CUMAC’s two-story facility in Northern New Jersey has the look and feel of a standard food bank, with a warehouse, a handful of trucks, a client-choice pantry, and even a small garden.
In practice, the operation has a mission that goes much further than giving out food or even addressing the root causes of hunger. In the view of Executive Director Mark Dinglasan, problems related to food insecurity go back — way back — to childhood traumas and the harmful impacts they collectively have on the community.
More than most food bankers, Dinglasan is hyper-aware about things like neuroscience, epigenetics (having to do with changes to DNA) and adverse childhood experiences or ACEs. That knowledge, combined with his background in juvenile justice and as a lay missionary, gives him a distinctive take on what it means to run a hunger relief organization.
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