WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2022
By Jenna Intersimone | MyCentralJersey.com | USA TODAY NETWORK
New Jersey rents have gone up nearly 33% in the last year alone.
Food costs went up more than 11% in 2022, the largest annual increase in over 40 years.
And gas prices, although finally falling, are still averaging about a dollar more than they were in 2019. In the post-COVID world, many families are struggling to make ends meet. But that’s a reality that Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, a non-profit organization serving New Jersey and Pennsylvania counties, was fighting a decade before the pandemic.
The food rescue organization connects local farmers with food pantries and other food recipient sites to share their produce with food insecure communities.
“The first thing that families have to sacrifice is healthy food, which happens to be more expensive food,” said Cathy Snyder, founder and executive director of Rolling Harvest Food Rescue.
“It’s a scary time. Forty percent of the people we’re helping now could not have imagined two years ago that they would go to a community meal or a food pantry,” she continued. “We’re not going to cure hunger, but we can certainly alleviate some budgetary pressure and provide healthy, basic food. Maybe it means you can pay your heating bill because we’re helping you out on the food end.”
By partnering with over 40 farms and 200 volunteers, Rolling Harvest Food Rescue harvests seasonal Garden State produce, such as corn, tomatoes, strawberries and asparagus, for 80 food pantries across Hunterdon and Mercer counties, and Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania, to feed 34,000 people each year. And it starts with one text.
“Farmers just text us and say, ‘We have broccoli, tomatoes, etc. left in the field, come and get it,’” Snyder said. “Usually within a day we have organized a dozen gleaners, and we come with our crates, take everything and distribute immediately.” Produce is distributed through Fresh Connect, which gives food directly to families in need through four free farmers’ markets in Bucks County, or through local food pantries such as Flemington Area Food Pantry, Fisherman’s Mark Food Pantry in Lambertville, Frenchtown Presbyterian Church, and the Delaware Valley Food Pantry in Lambertville.
The reasons why a farmer would not want to harvest all their grown produce include a lack of labor or high costs of labor; time and weather, in case an impending storm will make it difficult to harvest an entire crop; or even a few ugly ducklings.
“If it’s not perfect, they can’t sell it,” said Snyder. “If a carrot has two legs, it’s just as delicious. And if a tomato has a little bump on it, it’s just as delicious — but they can’t sell that so they won’t go to the expense of harvesting it.” It all began when Snyder was volunteering at a Lambertville food pantry. One day, she had an epiphany as she left her volunteer shift to head to a farmers’ market.
“I could load up at the farmers market, come home and serve this wonderful, local, healthy meal to my family, and I would go back to the pantry the next day and it wasn’t the kind of food I was seeing,” Snyder said. “I just had that ‘aha’ moment that this was so wrong. And that was the start of it.”
To help: Volunteer by visiting rollingharvest.org/volunteer-opportunities or donate by visiting rollingharvest.org/make-a-donation.
To get help: If you are a Bucks County resident, you can apply to visit one of Rolling Harvest Food Rescue’s free farmers’ markets at rollingharvest.org/education-programs/fresh-connect-bucks-county/. If you are a resident of another county, visit one of their partner food pantries at https://rollingharvest.org/hunger-relief-recipients/rollingharvest.org/hunger-relief-recipients/.
