New Jersey Council of County Colleges Launches Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger Initiative
New Jersey’s Community Colleges Partner for Opportunity in Action to Address Student Hunger
The New Jersey Council of County Colleges (NJCCC), in partnership with New Jersey’s community colleges and the Future Alumni Support Team (FAST), has launched Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger, a statewide fundraising initiative to combat student food insecurity at New Jersey’s community colleges. Learn more on our fundraising website.
The campaign officially launches the week of September 22-26, 2025, during National Hunger Action Month.
Food insecurity is a significant barrier to student success. A recent Hope Center #RealCollege survey of New Jersey community colleges found that 39% of student respondents were food insecure in the 30 days prior to the survey, a figure that aligns with national trends.
In response, New Jersey’s community colleges have ramped up efforts to address student hunger by creating on campus food pantries, helping eligible community colleges students access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), strengthening partnerships with community-based organizations, and working to de-stigmatize accessing basic needs supports. However, these efforts are in need of additional support in order to be sustainable going forward.
“New Jersey’s Community Colleges are committed to ensuring every New Jerseyan can get on, stay on, and complete pathways to post-secondary credentials and degrees of value that lead to jobs and careers that provide economic and social mobility. The Feed the Future Campaign is a critical component of that work. Helping our students meet their basic needs, such as access to food, is critically important to ensuring they can complete their education and achieve their goals.”
Aaron R. Fichtner, Ph.D., President, New Jersey Council of County Colleges
Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger provides a simple way for donors to make a direct impact. Funds are being raised through the online platform Spotfund.com. Donors can visit the website, https://www.spotfund.com/teams/njccc, choose to support their local community college, and all funds raised will go directly to that community college to support its food pantry and other nutrition-focused programs.
“By addressing student hunger, Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger aims to ensure students can focus on their studies without worrying about where their next meal will come from. Now we are asking New Jerseyans to support community college students by ensuring students don’t go hungry. Even small contributions to a New Jersey community college food pantry will ensure students can stay enrolled in college, earn credentials and degrees, and get jobs that pay family-sustaining wages.”
Jacob C. Farbman, Ed.D., APR, Executive Director, Economic Mobility, New Jersey Council of County Colleges
Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger is a product of the NJCCC’s Opportunity Agenda, with the visionary goal of ensuring that 75% of New Jersey’s working population hold a post-secondary credential or degree of value by the year 2024. Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger is a critical part of the NJCCC’s Community to Opportunity: Building Community to Expand Opportunity program, supported by The Tepper Foundation, to strengthen holistic wraparound supports for community college students.
Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger builds upon a successful pilot launched on Giving Tuesday in December 2024 with the American Association of Community Colleges. Feed the Future: Fight Student Hunger is providing crucial philanthropic support for New Jersey’s community colleges’ food pantries and nutrition centers, ensuring community college students have the holistic supports they need to succeed academically and professionally.
About the Future Alumni Support Team
The Future Alumni Support Team’s (FAST) mission is to raise philanthropic support for post-secondary education to lift students from low-income backgrounds out of poverty and eliminate the need for life-long government assistance. The vision is for students, especially those enrolled in community colleges, to pursue an education free of food insecurity and its impact on graduation rates. The Future Alumni Support Team was founded by Princeton University Alumni Dr. Matthew Carabasi and Jim Rafeedie. To learn more about FAST, visit https://www.futurealumnisupportteam.org/.
About the New Jersey Council of County Colleges
Governed by the presidents and trustees of the state’s 18 community colleges and enshrined in state law, the New Jersey Council of County Colleges supports NJ’s community colleges and the more than 240,000 students they serve annually by fostering collaboration and developing solutions that expand access to college, promote equity and student success, and create a skilled workforce to drive economic growth.
The Council brings together the state’s community colleges to build a world-class, flexible higher education and workforce development system that can respond to the needs of local communities and employers while having statewide reach and impact. The Council promotes innovation and policy changes to help NJ’s community colleges in their efforts to achieve academic, social, and economic mobility for all residents.
The Council’s New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development builds statewide industry, education, and labor partnerships that align education and training with the needs of a changing economy.
