 | Q1, 2025 New Jersey Food Security Initiative Quarterly Newsletter Led by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the New Jersey Food Security Initiative (NJFSI) is a three-year cross-sector, collaborative, community-centered effort to increase food security and good nutrition, and advance health equity, in New Jersey. NJFSI aims to increase food security, equitable access to healthier food options, and community purchasing power in New Jersey through enhanced infrastructure, coordination across systems, advocacy, and leveraging of federal, state, and local resources, assets, and opportunities. NJFSI seeks to support and uplift existing initiatives and collaborations across New Jersey by providing additional funding opportunities, capacity-building, resources, and technical assistance. Over the past two years, NJFSI has granted over $2 million in funding to 10 grantees to strengthen food security across the state. To learn more, visit njfsi.org. | | Spotlight on NJFSI Grantees | | | | NJFSI allocated more than $1.07 million in grant funding in 2024 to support five projects aimed at driving transformation in practices, policies, systems, and environments to boost food security and enhance nutrition for health equity in New Jersey. The work and impact of two of these subgrantees are highlighted below. New Jersey will lose a total of $26 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding for farm programs in 2025, with $9.9 million earmarked for food banks and $16.2 million for school food programs, due to cuts in the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs. Community partners supporting urban agriculture to expand affordable access to healthy foods are more important than ever. NJFSI grantees City Green and C.R.O.P.S continue to lead New Jersey forward in this space. | | | | Communities Revolutionizing Open Public Spaces (CROPS) Focus area: Atlantic City Township Project summary: The goals of the C.R.O.P.S. Atlantic City Food Security Now project, on which they are partnered with AtlantiCare healthcare system, are to: increase awareness of residents' desires and needs in the area of food access in Atlantic City by conducting a Food Needs & Preferences survey; create a cross-sector partnership between government, for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations grappling with decreasing food insecurity in the second most severe desert in New Jersey; increase residents' purchasing power of healthy food; support the beginnings of the C.R.O.P.S. Farm Share Program to connect consumers to locally grown food and increase availability of produce to SNAP users; support AtlantiCare's mobile grocery and Produce Rx program; increase access to SNAP enrollment; and support a more sustainable food system in Atlantic City. | | | | To date, C.R.O.P.S. has surveyed over 370+ Atlantic City community members. Starting in September 2024 and looking ahead through May 2025, C.R.O.P.S. will have served 34 shareholders / households in its Farm Share Program of bi-weekly boxes of produce "shares" available for pickup in Atlantic City, and of these 34 shareholders, nine purchased their shares with SNAP/Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT). As of January, the Community FoodBank of New Jersey has joined the AtlantiCare Community Mobile Market to assist 36 people in navigatating SNAP, including 13 applications, 16 troubleshooting issues, and six appointments. Also, since AtlantiCare implemented Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) in December 2024, 24 percent of Mobile Market sales have utilized SNAP/EBT. Overall, since starting the Mobile Market in June 2024, SNAP EBT sales have comprised 6 percent of all sales. | | | | City Green Focus area: State of New Jersey Project summary: City Green’s project aims to unify and expand Good Food Bucks (GFB) nutrition incentive programs at SNAP-authorized farmers' markets and grocery stores in order to reach more New Jersey SNAP participants, increase the purchase and consumption of fruits and vegetables by SNAP participants, and increase producer-to-consumer market opportunities for GFB retailers. | | | | To date, City Green has worked with 53 GFB partner organizations across 84 different retailer sites in nearly every New Jersey county, an increase of 26 GFB partners since the start of the grant period. They also added 10 farm-direct partners and 16 brick and mortar partners to the program. This resulted in an estimated 15,180 individuals receiving Good Food Bucks when shopping with SNAP during this reporting period and an increase of 39.8 percent in issuance of Good Food Bucks starting in December. From 2023 to December 2024, there was a 19.6 percent increase in the redemption of GFB compared to the same time period of the previous year. Fifty-three farm-direct and grocery retailers have been onboarded into the Good Food Bucks program. City Green is halfway through their grant period and is already having a large impact for residents using SNAP and for local farmers across the state. | | | | New Jersey Anti-Hunger News | | | | | | NJFSI just released the Grantee Accomplishments One-Pager to highlight the great accomplishments of the grantees halfway through their project periods. In February, NJFSI announced additional grantees from local government agencies. This funding aims to deepen community engagement, expand outreach, and improve access to critical nutrition programs such as SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). | | | | | | Are you attending the 2025 National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference (AHPC) on May 4–6 in Washington, D.C.? Register now to network and learn from advocates across the country. There will be a special New Jersey Coffee Hour, so please RSVP to Jackie Bavaro (jbavaro@frac.org), if you are attending and would like to join (Note: this coffee hour event is limited to AHPC attendees). | | | | National Anti-Hunger News | | | | SNAP is a vital tool for fighting hunger in America. The Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE) is a flexibility provided to state governments to improve efficiency in implementing SNAP, and Congress is considering cutting BBCE. Learn more about what cutting BBCE will mean for SNAP. USDA cancelled the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, impacting school nutrition programs and food banks across New Jersey. Gov. Phil Murphy and Speaker Craig Coughlin released a statement about the program cancelation. Check out the latest FRAC fact sheets on SNAP and the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), to learn more about the impact of the programs in New Jersey and how proposed cuts by Congress could impact the programs, communities, students, and participants. Learn more about SNAP enrollment for each federal congressional district in New Jersey. | | | | Food Research & Action Center
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