Rutgers is working to make a difference in the lives of those suffering from hunger. From food drives to 4-H programs, from grocery-shopping advice to agricultural research, Rutgers Against Hunger (RAH) aims to increase awareness of hunger and encourage community service to help those in need. RAH will enlist Rutgers students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the concerned public in efforts to stock food banks, provide consumer education on nutrition, deliver technical and organizational support to community groups, and conduct research toward improving food production, packaging, and distribution.

Rutgers Against Hunger (RAH) is a universitywide effort to make a difference in the lives of those suffering from hunger. By bringing together the resources of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, RAH is seeking to increase awareness of hunger and food insecurity, encourage activism and service to tackle hunger, stimulate research to assist those in need, and provide immediate relief through food drives and other events to raise money and collect food. The initiative aims to help feed New Jersey's hungry and also address the complex and pressing issues of food insecurity through research, education, and outreach.

“Rutgers has been New Jersey’s land-grant university for more than a century. As such, Rutgers and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station have pursued research and developed educational programs to benefit the state’s farmers, consumers, and businesses,” said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. “But as the economic crisis puts more children and adults at risk because they do not have enough to eat, we have a responsibility to do more to help them with our considerable resources in these areas.”

In seeking to make a difference in New Jersey and beyond, Rutgers Against Hunger draws on the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Rutgers. With 52,000 students, nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, and 360,000 living alumni (208,000 in New Jersey), Rutgers is well positioned to take a leadership role in seeking to alleviate hunger, whether through RAH's universitywide food drive, agricultural research at Rutgers' New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, or outreach efforts involving Rutgers Cooperative Extension.

For RAH's universitywide food drive, Rutgers is partnering with the New Jersey Federation of Food Banks, which distributed more than 27 million pounds of food to more than 1,800 charitable programs serving people in need statewide last year. The Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Food Bank of South Jersey, FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, and NORWESCAP Food Bank are members of the federation.

As a member of the Rutgers community, you can make a difference, and you can make a difference now.

Do you want to plan a food drive at Rutgers? Find a food bank or soup kitchen to assist a family in need? Learn about how to reduce your grocery bills and, at the same time, buy nutritious food? We're here to help as we work together against hunger.

RAH is led by a dedicated group of faculty, staff, and students. If you would like to join the RAH team, please contact us at rah@rutgers.edu.