This year, TASK is on track to serve half a million meals – a record-breaking number and a milestone that we couldn’t have reached without the generosity of caring people like you.

A dramatic rise in poverty rates and increasing consumer costs have led to an explosive surge in food insecurity. A new report from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that Americans are now spending 11.3% of their disposable income on food, the highest percentage in 30 years.

In our Escher Street dining room, TASK is serving a record number of meals, roughly 40% more over the past year.

In January, TASK served 49,000 meals, the most ever in one month in our 42-year history.

And the numbers keep rising. The soup kitchen is operating at high capacity, preparing and delivering roughly 10,000 meals to 37 community sites across New Jersey and Pennsylvania each week. The launch of our new mobile soup kitchen this month will add more new sites to our meal service delivery in the city of Trenton.

At our Escher Street dining room we are serving, on average, more than 750 meals per day. This extraordinary upswing recently led us to reevaluate and change the way we run our meal service program.

“Once seating capacity has been reached, we are politely and apologetically asking folks to wait to enter the dining room until someone exits,” explains Jaime Parker, TASK’s Senior Director of Radical Hospitality.

The wait times have not been long, she insists, adding that the goal is to provide better customer service to all of our patrons.

“I’m hopeful it will be a better experience for everyone and therefore make the wait worthwhile,” says Parker.

The numbers are rising in other areas as well.

This year, TASK is on track to distribute 1,000 hygiene kits a month, three times the amount compared to last year.

Demand for programs like case management, job search assistance and identification services is increasing, too. In 2023, our program staff served nearly 4,300 people!

We know that a meal is often the first step on the path to self-sufficiency. In this issue, you’ll learn even more about TASK’s holistic approach to service and how we are working to break the cycle of poverty that causes hunger.

Thank you for continuing to recognize the urgency facing the people that we serve. With your support, we can continue to turn hunger into hope for so many!