Hunger increasing in Central Jersey

By charles w. kim
Staff Writer

Hunger increasing
in Central Jersey
By charles w. kim
Staff Writer

More central New Jersey residents may be going hungry this year, according to regional food distribution outlets.

"The demand is up," Barbara Taylor, office manager of Elijah’s Promise Food Kitchen, New Brunswick, said Tuesday.

According to Taylor, the facility provides two nutritious meals a day to between 150 and 190 patrons at each meal.

"It’s not just soup and a sandwich," she said.

The kitchen, which started in 1989, provided as many as 4,000 meals in one month recently. Among those being served, Taylor said, are more people from working middle-class families.

"We get a wide variety of people. Some families have two jobs but can’t make it," she said. "They can’t afford food."

Taylor said demand has risen sharply since she started work at the kitchen in 1996.

South Brunswick Township Welfare Director Lou Anne Wolf said Monday that the demand for assistance is rising there as well.

"It appears to me that it has increased," Wolf said Monday.

The department runs the town’s food pantry and is hoping to get donations of food to fill the shelves.

"Our food pantry is empty," Wolf said.

The food pantry is open all the time for emergency situations, but Wolf said it is generally open on Tuesdays for people to get food.

While there is no maximum income limit to get assistance, there is an application to be filled out in order to receive two boxes of canned and boxed goods as well as vouchers for fresh food, according to Wolf.

Wolf said the department assisted about 202 families with food in 2001. That number is now 136 families assisted so far this year.

That amounts to being on track for about a 10 percent increase in demand compared to last year.

"Demand has risen since 1999," Wolf said, noting that numbers have grown each year.

Wolf said many of those needing assistance come in regularly because they have been unemployed for a while or are living paycheck to paycheck.

"We have people that can’t make ends meet," Wolf said.

While there are regular patrons, Wolf said there has been an increase in people that might not have used the service before.

"These are people that need a helping hand through some tough times," Wolf said. "The [husband and wife] both work, but there is just not enough."

Wolf said many of these people will use the service only once if they need to.

"You usually don’t see them again," he said.

Demand is increasing in other areas of the state as well.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th District) recently toured food-distribution outlets in Trenton and Freehold with fellow Rep. Tony P. Hall (D-Ohio). Holt said during a recent interview that the demand for these food services has risen some 17 percent statewide.

"There are a lot of people here that are struggling," Holt said.

According to Holt, the number of meals increased by 15 percent at a Trenton food kitchen, and a Freehold location rose by 20 percent compared to last year.

"That is up dramatically," Holt said.

Holt said that the struggling economy and loss of local jobs in the wake of Sept. 11 may have contributed to the increases.

"Many have lost their jobs during the last year and are on the lower end of the salary scale," Holt said.

President George Bush nominated Congressman Hall in February as the nation’s ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies in Rome.

Hall, whose nomination was confirmed by the Senate Aug. 1, said that in his home state of Ohio, things are even worse, and that about one-third of those hungry are children.

"I suspect this is what is going on around the country," he said.

Hall, who said he expects to resign his seat in Congress in the next few weeks in order to assume the ambassador post in Rome, has been a leading voice on the hunger issue in the Dayton area of his home state and has worked on the House Select Committee on Hunger.

He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize three times for his efforts since 1998.

According to Hall, the United States provides 50 percent of the food to the World Food Program.

"Food aid is a major component of our security. We don’t get a lot of credit for it, because nobody knows it," he said.

There are currently 54 nations experiencing a food deficit, he added.

Hall said North Korea is one of the worst nations in the world when it comes to hunger. The situation there is so bad that people cannot put deceased loved ones outside of their homes for fear that someone would steal the corpse for food, he added.

As far as hunger at home, Hall said that educating people to know where to go for food is key.

"We need a place of information so people can know where to go and get something to eat," he said.

Hall said there are programs available, but the nation must come together with the political and spiritual will to make changes.

"Most people are not aware that there is hunger in our own back yard," he said.

According to Hall, there are between 25 million and 30 million U.S. citizens who go hungry two to four days of every month.

"They are embarrassed. They don’t have a spokesperson, and the story never gets out. We can end this," Hall said.

Holt’s GOP opponent, the Rev. Deforest "Buster" Soaries, said he has also seen the demand for food increase in the region.

"There is an increase in hunger and an increased need for better nutrition," Soaries said.

Soaries, who was secretary of state under former Gov. Christine Whitman, is challenging Holt for the seat in the 12th District. Soaries is also the pastor of the 6,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, Franklin.

"I want to provide leadership on this issue," Soaries said.

Soaries said one of the problems is the breakdown of access for people to various programs like food stamps.

"It is bad to be hungry. It is worse to not have access [to food programs]," he said.

Soaries added that some of the programs must be updated to increase the capacity for families to buy more food.

"There are people’s incomes that have been lost," he said.