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.
Efficient Solutions to Hunger
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, CFBNJ rescued 15.6 million 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.