Fighting Against Food Insecurity in New Jersey

In North Jersey’s Passaic County, the Clifton Community Market looks more like a high-end grocery store than a food pantry—offering shoppers more than 100 items to choose from, including fresh fruits and vegetables.

“The only difference is there’s no cash register,” says Karen DeMarco, 58, an AARP member who is president and cofounder of The Food Brigade, a nonprofit that runs the Clifton pantry and two others in Bergen and Hudson counties.

“Everything that we are doing is all about respect and dignity to our guests,” says DeMarco, who also works as a real estate agent. She calls the sites “community markets,” not pantries.

Supporting such groups is just one of the ways that AARP and other advocates are working to tackle food insecurity, which has emerged as a growing problem in the U.S. In 2023, 13.5 percent of U.S. households had limited or uncertain access to adequate food for at least some part of the year, compared with 11.1 percent five years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In New Jersey, 10 percent of residents ages 50-plus—about 340,000 people—faced food insecurity in 2023, AARP research shows.

Evelyn Liebman, AARP New Jersey’s director of advocacy, says the state’s high housing costs and taxes, combined with inflation, make it difficult for many older residents on fixed incomes to keep up.

“Often, older folks cut back on food, go without food,” she says. “As we age, that ... produces its own significant health risks.”

People ages 60 and older who grapple with food insecurity are more likely to have health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, asthma and depression, than their food secure counterparts, according to a study by the anti-hunger group Feeding America.

Many tools, one goal

AARP New Jersey has worked to address the problem on multiple fronts. The Food Brigade was one of five New Jersey organizations to receive a 2024 AARP Community Challenge grant.

The program funds quick-action projects to help make communities more livable for people of all ages. The $15,000 grant helped pay for shelving, refrigeration units and an accessible ramp at the Clifton pantry.

In October, AARP co-sponsored the first Garden State Conference on Food Security, bringing together residents, farmers, state officials and community groups to strategize ways to get food to more people. Liebman says the goal was “to make our collective work more effective, efficient and transformative.”

On the legislative front, AARP New Jersey advocated for a 2023 law increasing the minimum food assistance available to eligible New Jerseyans through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And AARP has continued to push for more money for food aid, working with the state’s Office of the Food Security Advocate and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Woodbridge).

“We don’t have a lack of food in our country or in our state,” says Coughlin. “We have a challenge of getting it to people who need it.”

AARP’s challenge grants can help provide those pathways. Another 2024 award of $11,300 went to Montclair in North Jersey, where a local Boy Scout troop will work alongside older residents to create a vegetable garden. The group will share produce with a nearby food pantry.

Jennifer Markham, 71, a retired X-ray technician, is excited to plant zucchini, herbs and heirloom tomatoes in the garden, which is walking distance from her apartment. “There’s nothing like a fresh tomato,” she says.

Mark Dinglasan, director of New Jersey’s Office of the Food Security Advocate, says ending hunger is about more than giving people food. It’s also about making sure people have affordable housing, adequate transportation and social support systems.

“We have to understand that building community is an important piece of fighting food insecurity,” Dinglasan says.

Ann Hardie spent a decade covering aging issues for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She has written for the Bulletin for 15 years.

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