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Welcome to Mercer Street Friends Food Bank
The Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, established in 1987, is a regional food bank whose mission is to alleviate hunger through food distribution, nutrition education and assistance, advocacy and outreach. The Food Bank receives and distributes more than 1.5 million pounds of food per year, which helps to feed over 17,000 low-income men, women and children in the area who reside in the towns of Mercer County and neighboring communities.
Each week, we fill our warehouse with nutritious food, and each week we deplete our supplies, distributing food to nearly 60 local faith-based organizations and social service agencies that provide emergency and supplemental groceries or meals to people at risk for hunger and food insecurity. Most of the members of the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank come to our warehouse to pick up food; we deliver food to those groups that do not have transportation.
Food from our warehouse is distributed to food pantries; soup kitchens; shelters for women and children, troubled teens and the homeless; group homes and halfway houses; child-care centers; senior citizen sites; and social service agencies serving meals to the disabled.
The food we distribute comes from a variety of sources: the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); food manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers; New Jersey farms; and proceeds of food drives and food collections. With funds from grants and donations we purchase perishable as well as nonperishable products with good nutritional value. Because we can buy in bulk, every donated dollar translates into $10 worth of groceries to feed the hungry.
In addition, our nutritionist goes out into the community to teach people about good nutrition and provides on-site training for members of the Food Bank on food safety, meal preparation, menu planning and related topics.
Members of the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank include the Crisis Ministry of Trenton and Princeton, HomeFront, and Mt. Carmel Guild, all of which run food pantries that provide groceries to people in need; Anchor House, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and the Rescue Mission of Trenton, all of which have on-site feeding programs that provide meals to the hungry; and many other social service agencies and faith-based organizations located in Trenton, Hamilton, Ewing, Hightstown, Lawrence, Princeton, Cranbury and Morrisville, PA.
When the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank was founded nearly two decades ago, it was housed within the Rescue Mission of Trenton. It its first year of operation, 80,000 pounds of food were channeled into the community for hunger relief. In 1996, we moved to a facility on Brunswick Avenue in Lawrence Township and distributed 750,000 pounds of food. Now, the Food Bank distributes twice this amount and, because the need is growing, we will move to a new facility in Ewing Township in the first quarter of 2006.
The Mercer Street Friends Food Bank is a subsidiary member of America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network.
For information on how your agency can become a member of the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, or to volunteer, please call Phyllis Stoolmacher, director, at (609) 406-0503, or e-mail pstoolmacher@mercerstreetfriends.org. To contribute, please click on Donate Now or see Ways of Giving.
To Join the Hunger Action Center and find out how you can get involved in advocacy in your community, in your state, and across America today. Click Here
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