Grant Helps Community Foodbank Offer Emergency Food Boxes To Those in Need

OCEAN CITY — As the effects of casino closings continue to ripple throughout the region, more area families are struggling with food insecurity, limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. With the help of a $10,000 grant from the Ocean City Home Charitable Foundation, the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Southern Branch has been able to provide approximately 5,000 emergency food boxes to families in need.
Recent reports indicate that 1 in every 5 children in New Jersey is hungry, and over one million people in New Jersey are food insecure, said Jean Jacobson, President of the Ocean City Home Charitable Foundation. Those alarming figures, coupled with the financial stress caused by the loss of 10,000 area jobs over the course of the past year, make it more important than ever to support the efforts of organizations like the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.
The grant awarded to the Community FoodBank was one of 26 grants presented to area nonprofit organizations at the Ocean City Home Charitable Foundations awards reception in Dec. of 2014. The Foundation presented a total of $90,000 in grants at the reception, bringing the organizations ten-year donation total to more than $1,035,000.
“We’re thrilled to receive support from Ocean City Home Bank,” said Evelyn Benton, Executive Director of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Southern Branch. “With this support, we can help our neighbors in need during this difficult transition as Atlantic City reinvents itself.”