year for TEFAP storage and distribution to ensure adequate food for emergency food charities across the country.

Our Neighbors' Stories

Connect With Legislators

Help us support key nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC and National School Lunches. Connect with your lawmakers today.

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