By: Follow South Jersey Staff
CAMDEN, N.J. — The Camden County Board of Commissioners along with community leaders and local organizations met at the Rutgers–Camden Campus Center on November 15 to discuss food insecurity in the county in order to find effective solutions to address food insecurity in the county and across the region.
“This is an issue that the Board of Commissioners is determined to beat because no one, in any community, should ever have to worry about where their next meal is coming from,” Commissioner Virginia Betteridge, liaison to the Camden County Department of Health and Human Services, said in a press release from the county. “Food insecurity can impact anyone at any time as millions of Americans are just a missed paycheck away from going hungry. By joining together and sharing ideas, we can make a difference and find real solutions to food insecurity here in Camden County and across the state.”
The Food Bank of South Jersey, one of the conference’s participants, stated in a Facebook post, “Friday’s Camden County Government Conference on Food Insecurity organized by Commissioner Betteridge was a great opportunity to gather with local leaders, advocates and peers, and hear from NJ Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin on what we can do together to improve food access in our communities.”
Last year, the county broke ground on the Camden County Center for Community Nutrition, a $5 million project that aims to combat food insecurity in Camden County through our meals on wheels program. The facility is set to open before the new year.
The facility was created to expand upon the county’s growing need for home delivered meals to residents. The new space is 7,500 square feet and supports meal assembly and distribution services for the home delivery program and houses supporting staff areas, frozen and refrigerated food storage and dry goods storage all under one roof.
The program serves more than 2,000 clients and the county has three congregate nutrition sites in Lawnside, Blackwood and Pine Hill, that are at max capacity.
“This facility will allow our meal services to run smoother and reach more residents, as we take on more and more clients by the year,” Betteridge said.
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