M25 Initiative awards grants to fight hunger, homelessness in Cumberland County
Cumberland County still has New Jersey’s highest food insecurity rate, and M25 just pushed more than $25,000 to local churches and pantries to meet the need.
Cumberland County’s hunger crisis is still deep enough that more than $25,000 in M25 Initiative grants had to go to churches and food pantries just to keep meals, groceries and crisis help moving. With county food insecurity at 13.1 percent, about 1 in 8 residents, the private dollars are filling gaps that the formal safety net has not closed.
The latest round of grants went to Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Divine Mercy Parish Food Pantry, Gateway Community Action Partnership, also known as Tri-county Community Action Agency, Pope Francis Food Pantry, Bethany Grace Community Church, Shirley J. Harris Food Pantry of Trinity A.M.E. Church, Trinity First Hope Center, Spirit & Truth Ministries-Vineland Soup Kitchen and Bethany SDA Church. Taken together, the awards topped $50,000 during the fiscal year for churches and nonprofit partners serving Cumberland County residents.
The money is doing more than stocking shelves. M25 also set aside $15,000 for shower programs in Bridgeton, Millville and Vineland, and another $18,000 for the 2021-2022 Code Blue Warming Centers in those same cities. The initiative continues to support the Cumberland County Housing First Collaborative, which houses individuals and families dealing with chronic homelessness, a reminder that hunger, housing instability and emergency survival services often hit the same households at the same time.
That overlap matters in a county where smaller organizations often carry more of the day-to-day burden than one large centralized system. Cumberland County’s Homeless & At-Risk Services office says it coordinates emergency groceries, daily meals, shelter, rent assistance and utility assistance, while the county’s resource guide points residents to a Shelter First Policy and the Homeless Information Line at 856-453-2171. Those are the backstops families turn to when a missed paycheck can quickly become an eviction notice, an empty pantry or both.
The pressure on those systems has only grown. Feeding America data cited in local reporting put Cumberland County at the top of New Jersey’s food insecurity rankings, and NJ Spotlight News reported in March 2024 that the state had about 992,800 food-insecure residents, up 22 percent from the prior count. Cumberland County also received $87,616 in Phase 42 of the federal Emergency Food and Shelter Program, another sign that demand for meals, shelter and housing help is still outrunning the resources available to meet it.
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