Community FoodBank of New Jersey operations, on January 20, 2016, in Hillside, New Jersey.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) partnered with the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, and Emergency Support Function #11 partners to respond to the disaster nutrition needs of those most severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy. FoodBank packaged and delivered USDA Foods as part of a Disaster Household Distribution Program to communities in need throughout New Jersey. The FoodBank utilized the processes it already had in place for packaging Commodity Supplemental Food Program boxes and lessons learned from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee to quickly serve 24,000 households affected by Hurricane Sandy. USDA FNS relies on strong partnerships with food banks, such as the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, and other organizations at the local, state, and federal levels to provide USDA Foods for disaster congregate and household feeding. USDA coordinated its disaster nutrition response efforts with the State under FEMA’s Emergency Support Function #11 - Agriculture and Natural Resources. At the Federal level, ESF #11 supports State, tribal, and local authorities and other Federal agency efforts to provide nutrition assistance to those most severely impacted by disasters. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung. Original public domain image from Flickr