Children need healthy food to grow and succeed, yet more than 175,000 kids in New Jersey don’t have adequate access to nutritious meals. CFBNJ’s work feeding children is an investment in their bright futures, providing them with opportunities to reach their full potential and laying the right foundations to break the cycle of poverty.
Kids Cafes
We fill the nutrition gap for food insecure kids by providing nourishing after-school meals every day so they don’t go home to sleep on empty stomachs. The program, which also includes a nutrition education component aimed at teaching students about well-balanced diets, currently serves 25 sites across the state – combating hunger and its health effects for thousands of New Jersey children.
Family Packs
Weekends and days off can be especially tough times for hungry children and their families. Family Packs provide more than 2,800 New Jersey households with supplemental boxes of fresh produce and shelf stable food for the weekend, when kids miss school meals.
If you are from a school, nonprofit organization, after-school program, or faith-based organizations that’s interested in implementing the Family Pack program, click here.
Learn more about becoming your organization’s Family Pack Coordinator.
Here are some Family Pack FAQs that may be helpful to program coordinators.
Summer Nutrition
For kids who receive free or reduced-price school meals and after-school dinners at our Kids Cafes, summer vacation can mean an end to a reliable source of food. In order to bridge the gap, we serve breakfast and lunch to children in need at sites across the state — including Boys & Girls Clubs, recreation centers and libraries — through the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).
Summer Meals Sites
The Summer Meals programs have ended for 2023, but check back in 2024 for an update!
Our Child Nutrition Programs are possible due to support from ACME Markets Foundation, ADP Foundation, Bayer Fund, BJ’s Charitable Foundation, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Capital One Bank, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation, Feeding America, Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, PNC Foundation, Stop & Shop Family Foundation, and Turrell Fund.
“I don't get this kind of food at home.” -Keylend, 9
“I like that they serve a lot of different kinds of food at the Kids Cafe. It keeps me healthy so that I have energy to play and go to school.” -Jocelyn, 7
“It's really wholesome, what we get in the Family Packs.” -Donovan, 16