Royal Farms has donated 20,000 pounds of food to the Food Bank of South Jersey to help the organization continue to serve families.

The food bank serves thousands of New Jersey families who are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re getting new people daily,” says food bank president Fred Wasiak.

Royal Farms delivered the food on Tuesday.

“We did bread, orange juice, milk. We did turkey, ham, cheese, yogurt, granola bars – a bunch of the staple items that we carry within our stores that we knew would be a great donation to the food bank,” says Royal Farm’s Shelby Kemp.

The Food Bank of South Jersey says that it has seen a more than 200% increase in the need for food in southern New Jersey communities since the beginning of March. The organization says that the Royal Farms donation is now more important than ever.

“Many of our donations are shelf-stable. The fresh produce, we do get that, but this amount all at once is huge,” Wasiak says.

Wasiak says that even as the COVID-19 curve begins to flatten, the need for food won’t. He says that this has the food bank in planning mode.

“Once the virus settles down and we’ll get to a new norm, the ripple effect of job loss, which is going to be a long time from now. I don’t know when, but it’ll be a long time. So, we’re preparing for the next year-to-18 months to stay ahead of this,” he says.

Royal Farms has stores primarily in southern New Jersey will also be donating food to other food banks in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland.