About Us

Fueling Change. Feeding All.

New Jersey is one of the wealthiest states in the nation. Yet, hunger is close by. It strikes your child’s classmates. Your elderly neighbor. Maybe even people in your own family. Hunger is stealthy. It can invade our lives in one crushing moment – a lost job, a debilitating accident, a serious illness.

There is no one face of hunger. Because hunger hurts all of us. That is why it takes a collective effort to end hunger. It takes public and political will. It takes widespread change.

Using a strategic combination of state and federal advocacy and local grassroot activism, Hunger Free New Jersey takes a comprehensive approach to solving hunger.

How we fight hunger.

Our Wins

Feeding Kids

A growing number of children are receiving school breakfast and afterschool and summer meals, with help from the New Jersey Food for Thought Campaign, a collective effort to combat childhood hunger by expanding participation in federal nutrition programs. Hunger Free New Jersey leads the campaign.

Strengthening SNAP

Through state policy changes, more people in need of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP, aka food stamps) will be able to receive this critical aid.

Reducing College Hunger

The Campus Free Hunger Act was signed into law in May 2019. This promises to help more students find the support they need so they don’t have to choose between school and food. Hunger Free New Jersey worked with state lawmakers and other advocates to enact this beneficial law.

Fighting Cuts

Together, with local and national advocates, we have successfully stopped harmful cuts to federal nutrition assistance programs, protecting this critical safety net for tens of thousands of New Jersey residents.

Together we can fight hunger.

Our History

Hunger Free New Jersey is the leading advocacy organization working to end hunger in New Jersey. We are a program of Center for Food Action (CFA), which provides emergency services to northern New Jersey’s poorest and most vulnerable residents.

Recognizing that food pantries cannot meet all the needs, CFA formed the organization in 1980 to advance comprehensive solutions to hunger.