Who We Help & How
The Center for Food Action (CFA) provides emergency food, rental and utility assistance, counseling, and advocacy to our neighbors in need in Bergen County and in the Upper Passaic Valley. In 2010, CFA will have distributed over 53,000 emergency food packages-and helped over 1,500 families stay in their homes and/or kept their heat and electric from being turned off.
CFA also operates the NJ Anti-Hunger Coalition (NJAHC). NJAHC serves as a clearinghouse for information, training and technical assistance to emergency food providers and works to end hunger in our state.
What Does Hunger Look Like?
Hunger has many faces: A parent skipping meals so her children can eat, a child going to bed with an empty stomach, a recently unemployed man making do with a watered down can of soup for his dinner so he can save the rest for breakfast, a mom feeding her two teenagers oatmeal for dinner several times a month, an elderly man going through a dumpster outside a local restaurant. Each of these people has a name and story; each lives in our community, and all of them turned to CFA for help.
Who We Help and How We Help Them
People come to CFA for many different reasons. Most of our clients are working people who have hit upon hard times due to an illness, a low paying job, or temporary unemployment. After calling CFA for help, an appointment is made for a needs assessment with an advocate. A client can then receive a week’s worth of food packages up to 12 times a year.
Advocates link our clients to community programs, provide budgeting and nutritional counseling, and offer referrals to other social service organizations, as needed. Emergency utility and housing assistance are also available to prevent homelessness and/or service disconnection.