Making use of wasted food to feed NJ’s hungry

A pair of Garden State lawmakers that has introduced a three-bill package designed to combat hunger by making use of the billions of dollars on food that gets wasted annually in America. 

According to statistics cited by the legislators, almost 50 million Americans are at risk of going hungry. In New Jersey alone, over one million people including 375,000 children are not sure where their next meal is coming from. Meanwhile, every year roughly 40 percent of the food supply in the U.S. goes uneaten.

The two resolutions and one bill are co-sponsored by Assemblymen Tim Eustace (D-Paramus) and Bob Andrzejczak (D-Cape May Court House). The first resolution (AJR-93) would designate the last full week of September as "New Jersey Gleaning Week." The second measure (AJR-94) would designate the Wednesday of "New Jersey Gleaning Week," as "Farmers Against Hunger Day."

"In New Jersey, we have the solution. It's amazing that people are hungry. The studies came out just recently that we throw out more food than any state in the union. If we didn't throw away that food and we gleaned it off to hungry people, that's the solution to the problem," Eustace said.

Gleaning is the practice of taking fresh food that is set to be thrown away by farms, gardens, farmers markets, grocers, restaurants, state and county fairs and giving it to the needy.

"This is not a problem in search of a solution. This is a matter of lining things up so that we can solve this in short order. This is fresh food that just ends up in the waste stream," Eustace said.

The bill, (A-4079) would direct the Department of Agriculture to post on its website all information about events and activities that would include: a "Farmers Against Hunger Day" page; a "New Jersey Gleaning Week" page and a link to the New Jersey Agricultural Society for farmers to recruit volunteers for gleaning.

"Gleaning prevents food waste, gives low income populations access to fresh, healthy foods, provides valuable resources to nonprofit agencies, and builds good relations between community members and farmers," Andrzejczak said in an emailed press release. "Given the abundance of wealth in this country, no American should ever have to go hungry, especially when we have so much excess food that goes to waste."