Credit: (Clockwise from top left: AP Photo/Seth Wenig; CFBNJ; Jon Hurdle; Jon Hurdle) The year at New Jersey food banks, clockwise from top left: Waiting on line at Oasis, Paterson; volunteers sort food at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey; Dylan Kuzinksi and his mother Jessica Kuzinksi expressed gratitude for the distribution by the Food Bank of South Jersey; loading produce into a waiting car at the Food Bank of South Jersey For New Jersey’s food banks, it’s been a rough year, and it may be getting worse before it gets better. The state’s three major food banks already reported record annual increases of around 50% in the amount of food they gave out to the hundreds of food pantries, churches and other charitable organizations that distribute food to the thousands of people who can’t afford to buy groceries because they have lost their jobs in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Burlington County Times needs you to deliver a Christmas miracle to area families. With about a week to go until Dec. 25, the BCT s Give A Christmas program is low on donations, and it could use some more. In 2020 so far, the BCT and NJ 211, the nonprofit organization that helps run the program, have sent out $27,765 worth of gift cards, enough for more than 550 Walmart cards worth $50 each, according to Melissa Acree, the executive director of NJ 211. Last year, 1,166 Target gift cards, also worth $50 each, were distributed to 329 county families for a total of $58,300 in donations. The gift cards go to county families in need, a group that includes, but is not limited to, parents with sick children, single parent households, people who are struggling with addiction and people who are unemployed. Since families can apply for one gift card per child and one between both parents, most families ask for multiple cards, though they can only receive a maximum of four.