amid the wealth of New Jersey nearly a

million people go to bed hungry Assembly

Speaker Craig Coughlin was at the

Community Food Bank in Hillside to

spotlight what's being done to help

those still chasing the dream Riana

vanozza reports fresh off a weekend that

emphasized a fractured party Speaker

Craig Coughlin shifted focus today to an

issue he plans to make a cornerstone

during his time in leadership try to

bring attention to the needs of the

hungry and to eliminate it touring the

Community Food Bank of New Jersey in

Hillside Coughlin unveiled a series of

anti-hunger bills aimed at helping over

a million residents considered food

insecure meaning despite best efforts

they are unable to provide enough

healthy food for themselves or their

family to move forward with some bills

that will do some simple things in terms

of making them everyone know where they

can go to get assistance by providing a

requirement to do a link to those things

more specifically an anti hunger link

posted on all state government websites

listing the state's food programs

including shelters pantries and soup

kitchens two separate bills will address

food insecurity for college students and

reimburse school districts purchasing

Jersey grown produce for the cafeteria

the new Alice report from the United Way

of northern New Jersey is coming out at

the end of October and it will show that

we've actually increased our inequality

especially for working for up to 41

percent of people in our state and

three-quarters of those folks are

actually working and still unable to get

by but also relying on places like the

Community Food Bank where we are today

how many food pantries so we serve just

shy of a thousand pantries and other

community

state the food bank distributes enough

food for 47 million meals a year that's

about 56 million pounds of food

thousands of volunteers work to serve

the approximately one in eight New

Jerseyans who need assistance Coughlin

says the bills are still being drafted

but he plans to enact the food desert

Elimination Act to address so-called

food deserts places where there's no

access to healthy foods and

transportation within a mile retaining

larger chain supermarkets in those areas

has proven tough what we really want to

do is provide an incentive for those

businesses and we recognize that there

are challenges for them to overcome so

the bills are a work in progress

speaker Coughlin says you can expect to

see them introduced in the coming months

in Hillside Brianna the nosy and Jay TV

news

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