Tech Connecting County Residents to Food and Other Support

Quijano: Food insecurity impacts nearly 48 million Americans, and it rarely exists on its own. Families who need help putting meals on the table may also benefit from other types of assistance, like housing support, healthcare, or other services.

Hello, I'm Elaine Quijano, and this is "Getting Connected." We're on location in New Orleans, the Crescent City, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for the National Association of Counties Annual Conference. Here, officials discuss policies and strategies that help local governments better serve their communities.

In Bergen County, New Jersey, county officials are using technology coupled with a no-wrong-door approach to help connect residents to essential services. Commissioner Tracy Silna Zur of Bergen County, New Jersey, joins me to share how that work is helping residents access support more easily.

Commissioner Zur, thank you so much for being here.

Zur: Thank you so much for having me to talk about this really important topic.

Quijano: So food insecurity often points to a larger set of challenges. What are you seeing from residents when they come forward for food assistance?

Zur: So let me first set a little bit of a stage for why food security is so important as an issue. First of all, if you don't have food security, you don't have kids who can thrive in school. You don't have people who can contribute to our economy at work. You don't have seniors who are focused, and 30% of the people using our food pantries are senior citizens who retired on a fixed income, and now, with gas prices being what they are, just doesn't stretch to where it was.

And so we've actually seen a tremendous increase even since the pandemic in food insecurity in Bergen County. And where that's shocking is that Bergen County is one of the more affluent counties in our country. In a county of about a million people, we have 9.8% of our neighbors who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

And that to many is shocking because so many of our neighbors are kind of suffering in silence. There's such a stigma about coming forward with need. It feels like a failure. And there are so many who are afraid to ask for the help. And that's why the work that's being done now is so important to raise awareness and to make people feel comfortable to know that they're going to be treated with grace and with dignity at our food pantries throughout our county.

Quijano: Bergen County created its Office of Food Security during the COVID-19 pandemic. How did that moment lead to a coordinated long-term effort?

Zur: Prior to the pandemic, so many of our pantries operated in silos, and they had done things like the same way that they had since the 1950s. You know, people would come to church, they would donate cans, the seniors would work to distribute those cans during the week, or the Girl Scouts would stand in front of the supermarket, collecting donations.

And all of a sudden, the pandemic was this moment where we had no one gathering. We had no seniors able to volunteer, we had no kids outside working to collect resources, and it broke down the silos. All of a sudden, our pantries realized that they had to work together because it was a marathon and they weren't going to get through it alone. You know, the adage that if you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together. And we had a lot of distance to cover.

And so this moment really led to unprecedented collaboration and unprecedented engagement from a lot of people. And I think for me that's been one of the challenges right now in this moment, is that people think the pandemic is over and so is the problem, and it is far from over. In fact, we have seen in over 70% of our food pantries across the county, we've seen increases in need up to 18%. And so the need is now there more than ever. And so we need our neighbors to still be part of the solutions. We need our businesses to still be engaged and part of solving for these problems. And this moment, though, of teamwork, I'm hoping is going to continue to have ripple effects as we continue to build for what's coming down the pike.

Quijano: Technology plays a key role in this work. What digital resources are available for residents who are food insecure?

Zur: So first, we built bergenfightshunger.org, which is a website. It has a food pantry finder where you can go and find out where your local food pantries are and also where you can donate. There's a lot of people who don't know how they can be part of the solution. Bergenfightshunger.org can help guide that pathway forward.

But what's also been so important is the use of technology in this. We have a program called Oasis that we use as a referral portal, so that a pantry director, with a click of a button, can make that connection for their client and understand the pantry directors are trusted people in those individuals' lives, and they can be the key to connecting them to the services that they need. Getting that veteran the dental care that they're entitled to because they served our country, getting that senior connected to our other senior programming that can not only end their loneliness, but also connect them to vital food, getting those kids connected to mentorship potentials or to services that can lift their families up.

And I think, you know, so much of the conversation has been about fraud. That's not what I'm seeing. I'm seeing neighbors who are really struggling, who need these services and need connectivity and need the support of our — not just our nonprofits, but also government as well.

Quijano: What's been the response from county residents?

Zur: So that's an interesting question because our pantry directors have loved this portal. It has really helped them garner more information, really learn how to help their clients solve the problems that they'seeing in life because food insecurity is a symptom. It's not the underlying disease. And so how we get to the core roots of what is making that family food insecure really does matter.

The residents who need help are using this portal for information as well. But the residents at large, most of them don't see food insecurity in their daily lives. They don't realize that it's their neighbors that are struggling. They think in our suburban area that it's a city problem. They don't realize how many of their neighbors — When government shut down and I was calling through all the mayors to let them know how many people on SNAP there were in their community, they were shocked to know that in Franklin Lakes, there were over 90 families receiving SNAP. In Alpine, over 12. You know, these are our most affluent communities that still have neighbors who are struggling every single day.

Quijano: Commissioner Tracy Silna Zur of Bergen County, New Jersey, thank you so much for joining us.

Zur: Thank you.

Quijano: And thanks for watching. Until next time, I'm Elaine Quijano.