Community Food Security Research – Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement

food pantry covid pandemic Rutgers university

Middlesex County Emergency Food System Covid-19 Pandemic Report (2021)

This report examines how emergency food providers in Middlesex County, New Jersey, changed their practices during the pandemic. The report looks at how food pantries navigated challenges related to food demand, supply, and distribution, and highlights the experiences of individual pantries. Read the Report

Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on People, Pantries and Practices in the Emergency Food System (2020)

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the emergency food system, challenging a system that was already operating with few resources. Food pantries developed strategies to meet surging need while navigating COVID-19 safety challenges and dramatic shifts in food supply. This report investigates how a set of food pantries in Metuchen and Edison, […]

Innovative Practices in Emergency Food Delivery (2019)

Ralph W. Voorhees Public Service Fellows Hina Arshad, Nashia Basit, Cassie Bolinger, Aiza Nageeb, Julien Rosenbloom with Evan Iacobucci, Planning and Public Policy Doctoral Program. During the Fall 2019 semester, Middlesex County Food Organization and Outreach Distribution Services (MCFOODS), Unity Square community organization, and other partners engaged the Ralph W. Voorhees Fellows to research innovative food […]

Voorhees Fellows Rutgers Bloustein food insecurity research

Food Insecurity in Middlesex County (2018)

Riley Link, Curtis McDaniel, Daniel Rodriguez, and Sabeen Rokerya, 2018 Ralph W. Voorhees Public Service Fellows, partnered with the Middlesex County Food Organization and Outreach Distribution Services (MCFOODS) during the Fall 2018 semester to research food insecurity in Middlesex County. MCFOODS asked the fellows to explore whether there are areas of unmet demand for food […]

food stores New Brunswick Rutgers University

New Brunswick Community Food Assessment (2017)

The New Brunswick Community Food Alliance (NBCFA) launched in 2012 to improve community food security with a vision that “All City residents have access to adequate amounts of nutritious, safe, affordable, and culturally appropriate food at all times and in socially acceptable ways and enjoy the health and economic benefits of a strong local food […]

Taking Food Access on the Road (2017)

Food insecurity, food accessibility, and food deserts have generated national concern as social justice issues. To combat these injustices, groups from across North America have created mobile food markets. A modern-day mobile market established in West Oakland, California in 2003 helped to spur the mobile food movement (Albala 2015). Shortly thereafter, the idea of bringing affordable and healthy food […]