New
Jersey Farmers Against Hunger (FAH), a two-year-old
program spearheaded by the New Jersey Agricultural
Society, has received a $27,000 grant from Kraft
Foods and its parent company, Philip Morris Companies
Inc. The grant Is part of the "Kraft Fresh Produce
Initiative" under "Helping the Helpers," Philip Morris's
national campaign to fight hunger.
FAH will use the grant as part of this
year's effort to expand its refrigeration, food-handling and distribution
capabilities to better serve the 45 community service and religious
organizations who help feed more than 10,000 needy New Jerseyans
in the central and southern parts of the state. FAH expects to provide
an additional 750,000 servings of fruits and vegetables C another
250,000 pounds of fresh produce C to its food network this year. "As
important as the increase in quantity is, even more significant is
the added nutritional benefit this fresh produce will bring," said
Robin McGovern, FAH program director. "Pound for pound, fruits and
vegetables are among the best nutritional choices we can provide.
Rather than see this food go to waste, we can now ensure that it
will be used to feed New Jersey's hungry." New Jersey Farmers Against
Hunger got its start in the spring of 1996, when representatives
of the New Jersey Agricultural Society and a group of concerned farmers
got together with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service, the
USDA and the Bonner Foundation to see what they could do to help
the more than 300,000 New Jerseyans for whom hunger is a fact of
daily life. Since then, with support from the New Jersey Department
of Agriculture and grants from the New Jersey Department of Community
Affairs, the effort has distributed more than one million pounds
of produce in target counties. The produce gleaned from the fields
by FAH is of good quality but often has some small cosmetic flaw
that doesn't affect the taste or nutritional value of the item. The
fruits or vegetables may also be too large or too small to be sold
through usual retail or wholesale channels or too ripe to withstand
the shipping process. The recipient agencies distribute the produce
to needy families or individuals or used it to enrich the menus of
food banks and soup kitchens. Farm produce distributed by FAH varies
with the season and market forces but has included peaches, apples,
sweet corn, potatoes, regular and plum tomatoes, sweet potatoes,
blueberries, zucchini, cucumbers, summer squash, cabbage, lettuce
and red, green and hot peppers. Thanks to the participation of Wakefern/ShopRite
in Elizabeth, Frank Donio, Inc., in Hammonton and Louis Tammaro Co.
Of Robbinsville, FAH can maintain two central distribution sites,
The Children's Home in Mt. Holly and Lifeline in Trenton, year round.
The Philip Morris family of companies
is one of the largest funders in the fight against hunger in the
United States, having contributed more than $130 million in food
and financial support to domestic anti-hunger groups since 1990.
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