Meeting Essential Needs with Dignity (MEND), which serves more than 47,000 people per month through its network of food pantries and mobile food programs, has opened an expanded Fresh Food Hub in Orange, N.J., to help address the growing problem of food insecurity in Essex County.
MEND Executive Director Robin Peacock talks about rising food insecurity at the opening of MEND’s new Fresh Food Hub. (Photo by Laura Griffin)
To launch its new Fresh Food Hub, MEND hosted a “Hub-warming” in Orange on November 12, bringing together board members, volunteers, donors and others who have supported the organization and its efforts through the years, as well as the state’s top food security advocate.
“There is extreme demand. We have waiting lists across all of our programs,” said MEND Executive Director Robin Peacock, who started as the organization’s grant writer and only employee. “That is significant.”
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The Fresh Food Hub 2.0, as staff calls it, gives MEND twice the space it previously had, and is now large enough for office space for its 11 employees, as well as three walk-in refrigerators and enough warehouse room for groups of volunteers to help out.
Director of Operations for MEND Christina Yoon gives a tour of the warehouse. (Photo by Laura Griffin)
“We’ve been able to already add a massive walk-in refrigerator, and because we focus on fresh and healthy food, that is a game changer,” Peacock said. “We also are able to expand community engagement. That means volunteers. In the past, we’ve had to say no to groups.”
Mark Dinglasan, director of the New Jersey Office of Food Security Advocate, who was appointed by the governor at the end of 2022 to address food insecurity, applauded MEND’s efforts and emphasized the need for holistic and comprehensive food security solutions, noting that 307,000 households in New Jersey experienced food insecurity last year alone.
“That’s about 994,000 individuals in New Jersey last year who experienced food insecurity,” he said. “That means they literally, at some point in the year, oftentimes more than once, had to decide between paying rent or buying food for their families.”
Mark Dinglasan, director of the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate, says MEND is leading the way in fighting food insecurity in New Jersey.
Confirming what those at MEND see in Essex County, Dinglasan said food security organizations across the state are seeing “exponentially more people now than at the height of the pandemic.
“Our nonprofit sector and our emergency feeding sector were not built to serve this number of people. So the need is rising,” he said. “The cost of food is rising.”
The MEND – Hunger Relief Network truck – affectionately called the Sweet Potato. (Photo by Laura Griffin)
MEND is also an anchor organization of the Food & Health Equity Coalition of Essex County, a cross-sector initiative that began in February, with more than 100 advocates from health care, academia, government and non-profit communities, working together improve food access and security.
“It’s really about bringing together the people who know best in the community, and listening to what they need and how they would like us to help,” Peacock said.
The approach for solving food insecurity, Dinglasan said, is to not only meet the immediate needs of those experiencing food insecurity but to help connect them with services that will improve their futures and outcomes.
“Feeding people is about giving people food, but ending hunger is about wrapping supportive services around families and giving them the power they need so that they’re the ones who are competing for better opportunities,” he said. “MEND is leading the way.”
