Hatch 44 Cafe owner Andrea Perez delivers meals from her restaurant to the Salvation Army - Perth Amboy Corps for distribution to the community's residents.

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Soup Kitchen 411’s mission is to alleviate the pervasive hunger problem in the U.S. by raising awareness and connecting donors and volunteers to hunger relief efforts across the country.

The organization’s key initiatives include:

• defining food insecurity, its pervasiveness, and how it affects the community;
• highlighting the critical role of soup kitchens;
• dispelling the myth that only the poor and homeless use hunger relief organizations; and
• streamlining opportunities for individuals to volunteer and make donations.

At the onset of the pandemic, Soup Kitchen 411 launched its FeedNJ campaign to combat hunger in New Jersey. The campaign collects donations from individuals, small businesses and large companies to buy meals from local restaurants and provide them to soup kitchens across New Jersey. To facilitate this operation, FeedNJ works with counties and municipalities, local organizations, other non-profit organizations, and multinational organizations to combat hunger in the state.

The Provident Bank Foundation recently awarded Soup Kitchen 411’s FeedNJ a $2,500 Community Grant to support their initiative. Since the issue of hunger is so pervasive, the organization was seeking support to expand meal operations in the community.

Specifically, the grant has allowed FeedNJ to purchase 300 meals for the Salvation Army - Perth Amboy Corps. This grant helped the food insecure community of Perth Amboy by providing residents a nutritious, restaurant-quality meal, while also supporting local restaurants. With the challenge of increased demand for food, the organization has allowed groups like the Perth Amboy Corps to serve even more meals to their community. 

To date, FeedNJ has served more than 40,000 meals and will continue to serve meals statewide throughout 2021. The organization hopes to serve 100,000 meals across New Jersey and expand into additional counties by the end of the year.