Toni’s Kitchen Receives $250,000 State of New Jersey Grant

On Sunday, May 18, Toni's Kitchen gathered with community leaders and volunteers to celebrate a $250,000 grant from the State of New Jersey to support Toni's work against food insecurity.

New Jersey State Senator John McKeon and Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill joined Rev. John A. Mennell of St. Luke's Church and Toni's Kitchen Executive Director Anne Mernin on the lawn at St. Luke's to mark this important grant.

Anne Mernin spoke about the challenges ahead for those struggling with food insecurity in the three towns served by Toni's Kitchen (Montclair, Bloomfield, and West Orange) and how Toni's will be addressing those challenges. "Given the growing need and challenging landscape, we are going to have to learn to be more creative–to draw our full community in with new and innovative ways to make sure that everyone in our community knows that they can be part of the solution."

Anne also spoke about the support Toni's Kitchen receives from local leaders. "We are very fortunate to live in a state that has been a leading voice in addressing food insecurity. All leaders from the state, county, and the local level have come here to Toni's Kitchen to find out about our work, to understand how they can be helpful, and what are the obstacles. So we are very blessed in this community to have that type of support."

Senator John McKeon said "I am proud to support the innovative initiatives of Toni's Kitchen to integrate healthy food into 65 partner organizations. We know that food solutions that use the entire community work best."

Mayor Renee Baskerville addressed the gathering to reinforce her longstanding support to ensure that all members of the community are cared for.

The grant will be used to support various outreach programs of Toni's Kitchen, including our Neighborhood Mobile Markets, which provide farmer's market style set-ups in partnership with local schools, preschools, faith communities and after-school programs to ensure that fresh healthy groceries are available to families in places that are convenient to them.

In recent months, there has been a 14% increase in families with children and seniors needing food support to meet their basic human needs. This increase is accompanied by a 20% drop in food donated through government supported organizations. These additonal funds come at a critical time.

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