Hunger In Somerset County Spikes: Feeding Hands Offers Help

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — After three years of "homelessness," Feeding Hands has found a permanent home in Hillsborough where they will continue helping hungry Somerset County families.

The nonprofit food pantry, which opened at 186 Route 206 South in Hillsborough, distributes more than 100,000 pounds of food to feed close to 900 families each month. That number of food-insecure families continues to grow in Somerset County due to circumstances related to the pandemic and inflation.

During the pandemic, Feeding Hands served 2.5 times more families, which doubled their volunteer hours and tripled their number of volunteers. They also added two satellite pantries in Somerville and Bridgewater and distributed just shy of 6-times more groceries than the year before in 2020.

"1 in 2 families with kids in diapers have trouble buying diapers," said Lois Bennett, Executive Director and Founder of Feeding Hands, Inc. to Patch. "There has been a change in vehicles coming in. There are more and more middle-class families coming in. They were doing OK until disaster struck. We are ALL vulnerable. Maybe both parents lost their jobs during the pandemic and they found themselves in our line. Now we have inflation hitting basic needs the hardest."

Across Somerset County, excluding Franklin Township (which has its own food pantry), there are 77,060 food-insecure individuals alone.

To feed the growing number of families, Bennett said her new location offers more space to offer two types of distribution models - a shopping model on Tuesday and pre-boxed pick-up on Saturday each month.

"We are ecstatic we have a whole new way to distribute. Most people can come in and shop for their food. And we still do a premade box for distribution since many families want that," said Bennett. "We work very hard accommodating individuals who need help."

Along with food, Feeding Hands offers basic necessities to people such as cleaning products, health and beauty products, personal care items, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.

While volunteers are welcome, Bennett said their "biggest need is funding."

A $55 donation provides a monthly average of $330 of groceries for a family.

Feeding Hands spent more than $350,000 to open the Hillsborough facility after securing more than $120,000 in donated or discounted goods and services.

"We still have need for additional improvements of $80,000 to complete the construction. We will have made more than $550,000 of investment in our capacity to serve by the time we have completed our construction," according to Feeding Hands. "We incur $10,000 in facility rental costs each month."

For more information, to volunteer or to donate visit feedinghandspantry.org.

See below to watch a documentary made by local students on Feeding Hands background and mission:

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