Former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett teams up with Trenton Area Soup Kitchen to fight hunger
On Juneteenth, Jason Garrett, former NFL quarterback, Dallas Cowboys coach, and current NBC football analyst, stopped by TASK as part of a massive charity event where volunteers packaged and fed 1,500 people across the Trenton area. He shared his vision for eradicating hunger and lauded the work that TASK has been involved in Trenton for more than four decades.
“We’ve had our foundation, Jason Garrett Starfish Charities, since 1997. We’ve done a football camp at Princeton for the last 24 years, and we had an opportunity to get together with a group called Our Community Table, who’s doing some amazing work down in Florida,” Garrrett, who played college football at Princeton University, told the Trenton Journal. “They said, ‘Hey, we’d love to come up to your camp and support.’ So we looked into the whole idea, and then we noticed that there were so many great organizations around the Princeton area who are doing really impactful things in people’s lives, and TASK is one of them.”
For over 40 years, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) has operated on one uncompromising premise: serve anyone who walks through the door, no questions asked. Established on January 13, 1982, at First Methodist Church of Trenton (now Turning Point United Methodist Church), TASK remains an anchor institution in the Capital City.
Each week, TASK serves more than 12,000 meals at more than 50 locations to help encourage self-sufficiency, improve quality of life, and address the systemic challenges of food insecurity.
In addition to serving meals to Trenton residents, TASK has expanded its mission to include social services, workforce readiness, adult education, creative arts, and hands-on case management.
Amy Flynn, CEO of TASK, was also on hand at the event and shared her inspiration for working at TASK and serving the Trenton community.
“I grew up in a very small community, and my family didn’t have a lot. There were times when I woke up in the middle of winter and could see my breath because it was so cold. But what we did have was a caring community, and my family were farmers. It was a farming community, and everyone shared out of their own need,” Flynn recalled. “My grandparents set the example that no matter how little you have, there’s always someone who may have less, and always had an open seat at our table.”
“There was always an open door. With TASK, it’s a great example of a caring community,” Flynn continued. “When our patrons and our volunteers come through the door, everybody feels welcome, and I just really wanted to be a part of that.”
In Trenton, the food insecurity rate is estimated to be up to three times higher than the New Jersey average, according to the Trenton Health Team. Fueling this crisis is a poverty rate of 26.2%, more than double the national average, leaving residents to face severe barriers to accessing consistent, nutritious food and triggering profound public health consequences. When asked where she envisioned the work of TASK in five years, Flynn said that she dreams of making a major dent in those numbers in Trenton.
“My big dream would be to start seeing that line shorten outside. We just see every day, the need just keeps growing and growing,” Flynn explained. “The big dream in five years from now would be if a TASK can play a little part to help shorten those lines and that there are less hungry people in Trenton and beyond.”
