The Cost of Thanksgiving Dinner Stable, Yet Many South Jersey Homes Are Not

Every year around this time the there is a report issued by the American Farm Bureau Federation announcing the cost of a typical turkey dinner for a gathering of 10. This year the Federation reported that the cost had gone down slightly (less than one percent to a total cost of $49.04). The finance analysts call this stable, yet for many families in our neighborhoods being able to put a good meal on the table is anything but stable. This is especially true at Thanksgiving.

We all know how special this time of year can be, and nothing makes it more special than a holiday meal—with or without all the trimmings. Remember the times that you’ve shared with friends or family—and it may have been a large gather or more intimate setting. Certainly the conversation and companionship were at the heart of the meal—but food was at the center. Whether it was Aunt B’s green beans or your older sister’s fruit cake (you know the one), food laid the foundation for great times and fond memories.

Now we’re told the cost of that meal has stabilized after climbing in recent years. This is great news for people who do not have to make choices about paying rent vs. paying for food or keeping utilities turned on over providing a meal. For so many families, the cost no matter how stable is still out of reach.

This Thanksgiving, many of your neighbors will be thankful for your donation to the Food Bank of South Jersey, for your ability to reach out and provide help to those in need. Your generosity will go a long way this holiday. Although the price tag for the average meal according to the Federation is right around $50, Food Bank of South Jersey optimizes its resources to provide a meal for less than $30. 

So you can rest assured that your support will go a long way to making sure everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

From our family here at the Food Bank of South Jersey to yours, have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Want to Keep Families Together? Teach Kids How to Cook

I'm so proud to announce that a recent study commissioned by The Food Bank of South Jersey (FBSJ) has discovered that its Healthy Living Initiative cooking classes do more than fight obesity and teach good eating habits: they are giving South Jersey's children a secret weapon in the fight for domestic stability – the family dinner table.

Having reached over 6,000 people in three years of hands on, interactive cooking classes and watching obesity rates drop in New Jersey (the results of a recent Center for Disease Control study), the Food Bank of South Jersey asked Rutgers University to explore what their Cooking Matters instructors had been seeing for a while. Children exposed to Cooking Matters classes were taking their newly acquired skills and nutritional knowledge and bringing it home. Compared to control groups, more Cooking Matters families were preparing and eating dinner together.

The results were amazing. Compared to control groups, families exposed to our classes were more likely to cook at home (33% vs. 18%), eat together as a family (67% vs. 27%) and use what they learned in class to guide their nutrition choices when they shopped and cooked (50% vs. 18%) .” 

 A new ten-year study from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University shows that children who eat meals with their families frequently (five times per week or more) are half as likely to get into unhealthy or illegal behaviors than children who rarely get to sit down and dine with the family. And in urban cities like Camden City, where the problems with drugs, crime and poverty have often stymied attempts to help the city achieve normalcy. 

Certainly investing in infrastructure helps and is important to a city’s stability, but I think that there needs to be some thought on the most primal of social units – the family – the Food Bank is showing that what happens at home is bigger and ultimately better than all of that.