The need has never been greater, and Elijah’s Promise is busier than ever.
In October alone, the 36-year-old New Brunswick nonprofit organization served a record 37,002 meals.
“With the recent SNAP suspension, we are now serving double to triple the number of meals we typically provide,” said Executive Director Michelle Wilson. “On Nov. 5, we served a single-day record of 3,663 meals.”
Wilson added the connected social services program has also seen a significant increase in demand. They are responding in new and creative ways, including launching the first-ever 24-hour “Sandwichfest” on Nov. 13.
“We could not have met this unprecedented need without the incredible support of our community,” Wilson said. “Our volunteers and supporters are extraordinary, and together we are making a real impact.”
But instead of lamenting, Wilson said the Elijah’s Promise community is “energized, grateful, and more committed than ever.”
“We are so grateful to our volunteers, partners, team, and supporters − we truly could not do this without them,” she said.
Elijah’s Promise has been serving the greater-New Brunswick community for 36 years, providing healthy meals and more to those in need.
The Elijah’s Promise Community Kitchen began in the summer of 1989. It has grown from a project of three paid staff members and volunteers serving 35,000 meals a year to a multi-service food sustainability and social service organization of 20 paid staff and hundreds of volunteers serving hundreds of thousands of free meals a year.
“We believe that a nutritious meal is a right, not a privilege,” Wilson said.
Over this last year − before the SNAP suspension − Elijah’s Promise served more than 400,000 free meals.
Needy Cases Fund 2025: How to help your neighbors in need this holiday season.
Regardless of the weather, or other hardships, there is always a hot and bagged meal-to-go Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the community soup kitchen location. Since the government shutdown, Elijah’s Promise added Sundays, expanding to a seven-days-a-week schedule.
Elijah’s Promise also provides meals for dinner four nights a week at the Methodist Church on George Street so guests can get a hot dinner meal there as well.
Via “EP On Wheels/Mobile Meals,” Elijah’s Promise is now serving at locations in New Brunswick, East Brunswick, Highland Park, Metuchen, Milltown, North Brunswick and Piscataway. There are 12 fixed locations a week and include six low-income senior citizen locations. At each site, fresh, hot and free meals are offered to the community every week to highly food insecure neighbors who can’t get to the Community Soup Kitchen at 18 Neilson St. in New Brunswick.
Elijah’s Promise has been serving the greater-New Brunswick community for 36 years, providing healthy meals and more to those in need.
More than12,000 free mobile meals are served each month. This is a number that Wilson said “continues to grow as rising food costs and housing instability affect our neighbors.” Alongside hot, freshly prepared free meals, the Elijah’s Promise truck also delivers essentials such as socks, hygiene kits, and shelf-stable food to help families stretch their resources further. This year, Elijah’s Promise distributed more than 10,000 brand-new sock packs and 30,000 hygiene kits to guests.
The dignity of the truck, paired with the trusted presence of partners, helps de-stigmatize the negative stereotypes often associated with food insecurity and soup kitchens.
“EP On Wheels is more than just a meal, it serves as a bridge within the emergency food system,” Wilson said. “Through our mobile outreach, guests are connected to resources such as SNAP, WIC, health screenings, and case management support. We have been proud to partner with the New Brunswick and North Brunswick Police Departments, Middlesex County, Rutgers Health, Rutgers University, and the City of New Brunswick to bring the truck directly into neighborhoods where need is greatest. These special truck outings have engaged over 1,500 new guests who may not have otherwise sought out support.”
Further, 2025 saw the Rutgers Basic Needs Center distributing 200 refrigerated meal preps from Elijah’s Promise each week, giving students access to nutritious, ready-to-eat meals. Through the partnership with the James O. and Wilhelmina Bryant Food Pantry, Elijah’s Promise also provides pre-made dinner trays to 70-plus families in Piscataway, deepening their community impact, Wilson said.
Then came the government shutdown, and Elijah’s Promise did anything but shutdown. They opened up to serve seven days a week, adding Sundays to their already round-the-clock schedule. EP On Wheels partners began receiving double the number of meals to better meet the rising need and emergency food packages were available to partner case managers.
Despite the challenge, the soup kitchen was fully prepared to serve every guest who comes for a meal, Wilson said, and a limited amount of essential pantry items were made available to those in need.
Elijah’s Promise has been serving the greater-New Brunswick community for 36 years, providing healthy meals and more to those in need.
The past year also saw Elijah’s Promise partner with more than 10 social service organizations that regularly pick up food to bring to their food insecure clients. Together, they also provided guests with nutrition counseling, helped them access housing, SNAP and other social services benefits.
Also, as they have for several years, the nonprofit joined with the city of New Brunswick to offer emergency warming centers to homeless individuals on nights when the temperature drops below freezing.
And Elijah’s Promise continues to be more than “a soup kitchen.”
“As always at Elijah’s Promise, we do more than feed people − we change lives,” Wilson said.
The Promise Culinary School also continues to give clients critical job training for employment. A class of baking and pastry students graduated last spring, regular “Let’s Cook” programs were offered last summer and the Culinary Evening Program launched while providing more than $20,000 in scholarship opportunities.
Transforming lives through food for nearly four decades, Elijah’s Promise has focused on harnessing “the power of food to break the cycle of poverty, alleviate hunger and change lives,” Wilson said.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, that mission never wavers. But, as always, there is need on the side of nonprofits. Volunteers and donors are essential to keeping the programs running. Elijah’s Promise also is working to expand EP On Wheels by increasing routes and stops to reach more families across Middlesex County, strengthening partnerships with local schools, faith-based groups, and food pantries and developing sustainable funding streams so that they can continue to meet rising demand.
For more information, go to ElijahsPromise.org.
How to support the Needy Cases Fund
From Nov. 30 to Dec. 7, the Courier News, the Home News Tribune and MyCentralJersey.com are focusing on 11 organizations serving Central Jersey as part of the annual Needy Cases Fund program.
The Needy Cases Fund is a Central Jersey holiday tradition, stretching back more than 75 years. The community-service project has been sponsored by the Home News Tribune and its predecessor, the Daily Home News, working with the Lions Club of New Brunswick. The Courier News has joined the Home News Tribune in sponsoring the charity since 2020.
Send donations (checks made out to the Needy Cases Fund or cash) to: Needy Cases Fund, Home News Tribune/Courier News, 92 E. Main St., Suite 202, Somerville, NJ 08876. Please indicate with a note whether you wish to be acknowledged in a wrap-up story about the program, or whether you wish to remain anonymous.
Donations will be gratefully accepted through the end of December.
email: cmakin@gannettnj.com
Cheryl Makin is an award-winning feature, news and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Elijah’s Promise serving hundreds of thousands of free meals this year
