How a Food Bank Works
Food banks act as food storehouses and distribution facilities for other partner agencies working to end hunger and usually do not give out food directly to people facing hunger themselves.
How A Food Bank Works
CFBNJ COLLECTS FOOD AND DONATIONS
Food is picked up by CFBNJ truck drivers or delivered to our warehouses from growers, wholesalers, retailers, food drives, government programs, and more.
FOOD IS SORTED AND PACKAGED AT CFBNJ’S WAREHOUSES
With the help of volunteers and warehouse associates, we inspect, sort, pack, and store the food at our warehouses. We also prepare nutritious meals for our Kids Cafes.
CFBNJ SUPPLIES FOOD TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Our community partners (including soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, child and senior feeding programs, and more) pick up the food from CFBNJ’s warehouses, or our truck drivers deliver their orders.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS DISTRIBUTE FOOD TO NJ NEIGHBORS IN NEED
Community partners provide food to neighbors in need in their local communities.
How Food Gets to Pantries, Soup Kitchens, and Shelters
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.
FAQs
What is a food bank?
A food bank is a non-profit organization that gathers, prepares and distributes food to food pantries and meal programs serving neighbors in need.What is a food pantry?
A food pantry is a place where anyone can go to receive food during a time of need. When supplied with food from a food bank, pantries can serve many more people from their surrounding community. Pantries look different in every community. For example, they can be connected to a church, school, or community organization, or they can be an independent organization.
What is the difference between a food bank and a food pantry?
Unlike a food pantry, a food bank has the space and capacity to handle large donations from the food industry. For example, a food bank has room for a donation of thousands of pounds of frozen, bulk carrots in one of its coolers and can safely process that donation into family-sized portions in its reclamation department. Food banks and food pantries work together to fill neighbors’ plates. The food bank sources, processes, and temporarily stores large quantities of various foods. Then, food pantries choose the items and quantities they need to do their work.
What is a Mobile Food Pantry?
Mobile Food Pantries are like farmers markets on wheels that provide supplemental groceries— including produce, protein, dairy, grains and more—to anyone in need at no charge. The food distributions are run in partnership with local agencies like churches, schools and community centers.
How do food banks get food to distribute?
At the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, we gather food from a variety of sources, such as farmers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, the USDA and food drives. We also purchase food to fill in any gaps in donations. Last year, our food came from: 36% Donated; 22% Government; and 42% Purchased.
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