In 1982, a small group of community organizers met in downtown Trenton to tackle the issue of hunger, which was a growing problem facing the Capital City. Believing that everyone should have enough to eat, they launched the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen—widely known as TASK—with the purpose to “feed the truly needy people of Trenton five days a week without cost to the individual in need.”

On that first day in January of 1982, TASK served soup and butter sandwiches to about 60 people in the basement of the First United Methodist Church. Within a year, TASK had served roughly 40,000 meals.

Forty years later, food is still at the core of TASK’s mission—the sun around which all of TASK’s other programs and services orbit.

Today, TASK has its own permanent home on Escher Street, where a staff of over 30 employees works to create more than 8,000 restaurant-quality meals each week served in our dining room and 35 community meal sites across the area. TASK also ensures that patrons have access to other basic necessities as well as social services, education, job search assistance and the creative arts.

Did you know? TASK was once homeless. In 1985, TASK was forced to leave the First United Methodist Church of Trenton and operated from a series of temporary locations, including the Salvation Army, before finally moving to Escher Street in 1991.