FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, December 15, 2017

 

Also Announces $20,000 Grant Award for New Initiative

EWING, NJ – As part of the Christie Administration’s “Season of Service,” New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Charles A. Richman and staff today visited the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank (Food Bank) where he announced a $20,000 federal Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) for the Mercer Street Friend’s Mobile Pantry. The Commissioner and staff also sorted donated food items. 

The grant will help fund the expansion of the Mobile Pantry, which will bring food, information, and resources directly to community members in their own neighborhoods. The Mobile Pantry, a key component of the Making Moves Project, will also deliver food and kitchen tools, provide cooking and juicing demonstrations and community outreach, and help residents access other services such as nutrition programs. 

Since 2010, the DCA has awarded $47,980 in CSBG grants to the Food Bank, including $25,300 this year. Mercer Street Friends is one of six food banks that received 2017 funding because it collects and distributes food to the many soup kitchens, food pantries, and homeless shelters that serve people in all 21 counties of the state. 

The Mercer Street Friends Food Bank channels 2.7 million pounds of food and groceries annually to a network of 80 local food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, meal sites, schools, senior and disabled programs, and low-income housing sites. Their food distribution and hunger prevention programs reach over 30,000 people who face the pain and indignity of hunger. Mercer Street Friends Food Bank is a Partner Distribution Organization with the Community FoodBank of New Jersey and Feeding America. 

To learn more about Mercer Street Friends, visit http://mercerstreetfriends.org/food-bank/ or call 609-396-1506 for more information. 

Since 2011, Cabinet officials have participated in approximately 350 service opportunities throughout the state – volunteering at food banks, soup kitchens and shelters serving meals, packing boxes or delivering meals. They have also helped in recovery and rebuilding after Sandy as well as focusing on drug abuse and addiction and the work being done to overcome the disease.

CONTACT:
Tammori Petty
(609) 292-6055