Connecting on Access to Healthy Food for Families in New Jersey 

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Transcript:

AMY: 

- Hi, I am so glad to be in Egg Harbor Township today at one of the most important resources our community has, the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, and I am joined today by Betty Sheridan of our own Inspira family. She's been with us 24 years and is getting ready to enter her retirement. I wanted to have a chance for her to talk about some of the passion around the work she's done with the Community Food Bank of New Jersey and Carlos Rodriguez, the CEO. I'm going to now say hello and thank you so much for your hospitality. It's so wonderful to be here amongst the work that you're doing, and also just to see really our government in action, right? You said to me a lot of this food is packed by the USDA and comes here. Carlos, just kick us off by telling us a little bit about yourself, how you ended up down here. 

CARLOS: 

- Well, first, thank you. Thank you for the many years of partnership and kind of meaningful way of bringing our neighbors and our community together through what has been an amazing decade of a relationship or so. And I kind of landed into this work temporarily about almost 30 years ago. I wanted to give back after having the opportunity of going to college and I'm first generation, everything. And so, after I came back, I said, with a greater understanding of why and how things are the way they are, I said, let me give back and help others kind of avail themselves of some of the opportunities that I've had. And after doing some policy work for a while I started at my first food bank and now three food banks, two states later I've had the privilege of serving as president and CEO here at the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. 

AMY: 

- Yeah, that's wonderful. You know, I did take note that you started out, I think at the Children's Defense Fund in some of the policy work there. And we know that the opportunity for children to get on the right foot is really determined by enlarged measure access to food. So, I'm sure that was an influence as you went forward. 

CARLOS: 

- It was an influence. And it's a constant reflection on some of the things that really fueled some of the opportunities and success that I've had and how important these programs and some of the things that we're going to talk about were in helping to create success and opportunity. 

AMY: 

- That's wonderful. So, Betty, what happened? How did you make this marriage happen? 

BETTY: 

- We were at the table at Inspira with our team really talking about reducing readmissions to our hospital and doing preventative care in the community. And the idea actually came from one of our staff. They recommended working with our dieticians to put together food that is nutritionally appropriate for a patient’s diagnosis. For example, low-salt food diet for our cardiac patients. So, we reached out to CFBNJ and they came to the table with us. We were so excited about that. We put together a menu based off our recommendation from our dieticians and then they packaged that menu in boxes and delivered it to Vineland. And our nurses then took those boxes to the homes of our patients, and we also provided information on the pantries within the area because the pantries provide sustainability for good nutrition and preventative care within the community. It really came from a round table with our staff that are so passionate about healthcare, keeping our patients healthy and food and nutrition. 

AMY: 

- So, the readmission Betty is when somebody comes back to the hospital who we think has passed on its way and sometimes it's not an illness per se but something that they don't have in the house. 

BETTY: 

- And trying to keep them healthy in the community so they don't have to return to the hospital where we want them to be with their friends and loved ones. So that's the readmission. We want to provide them with nutrition within their homes so they can educate their families as well on proper nutrition and then have that sustainability through their pantries for additional foods so that it does help. Nutrition is preventative and we know that and try to keep them healthy with a good diet. 

AMY: 

- Yeah, and Carlos, we're here in this beautiful facility today in Egg Harbor Township, but Betty talked about the pantries. Tell me about how this is all organized and how while we're down here in near almost Atlantic City how you get the food to everybody in New Jersey. 

CARLOS: 

- We are the primary provider of food and other resources for a tremendous network of over 800 pantries, soup kitchens and other not-for-profits in every community in the better part of 15 counties in New Jersey. And here in our Egg Harbor facility, we have the distinct pleasure of serving Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland. And what we do is we bring and gather the food that is needed to do exactly what Betty described. Make sure that families have what they need to have an active and healthy lifestyle. We source food from three different streams. Government commodities are our core staple. Donations are a critical part that helps sustain what we do and then we purchase. What we must do and what we've learned from, especially from that example, Betty, that you shared with us is that it takes all three streams and it needs to be coordinated so that there is, at any given point, the right food with the right nutritional value so that families can nourish themselves and stay healthy. 

AMY: 

- And it's more than just even the right food. You must have the right circumstances for the people to be able to enjoy it. So, if you don't have electricity on a regular basis, it doesn't mean you can't get the right food, it just means that we have to think about hooking them up with soup kitchens or other sources. 

CARLOS: 

- That's exactly right. There are so many, unfortunately food insecure New Jerseyans in our state and right here in South Jersey and they may have food insecurity in common, but they're very different and distinct. So, making sure the logistics are here to give them what they need in the right way makes sense. And make sure that it's culturally appropriate and, more importantly, that it's nutritionally appropriate, especially when you have families that are recovering. 

AMY: 

- You know, obviously we all have lived through Covid, and it has had devastation impact on so many both in behavioral health but probably in equal area is around just the challenges around having access to food and what the kind of growth you've seen from demand there. 

CARLOS: 

- The growth has been incredible. Absolutely incredible. And we saw firsthand when the economy shut down in the early part of 2020, what it really meant to live paycheck by paycheck. And how many families, how many of our neighbors that may not have had to ever step foot into a pantry found themselves here for the first time. Well, it's three years later. And our demand in some cases is as high or if not higher in Cumberland especially, in terms of the number of people that we're seeing than it was even at the height of the pandemic in some cases. We learned a long time ago that hunger's a health issue and without either, there's not going to be the economic mobility that families and children need to thrive. 

AMY: 

- Yes, and we've seen repeatedly how that presents itself. You talked about the readmissions, Betty. 

