(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with Joyce Campbell, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.

Otherwise known as TASK, T-A-S-K.

The website will come up.

Joyce, great to have you with us.

- Well, thank you so much for having me here today.

- You got it.

We saw you featured with our colleagues and friends over at NJ Spotlight News.

A feature of, is it about a mobile?

First of all, tell about the organization and then bring in the mobile unit and what it has to do with helping people who don't have access to the food they need for themselves and their families, please.

- Happy to do that.

TASK has been in Trenton for 42 years.

Our primary mission has been to feed those who are food insecure.

Food first.

No questions asked.

Our full mission, however, is also to offer programs that will increase self-sufficiency and improve quality of life for individuals.

So, in addition to all of the meals we provide at 40 sites throughout the county and in our dining room in Trenton, at our main site, we also provide a variety of services from case management, patron services, basic needs items, workforce development, adult education, arts program, and we have a culinary training academy.

So, we really try to round out what we offer for folks.

A meal can change a life.

We have people come into us, and often stay and get other services.

But those people who come into us are able to get here.

We're very concerned about access and to make access easier for people so that in the middle of March we put a mobile truck on the road.

And right now we have four sites where we are bringing hot meals.

- Hold on, Joyce.

It's a food truck?

- Yeah.

- So, describe how it works.

What food is there?

And then, how do people access it?

- So, what we did is we intentionally purchased a fully loaded kitchen in this food truck.

Right now we're just six weeks, seven weeks into it.

We load it up with food.

We go to four different spots that we have.

Two capital health spots, a church spot in Trenton, and another spot near a school up by the Ewing border.

Areas that we knew were not being served.

So, right now we're bringing the hot food and we're putting it in containers for folks, talking to them, giving them other information if they need it about other services.

You know, our goal is to be out more places, and then our goal is also to sort of turn this around so that maybe we have our culinary students practicing kitchen as if they're working on a food truck.

Also raise money through that to help pay for all the food that we're providing for free.

- Joyce, I'm curious about this.

- Yeah?

- Trenton is the state capital.

And also representative of...

Even though every community, every urban community is different, there are certain similarities, challenges, et cetera.

How serious is the problem of food insecurity in our state capital Trenton?

- It's pretty severe and it's actually gotten worse.

And I'm not alone in that.

Our other food serving organizations have found the same.

We have served over 40% more here at Escher Street.

Overall, now we are making 11,000 meals a week.

The demand has just kept going up.

As I said, I'm not alone.

We recently started Mercer County Food Security Leaders Group, which is actually meeting this afternoon, and we all have shared the same experience.

You know, we thought after COVID, things would kinda settle down, but inflation has gotten the best of folks.

We are also experiencing an influx of Spanish speaking families, particularly families with children, which is something new, at least for TASK, so that things are not necessarily improving on that front.

The cost of living is just so high.

- Undocumented folks coming into the state?

- Yes.

- Is it?

Are those folks coming into the state capital as well?

- Oh yes.

Yeah.

I mean, Trenton has always had a significant population of undocumented migrants coming in.

But it's increased more.

And we feel that maybe half of the reason we've seen more increase at TASK is because we've made intentional efforts to be welcoming, to hire bilingual staff.

And we recently had some focus groups where folks did say, "Yes, that made a difference.

We felt very welcome."

What we do know though is sometimes the families only really come to us for a few months.

They don't stay on.

- Joyce, let me ask you something.

- Sure.

- You've been involved in anti-poverty work for more than a couple years, right?

- Yeah.

Yes.

- What's?

I'm sure there are many reasons.

What's the greatest motivation for you to be doing this work for four decades now?

- Because it's just not right.

It's all I can say is, I mean, even as a child, I didn't understand why some people had their basic needs met and others don't.

And if we don't do it, then, you know?

People are hurting.

They can't survive.

I mean, I look at children.

Their parents have to be strong.

They have to be strong to go to school, to learn.

I mean, hunger is just such a basic need.

And you know, the other part, Steve, is that we know there's so much wealth in this country that there's really no reason so many people should be struggling.

That's my opinion.

But we believe in providing what people can and where people can maybe leave our services.

That's great if they're able to get employment and be able to be self-sufficient.

It's just really a struggle for a lot of folks.

- You know, speaking of struggle.

For a lot of folks who, again, our first responsibility is to take care of those in our own home, our family.

We get that.

It's what we do.

But if someone wanted to be helpful, is it primarily money?

- Yes.

(chuckles) I will always say that.

And you know, one of the things over my years, I've learned now not to shy away from saying that.

Because money can really help us wrap around the things that people need wrap around them.

We can purchase better, we can purchase more food in bulk.

We can purchase hygiene products in bulk.

We also, you know, we need a staff here.

These are all the things that we need funding for.

And I feel like we're very good stewards of the funds.

And probably people don't know.

We're about 95% privately funded.

Government sources are great and government benefits like SNAP are wonderful for the people we serve.

But a lot of the government funds have a lot of strings attached to them.

And with private donations, we can help people do things that just might make the next difference.

Okay.

You got a job at UPS, you need boots?

We're gonna get the boots.

(chuckles) - I wanna thank our friends at New Jersey manufacturers who told us about your organization.

And then again, seeing you on NJ Spotlight News precipitated us reaching out for you.

I cannot thank you enough.

To you and your colleagues at TASK, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.

Well done for the work you're doing, and I know you'll continue to do important work moving forward.

Thanks so much.

I appreciate it, Joyce.

- Thank you so much.

Take care.

- You got it.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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