Farmers Against Hunger

Connecting Healthy Food from Farms to Families

Our Mission:

To reduce food waste, by helping farmers and wholesalers throughout New Jersey share their surplus produce with those in need
To reduce food insecurity, by ensuring access to fresh and healthy produce for every family in New Jersey

With all of the time and effort that goes into growing a single item of produce, no farmer wants to see their crops go to waste. In the event that certain items cannot be sold for profit, most farmers would love to donate to a local food pantry or soup kitchen. However, in the midst of a busy season at a small-scale farm, it can be hard to allocate limited resources to harvesting, storing, and transporting produce, all for a non-paying destination. Most of the recipient non-profit groups also lack access to the necessary resources to collect and transport these perishable goods.

Here is where Farmers Against Hunger (FAH) enters the picture. Since the purchase of our first truck in 1996, FAH has been working behind-the-scenes as a bridge between New Jersey's agricultural sector and hunger relief organizations. When farmers throughout the state call us with produce to share, whether boxed and ready to go, or still out in the fields, we are standing by with one of our iconic trucks. With the support of our volunteers, we go out to harvest the surplus crops (a process termed "gleaning"), and take it back to our cooler for inventory and storage. Particularly during the off-season, we supplement our stock with produce donations from various grocery stores and wholesalers. We then distribute the produce among a network of NJ food banks, churches, and other groups engaged in feeding their communities.

With the COVID-19 pandemic driving unemployment and food insecurity statewide, the mission of Farmers Against Hunger is more important than ever. In addition to our regular operations, we are collaborating with various government officials and other partners to host pop-up food distribution events at locations across the state.