New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate

Earlier this month, TASK was pleased to participate in the first Garden State Conference on Food Insecurity, hosted by New Jersey's Office of the Food Security Advocate. Entitled, "Setting a Table for All, for Always," the conference featured a variety of panels and speakers who addressed the rising demand for food amidst the surge in need that many across the nation -- including here in New Jersey -- are experiencing. During the conference, TASK CEO Joyce Campbell (pictured here, in pink) was among a small group interviewed by John Hurdle from NJ Spotlight News. The resulting article, which covers the increase in food insecurity and New Jersey's response, also emphasizes the importance of a coordinated response that is driven by those with lived experience. At TASK, we are proud of our approach to hunger relief -- one that is centered around a philosophy of radical hospitality. We seek to understand our community and their needs, crafting programs and services that are designed based on their feedback and goals. In addition, we ensure that our community's voices are heard and amplified, ensuring that legislators and policymakers develop plans and policies that will truly impact our community in a meaningful way. Said Campbell, “What’s most important is that the people and the policies connect. When you bring someone with their story to a legislator, there is a lot more attention paid because it’s not my story, it’s their story.” To learn more about the statewide conversation and response to hunger, you can read Hurdle's article here: https://lnkd.in/eSsrQUHj

Our last full session of the Food is Medicine Policy Update! Panel Discussion: Stakeholder Update on the Challenge Accepted to Implement a Comprehensive Data-Centric Procurement Strategy to Drive Affordability and Food Accessibility to CBOs and Nutrition Providers with Jenny Schrum, PhD, Jeff Moreland, Paul Breitenbach, and moderated by Chris Erickson This session covered updates from public and private sector stakeholders on the progress of their commitments to realign the American food system with the mission to end hunger using a transformative food service management platform enabled by AI technology that addresses the problems of food access and affordability, while positioning community-based providers to reduce food costs and mitigate food deserts. #FIMpolicy #FoodisMedicine #FoodasMedicine

Food is Medicine Policy Update session pic: Panel Discussion: Stakeholder Updates on Commitments: Where Are We Today and Where Do We Go from Here? We heard from Pamela Schwartz, Sarah Fleisch, Mark Dinglasan, MBA, and Richard Hughes IV on progress made toward commitments to build healthy communities, enable systemic change, and expand access to food and nutrition programs. #FIMpolicy #FoodisMedicine #FoodasMedicine

Who else is attending the Food is Medicine Policy Update in D.C. today? If you're there, make sure to say hello to Mark Dinglasan, MBA and Jenny Schrum, PhD, who are both serving as panelists and highlighting New Jersey's food security efforts as inspiration for advancing affordability, accessibility, and scalability of food and nutrition programs for all. We haven't heard about any livestream or simulcast options for the event; we'll post here if we do. https://lnkd.in/e6JqYD5E #FoodisMedicine The Healthcare Innovation Company (thINc)

There are a number of smart, inquisitive and innovative New Jerseyans who continually seek out opportunities to do their food-focused community work more efficiently and effectively without diminishing their neighbors’ shopping experience. The Replenish team is among them. Get details on that connection and others in the link shared below! Jennifer Apostol

Next week marks the second anniversary of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, and New Jersey will take center stage in a day of national conversations. Mark Dinglasan, MBA and Jenny Schrum, PhD will join esteemed leaders representing federal agencies along with healthcare executives for the Food is Medicine Policy Update presented by The Healthcare Innovation Company (thINc) in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Serving as panelists for multiple sessions covering the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities, policy, and leveraging the collective purchasing power of community organizations doing "food and" work, Mark and Dr. Jenny will help participants assess progress over the last two years, address challenges, and determine actionable solutions and strategies to advance the affordability, accessibility, and scalability of food and nutrition programs for all while driving value and outcomes. https://lnkd.in/e6JqYD5E

We’re thrilled to unveil the Tri-County Food Insecurity Index? ????? After Trenton Health Team launched their FIRST version of this tool back in November of 2022, it was recently expanded on this year with data from two new counties: Middlesex and Somerset! https://lnkd.in/geZSHNRg Months of collaboration led up to this and we are proud to share the product, which lays the groundwork for strategies to build food security across our state. Learn more at trentonhealthteam.org/food. #HealthEquity #FoodAccess #NewJersey #FoodForAll #CommunityHealth

Yesterday, the Department of Human Services hosted Union County's first Food Security Summit, a vision brought forth by Union County Board of County Commissioners and our community partners. Together with Union County Chairwoman Kimberly Palmieri-Mouded, Vice-Chairwoman Lourdes Leon, Commissioner Sergio Granados, and Deputy County Manager Amy Crisp Wagner, we proudly launched the Union County Food Coalition. This coalition aims to connect people in need with the right resources at the right time. During the summit, we reflected on the County's successes in distributing food during the pandemic and establishing community garden programs. We had the privilege of hearing from Mark Dinglasan, Director of the NJ Office of the Food Security Advocate, as well as representatives from Community FoodBank and Village Super Market. The discussions ranged from food logistics to deep relationship-building, bringing together nonprofit and community organizations from around Union County in this critical mission. Our commitment remains unwavering as we strive to make hunger a thing of the past. Together, we are dedicated to ensuring that everyone in our community has access to the food they need. #FoodSecurity #CommunityPartnerships #UnionCountyStrong

“Food insecurity is the thing that happens when there’s housing insecurity; when there’s economic and financial insecurity, when there’s trauma,” she said. “When you’re only looking to food insecurity in itself, and you are not connecting to all those other systems, and looking at the person holistically, you’re never going to be able to solve that food insecurity.” - Terry Connolly, CEO, nourish.NJ Thank you, Jon Hurdle, NJ Spotlight News, for joining in the conversations of the day and continuing to lift up this issue. As this office develops a strategic plan for our state, we know this work is about families and farmers alike; about county boards of services working with trauma-informed and networked community organizations; about schools, healthcare, community fridge operators, residents and policy makers all speaking one language and sharing a broader view of food security. There are inspired and unprecedented levels of collaboration happening to help New Jerseyans prevent needing emergency assistance, and if they do need it in a time of crisis, to experience available aid in holistic ways that are free of stigma, and honor their dignity and agency to still know what is best for themselves and their families. Thanks too, to these leaders who willingly shared what their teams and communities are experiencing for this story: Terry Connolly, Carolyn Lake, Derek Smith, Angela M. Brown and Joyce Campbell. https://lnkd.in/eSsrQUHj Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) The Franklin Food Bank Interfaith Food Pantry Network Loving Our Cities nourish.NJ Katie S. Martin, Ph.D. Mark Dinglasan, MBA #Collaboration #Community #RightToFood

Kudos to the Garden State for implementing Medicaid Direct Certification this school year! This collaborative effort will increase children’s access to nutritious school meals, while improving schools’ ability to operate Community Eligibility. Shout out to Hunger Free New Jersey and New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate as #SchoolLunchChampions for their collaborative work on school meals outreach. Teamwork makes the dream work!? #NSLW24