BETTY: 

- The readmissions, and Carlos, one of the things I really wanted to talk about with the pandemic is how the food bank really pivoted the process. So, we were here speaking about the pantry which had to close during Covid. And the food bank really came together and said how do we provide food to our community in a Covid situation? And my husband and I came several weekends and volunteered to provide food where they'd take out to their cars and prior to that they would come and shop. And so, they've missed some of that community feeling. And Carlos was just talking about, we need to get back to our pantry and it's time to bring our community back into our center, which is so important to provide that support. 

CARLOS: 

- It's so important. It's great to have to be able to adapt and it's necessary to be able to adapt. And we did so during the pandemic, right? Reimagine how we do this. Something that's very intimate, giving someone food and helping them shop and do it in a way that's socially, that's safe in terms of a pandemic. But now it's time to go back because there's nothing more dignified than allowing families to shop and pick food the way they do in normal markets. There's nothing in history like the pandemic in modern times, add to that the inflation. And we hope, right? Let's hope there's nothing wants to top that. But we do know what's in front of us. We do know that it's economic hardship for many families. We also know what works, providing consistent food for families that meet them where they are as we talked about, getting to know and looking at it as a health issue as well. 

AMY:  

- So if somebody is wondering, am I eligible, how do you go about taking part in this? If you think that you're in need. 

CARLOS: 

- First of all, if you need food now let's make sure that that immediate need is taken care of. And so we have a tremendous network of pantries. It's as easy as visiting our website or just texting “FindFood” and we can connect you. It'll connect you to a local pantry. And then from there it's about creating an environment where you get to know your neighbor, while you get to provide them food. So we'll ask a couple questions—Are you on SNAP? Are you on a WIC program? And if it looks like you're potentially eligible, we'll try to connect you and a lot of documentation, of course, will be verified. 

BETTY: 

- But the staff are so helpful. And really walking through that paperwork and really trying to get everyone to qualify. So, you should take pride in that because it really is. 

CARLOS: 

- We take pride in hiring from within the community as Inspira does as well. And making sure that they are well versed in what the rules are, but also can relate to the members of the community that we're trying to engage. 

AMY: 

- Well, and it's about keeping trust, right? And we see that in the hospitals all the time. You need to have that trusting environment for people even to come in your doors and then be able to receive care. And it's the same thing here. And I think that's the thing that as we continue to see the challenges that we face in Cumberland County and also in one of our other counties, just in trying to help people be healthier. We know we can't do it alone. It's not going to only work for the time they're in the hospital. We must create those partnerships outside. And it's been so important to have the food bank as part of that critical nature, which as Betty said, started at the table trying to figure out a solution. But talk about now how that's evolved into our own food pharmacy. 

BETTY: 

- It has evolved. And food pharmacy, I love the word because it really talks about helping people. 

AMY: 

- Now this isn't a drug, these aren't drugs. 

BETTY: 

- These are not drugs. It's food. It's food that makes you healthy or maintains your health. But as I was coming here today, Carlos, one of our drivers said, oh, I was just in Bridgeton delivering food to your food pharmacy. So it was, you know, people come together, and they provide counseling to individuals and then we have a pantry of food where they can also provide the food and it's within the community. So many of the folks don't have transportation, they walk, they bring their children. And now that we're beginning to get back to post Covid, we're beginning to see that mature in the community. Our staff are so creative in reaching out to the community and have such passion. It's really fun, but it is gratifying, and it does provide a great opportunity for education within the community and then providing that nutritional support that they need. 

AMY: 

- That speaks to the testament, our dieticians, nurses sitting together trying to solve problems. You wanting to give back, share forward, and really ... 

BETTY: 

- It all comes together. 

AMY: 

- It all comes together because none of us can do this alone. And I think that's also the message to the community. 

CARLOS: 

- That's exactly right. It's the community coming together to make sure that the basic needs are there so that we can thrive. And I think it's very important. USCA does their part. The state's certainly doing their part. Our community partners, whether it's Inspira or other corporate partners and not-for-profits are coming together. Why? Because no one wins if there's a hungry child or a hungry parent. It's not the way to create a thriving community. And so let's work on solving the problem. And as we work on that longer term exercise, let's make sure you have food today because this is the land of abundance. This is the garden state after all. 

AMY:  

- It is. And how many times do our farmers say we have this here. How to help us get it to the people who need it. And that's the generosity obviously of the entire community as we are sitting here taping today, somebody's bringing food to the back door because they want to make sure they get it to the right place. I think that's the gift that we all have is that we're in this together. 

BETTY: 

- And Carlos volunteering provides an opportunity for our community to come together. And there's such a passion for that. 

CARLOS: 

- Without our volunteers, sorting the food doesn't happen as quickly as it could. Our expansion to mobile pantries and other initiatives is needed. It's all volunteer driven. So this is a good plug to make sure that you can volunteer and corporate groups love it because it's a great way to do team building, snd it's a great way to then when you go back out into the community and you see our trucks, you're reminded constantly of what you were a part of and the corporate values that I think many corporations to your point, do have in our state. 

AMY: 

- Absolutely. It's a wonderful network. Hospitals compete on services a lot, but we don't compete on this. We want everybody to support. 

BETTY: 

- A way to give back to your community. It's excellent. 

AMY: 

- I want to thank both Betty Sheridan and Carlos Rodriguez for both your tremendous leadership as well as your commitment to our communities. And thank all of you for your continued work for your volunteers, for your donation. You heard Carlos say that it doesn't take just one thing, it takes all of it. It takes the money donations, the food donations and most importantly volunteering for service. We are so grateful to live in a community that appreciates the importance of us all working together to be better. Until we meet again, be well and stay safe.