thousands of families struggle to put food on the table every day in New Jersey but in Camden which is considered a food desert the need is greater than ever Food Bank volunteers say over the past three years the amount of people picking up food has more than tripled and meeting that demand is getting tougher Raven Santana went to Camden to see how one group is working with local farms to provide Jersey Fresh Produce to families in need it's part of our ongoing series hunger in New Jersey it's not even 10 a.m yet and the line of people on foot and in their cars have begun to form in and around the Camden Housing on Boyd Street to receive boxes full of fresh produce and food we see from week to week we see moms we see dads we see seniors we see children we see veterans we even see working class families coming just to get food Georgia Dennis is the pastor president and founder of Love Menace Industries Outreach International a non-profit that runs a food pantry out of Camden each week volunteers hand out a variety of bread meat produce and other shelf-stable items this is an example of one of two boxes that a person or a family will receive and Pastor Dennis says the demand is so high for these families that no matter what the weather is rain snow or even extreme heat there is always a line prior to covid we were doing between two to three thousand people a month and then since the pandemic we went up to 10 000 people and you know so now presently we're doing close to 15 000 individuals in 2022 Camden was designated as the top food desert in New Jersey by New Jersey's Economic Development Authority of these 71 773 residents who live in Camden almost half of the population experience food insecurity last year the Tepper Foundation provided the largest grant that loved Ministries has received this year back in January and given the Urgent situation more help is needed Camden is the number one food desert in the state of New Jersey and the the the need is great and we're seeing that even though we're trying as a nation to move on to a post-pandemic normal food food and security is still an issue and it seems to be exacerbated now with inflation and everything else that's going on so it's important that we keep our eye on the real challenges in these communities and when we do our distributions we have in these families come out overnight the day before in the evening and they're sleeping in the parking lot waiting just to receive Food the next day which is why the non-profit is also leaning on Makaya hall Hall is the owner of freehaven farms a local Farm located about 15 minutes away he delivers about 800 boxes of fresh organic fruits and vegetables from his farm every month but this particular site here is our biggest site that that we serve and this site takes 200 of our fresh boxes a week and each box is about about seven pounds about seven pounds of produce we put a mixture of what's in season um vegetables like I said fruit and we try to include some herbs too Pastor Dennis says the effects of inflation coupled with a reduction in SNAP benefits have intensified the already dire situation in Camden they are now asking the public for help with donations and volunteering in the meantime the pastor says food pantries like love Ministries are doing what they can to create an oasis in the desert so um we're here to make sure that no one goes to bed hungry we understand that we're realizing we believe that strong family create a strong community so hope is something that is just so incredible and we want to make sure that people can feel that sense of hope when they come here every day in the meantime the past says food pantries like love Ministries are doing what they can to create an oasis in this desert for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana funding for hunger in New Jersey has been provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation working with others to build a national culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being