Curb hunger in New Jersey by reducing food waste?

By one estimate, at least 1.6 million tons of food is wasted in New Jersey each year, from consumers who throw away food that has reached or is nearing its sell-by date to farmers who plant excess crops back into the ground because this is more cost-effective than packing and distributing them or food buyers, who sometimes reject entire shipments of otherwise sellable food because some items are spoiled.

Now all that waste is getting additional attention as the authors of a new report call on the state to do a better job of diverting food from landfills to the tables of the families who need it.

In 2023, an average of nearly 800,000 people in New Jersey received assistance each month from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, which meets the definition of food insecurity.

The report from nonprofit Move For Hunger looked specifically at challenges in a nine-county area of ​​South Jersey and said better coordination and resources could save tons of otherwise wasted food.

What is recommended?

Increased efforts to recover food from supermarkets, as well as better education and awareness among consumers and businesses to prevent food waste, are recommended. Another recommendation is to establish at least one nonprofit food “hub” for the state that collects emergency food from producers, donors and relief organizations and prepares it for distribution.

“These recommendations are made from the perspective of achieving the dual goals of food recovery,” says the 30-page report, published today. “To increase the amount of food available to those experiencing food insecurity and to reduce food waste and loss and their impact on our climate.”

The report resulted from research conducted between November 2023 and March 2024 and included 51 stakeholders in food production, recovery and distribution in South Jersey. It was funded by the Tepper Foundation. The region was home to approximately a quarter of a million people classified as food insecure in 2021. The nine counties covered in the report are Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland and Cape May. Five of the counties have food insecurity rates higher than the statewide average of 8.8%.

The challenges of food waste and efforts to eliminate it were the focus of a special project this summer as part of NJ Spotlight News’ Change Project.

The Move For Hunger report recommends improving communication between emergency suppliers of fresh food and breaking down so-called “silos” in the food aid ecosystem. Additionally, stakeholders such as cold storage facilities are encouraged to donate space for storing perishable food items.

Food recovery

“While many manufacturers and food handling companies are making a concerted effort to donate edible foods, there are undoubtedly opportunities for additional education about food recovery,” the report said.

The report calls on companies to train their employees to support food recovery and for farmers to increase their capacity for food donations, including through “gleaning” – the recovery of agricultural crops that are not intended to be sold – and the Providing temporary cold storage.

Food is wasted at every stage of the supply chain, the report says, from initial processing and packaging to the consumer who forgets to use a food item in the back of their refrigerator.

Adam Lowy, founder and executive director of Move For Hunger, said creating food “hubs” would go beyond the current work of the state’s major food banks, such as the state’s largest, the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.

Like wholesalers in the emergency food system, food banks receive food from suppliers and then send it to local pantries, which distribute it to the public. But they don’t have the capacity to wash farm produce or repackage donated food for distribution, he said.

“The food bank is not necessarily a packer or processor, especially when it comes to fresh food,” Lowy said in an interview. “They just don’t have the capacity and cold storage to be able to do things like that. Then sometimes it happens that the food loses its condition or is never picked. We’re literally leaving food on the table.”

What the new state authority is doing

The group’s report will complement research currently being conducted by New Jersey’s Office of the Food Security Advocate, a new agency aimed at integrating the diverse efforts of nonprofits, governments, community groups and religious centers to feed the hungry to coordinate. The office has pledged to complete its own report next year.

“We provide a different level of research that (the state) can adopt and utilize,” Lowy said. “We work with food banks and pantries, cold storage providers, transportation companies and producers. People became very open and honest about what worked and what didn’t.”

Mark Dinglasan, executive director of the state office, welcomed the report as a valuable contribution to the discussion on how to curb food insecurity.

“I am pleased that the report highlights some of the key initiatives OFSA supports and is working on,” Dinglasan said in a statement. “We still need as much evidence as possible to support the need for more innovation and collaboration on food security. This evidence is collected and captured through active listening and documenting what organizations, stakeholders and communities need to build stronger food systems.”

Carolyn Lake, executive director of the Interfaith Food Pantry in Morris Plains, said the document identified some outstanding needs in New Jersey’s emergency food system, although it does not propose new solutions.

“I don’t see that there’s necessarily anything new,” she said. “What I see is a very thorough explanation of the challenges. I really appreciate that it has dispelled the idea that to combat food insecurity we just have to get what other people don’t want.

“(Lowy) has made a good case that there is a cost to this and a large portion of that will have to be covered by the local distribution agency to purchase the fresh food that they cannot get through food rescue efforts.”

Increased demand

Rose Rodriguez, portfolio manager of the New Jersey Tepper Foundation, said she funded the study because she wanted to better understand the nature of the state’s food insecurity problem and possible solutions to it.

“We’ve been thinking more strategically about how we engage in food security,” she said in an interview. “We want to ensure New Jersey’s emergency food system is resilient. I kept hearing from local partners about logistical challenges. So we thought, ‘What’s the real problem?’ Let’s figure out what the real challenges are.'”

Photo credit: (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

In 2022, the foundation released a separate report detailing how New Jersey’s emergency food system had responded fairly well to the sharp increase in demand during the pandemic, but also had some deficiencies that needed to be addressed, including in… reducing food waste.

The new report was welcomed by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex), a leading advocate for more federal help for food insecure people. He said he had not yet reviewed the report but praised its intentions.

“We are blessed with a wealth of talented, tenacious advocates, experts and workers on the front lines of this fight,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to build on our success and collaborate with a broad range of organizations as we strengthen our efforts to increase access to nutritious food and reduce waste statewide through improved systems to end hunger in our state.”