Bergen's Hungry Get Help from $10,000 O&R COVID-19 Relief Grant
Brings O&R’s Covid-19 Bergen Food Assistance Donations to $27,000.
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) has donated $10,000 to the Bergen County Food Security Task Force to help it feed the increasing numbers of hungry whose lives have been upended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
O&R, through its affiliate Rockland Electric Company, provides electric service to parts of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties. Today’s grant is the latest in a series of donations – totaling $27,000 – O&R has made to Bergen County hunger relief agencies and food pantries since the pandemic began last March.
The Bergen County Food Security Task Force is comprised of 25 key leaders from local nonprofits and representatives from across Bergen County who manage local food pantries and meal distribution efforts week to week. The Task Force’s mission is to ensure Bergen County’s network of more than 80 emergency food providers has the necessary supplies to meet the current, unprecedented new demands from COVID-19, and also, moving forward, to form new sustainable and efficient food supply chains.
O&R President and CEO Robert Sanchez said, “COVID-19’s impact has created an unparalleled food crisis in the communities we serve. O&R makes this contribution knowing that it will help put food on the tables of families who might otherwise go hungry.”
Food insecurity continues to be one of the most immediate and visible consequences of this pandemic. A recent study done by the leading national hunger organization, Feeding America, stated Bergen County is assessed to be one of the hardest hit counties in New Jersey this year with over 100,000 County residents experiencing hunger - a projected 71% increase in food insecurity levels from 2018. The Task Force is using real survey data to determine Bergen County’s food insecurity trends and actual needs.
To contribute, please send your donation to the Bergen County Food Security Task Force, County of Bergen, One Bergen County Plaza, 5th Floor, Hackensack, N.J. 07601.
About Orange & Rockland
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R), a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, is a regulated utility. O&R provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company) and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.