Walk-In Dinner Program

Meals served since 1991:

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In need of a meal?
The Walk-In Dinner Program offers fresh, free meals daily from 4:45 PM to 5:50 PM at the Bergen County Housing, Health, and Human Services Center (120 South River Street, Hackensack). Meals are served in the dining room and distributed as to-go packages outside from the loading dock. All are welcome!

Since 1991, Family Promise has been committed to addressing food insecurity through our nightly Walk-in Dinner Program, which provides free, nutritious meals to residents of the Bergen County homeless shelter and those in the community facing hunger. Thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and food providers, we remain true to the promise we made more than 34 years ago—that anyone in need of a meal will have access to one, no questions asked.

The Walk-in Dinner has served its 1.5 millionth meal—a powerful milestone in our ongoing commitment to fighting hunger in our community. 

History of the Walk-in Dinner Program 

The Walk-in Dinner was established by the IRF (now Family Promise) in response to a growing and urgent need for food in Bergen County. The program served its first meal on March 1, 1991, at the Community Action Program office in Hackensack, where people were literally tapping on windows asking for food. The dinner, provided by St. John’s in Bergenfield, was served to guests on desks, radiators, and anywhere trays could be placed.

In the years that followed the program’s location changed, but its mission to feed the community remained the same. Congregations, civic organizations, schools, youth groups, families, and businesses took turns providing and serving meals each day of the year. In October 2010, the Walk-In Dinner began serving at the Bergen County Housing, Health, and Human Services Center, where it has had a home ever since.

In 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the county closed the shelter and relocated residents to local motels—but people still needed food, often their only meal of the day. Family Promise quickly pivoted to meet this challenge and, in response, began to deliver daily dinners to motel residents and distribute packaged meals from the shuttered shelter’s loading dock. As always, our amazing volunteers came to the rescue, ready to do whatever was required to be of service to those in need, all while COVID-19 numbers were soaring in Bergen County. By the end of the year, more than 47,000 meals were distributed.

Five years later, the Walk-in Dinner continues to distribute meals to guests “walking up” to the Human Services Center and to serve residents in the shelter’s dining room, just as we did before the pandemic. But hunger in Bergen County is at an all-time high. Last year, we served over 70,000 meals and currently distribute approximately 160-170 dinners each night.

Help the Family Promise Walk-in Dinner Serve Its Next 1.5 Million Meals!

With 1.5 million meals behind us, we’re not slowing down, we’re just getting started! With cuts to government assistance programs, more families are already coming to rely on the meals the Walk-in Dinner provides. But together, we can make sure no one in Bergen County ever faces hunger alone.

Please consider making a monetary gift to support the Family Promise Walk-in Dinner today by going to the DONATE button below.

We are also always seeking groups (congregations, businesses, civic organizations) to provide the complete dinners that we serve on a given day or funding to help us pay for them. If you are interested in providing meals, please contact Director of Volunteers Art Pereira, apereira@bergenfamilypromise.org for details.

For corporate sponsorship + volunteering visit our Food for Families page.