It’s hitting the gut now.

The spreading economic crisis is leaving tens of millions of Americans facing the prospect of hunger as they contend with diminished earnings or joblessness and worse.

According to one estimate, more than 35 million Americans lived in households that struggled to feed themselves in 2007; the toll this year is expected to be worse. Next year, worse still.

In New Jersey, an estimated 250,000 new clients are expected to seek help this year from food banks. And the need isn’t coming only from the inner cities. Now, even affluent suburbs are being affected.

But even as requests for assistance have risen, donations have been on the decline, leaving food bank shelves almost empty and hungry families waiting for something to eat.

“In all the years I’ve been doing this, there have been times we didn’t have money, but we had food,” says Kathleen DiChiara, founder of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey,” a wholesale distributor of food to more than 1,600 charities throughout the state. Now, she estimates the food banks inventory is down “at least 30 percent,” even as demand is up 25 percent.

So those who feed the hungriest of their neighbors are reaching out with a special appeal for donations of food and cash to help. An information blitz includes the above video, full-page ads featuring longtime food bank supporter Bruce Springsteen, and articles and essays appearing today in 103 hyperlocal news sites (that’s what we call redbankgreen) and blogs across New Jersey.

The message: a crisis of domestic hunger is looming.

“This is not going to go away after the holidays,” says DiChiara. “We need to have food drives that are going to stretch out throughout the year.”

As the state’s key distributor to local food banks and soup kitchens that serve more than 500,000 people a year and provide assistance to nearly 1,700 non-profits in the state, the stability of CFBNJ is key.

A wholesale operation, the food bank accepts large-quantity food donations, such as a truck full of groceries, as well as monetary donations that it stretches to buy food at wholesale prices.

The food bank does not give food directly to individuals; nor does it accept small amounts of food, such as a cart of groceries. Food bank officials encourage those donations go directly to a local food pantry or soup kitchen.

Those who can are asked to:

Make a monetary contribution: Visit the food bank Norma Todd’s Lunch Break on Drs. Parker Boulevard in Red Bank.

Organize a food drive: We can help explain the logistics of starting a food drive. Just call 908-355-FOOD.

Help “Check Out Hunger:” Look for the “Check Out Hunger” coupons at your local supermarket and donate. No donation is too small!

Here’s info from a fact sheet compiled by the Community FoodBank of New Jersey:

More than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, either live with or are on the verge of hunger. – USDA, Household Food Security in the United States, 2006

The number of families coming to churches and food banks trying to get help to feed their families has increased approximately 20 percent. – National Anti-Hunger Organizations, 2008 Blueprint to End Hunger

According to a recent survey, 6 percent of Americans said they or someone in their immediate family has gone to bed hungry in the past month because they could not afford enough food. – 2008 Hormel Hunger Survey

One out of every five New Jersey families does not earn enough to afford the basic necessities housing, food and child care although 85 percent of these households have at least one family member who is working. Poverty Research Institute, June 2008

In New Jersey alone, an estimated 250,000 new clients will be seeking sustenance this year from the states food banks. No Food on the table, By Judy Peet, The Star-Ledger, Oct. 23, 2008

Warehouse shelves that are typically stocked with food are bare and supplies have gotten so low that, for the first time in its 25 year history, the food bank is developing a rationing mechanism. – CFBNJ

History of the CFBNJ
What was to become the Community FoodBank of New Jersey began when founder and Executive Director, Kathleen DiChiara, began distributing groceries out of the trunk of her car in 1976.

The Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ), a member of Feeding America, fights hunger and poverty by the distribution of food and grocery products, by education and training, by creating new programs to meet the needs of low-income people, and by involving all sectors of society in this battle.

In 1982, the FoodBank was incorporated.

CFBNJ annually assists charities serving approximately 500,000 people in need in 18 of New Jerseys 21 counties.

CFBNJ has distributed, since its incorporation, more than 300 million pounds of food and groceries valued at more than half-a-billion dollars.

Today, the FoodBank distributes over 21 million pounds of food and groceries a year, ultimately serving nearly 1,700 non-profits including 436 programs served by its Partner Distribution Organizations (PDOs).

Finally, here are the 103 (and counting) New Jersey websites and blogs participating in today’s push to help food-based charities. Check them out: you might find one or two you’d like to bookmark:

5) John and Lisa are eating in South Jersey

6) Padma’s Kitchen

7) Chefdruck

8) Life Lightly Salted

9) My Italian Grandmother

10) Cook Appeal

11) Crotchety Old Man Yells at Cars

12) Mommy Vents