NJ Senator's 90th Volunteer Event Tackles Food Waste

Senator Troy Singleton is proving that consistent community service can create lasting change, one Saturday morning at a time.

On October 3rd, the New Jersey lawmaker will welcome 20 volunteers to Specca Farms in Bordentown for a gleaning event. The volunteers will collect surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste and redirect it to local food pantries.

This marks the 90th installment of "Serve with Senator Singleton," a monthly program that started when he took office in 2018. Each month, Singleton crowd-sources volunteers for hands-on projects ranging from farm gleaning to animal welfare work to community clean-ups.

The October event partners with Farmers Against Hunger, a New Jersey organization that connects farmers and wholesalers with families in need. The group tackles two problems at once: reducing the massive amounts of food waste on farms while ensuring families can access fresh, healthy produce instead of processed alternatives.

Specca Farms has opened its fields for this purpose before, joining a growing network of Garden State farmers who see surplus crops as an opportunity rather than a loss. When produce doesn't meet retail standards or demand shifts unexpectedly, gleaning turns potential waste into community nourishment.

The Ripple Effect

Since 2018, Singleton's volunteer program has generated over 3,500 hours of community service. That's the equivalent of one person working full-time for nearly two years, except the impact spreads across dozens of projects and hundreds of participants.

The program creates something beyond immediate help. Regular volunteers build relationships with their neighbors, discover local organizations they never knew existed, and develop a service habit that often extends beyond the monthly events.

Farmers Against Hunger operates statewide, working with agricultural producers throughout New Jersey to ensure fresh fruits and vegetables reach every family. Their model recognizes that food insecurity isn't just about quantity but quality, and that locally grown produce provides nutrition that processed shelf-stable foods cannot match.

The gleaning approach benefits farmers too. Instead of plowing under surplus crops or paying for disposal, they contribute to their communities while potentially gaining tax benefits for charitable donations.

This October morning at Specca Farms will see volunteers working the fields together, filling boxes with fresh produce destined for families who might otherwise struggle to afford healthy food. It's grassroots problem-solving at its most practical: people helping people, waste becoming abundance, and a state senator showing up month after month to make it happen.