Paying for food

Roughly 40% of Middlesex Borough households struggle to pay for food and other basic needs due to their level of income.

That finding is inherent in data published by Rutgers University in an online portal – njfooddashboard.rutgers.edu – that measures household income in New Jersey’s municipalities and its relationship to the food system.

The sobering statistics come with a troubling caveat. 

The Rutgers portal’s numbers are based on 2021 data. Rampant inflation has gripped the nation’s economy since then. Middlesex’s current food insecurity level might be greater than what’s portrayed on the dashboard.

Rutgers lists Middlesex’s total number of households at 5,459. Four hundred of them, which equals 7.3%, live in poverty. Another 1,782 or 32.6% are categorized as “ALICE households.”

ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It is a measure of households that are earning above the federal poverty level, but still struggle financially, because they cannot afford basic household necessities.

The majority of Middlesex Borough – 3,277 households or roughly 60% – lives above the ALICE level, according to the Rutgers data. The portal is maintained by the university’s Department of Family & Community Health Sciences.

Unlike the federal poverty measure, ALICE criteria is adjusted to reflect the higher cost of living across states and counties. The Rutgers 2021 poverty stat for Middlesex Borough pretty much matches a figure computed by the U.S. Census Bureau. The feds estimated the borough’s poverty figure at 7.1% as of 2022.

According to the website unitedforalice.org, 10% of New Jersey households were living below the poverty level in 2022 and another 26% were estimated to be ALICE households.

Middlesex’s combined poverty/ALICE rate of nearly 40% is slightly higher than the state’s combined figure of 36%, according to Rutgers.

“ALICE households and households in poverty are forced to make tough choices, such as deciding between quality child care or paying the rent — choices that have long-term consequences not only for their families, but for all,” according to the unitedforalice site.

Additional statistics in the Rutgers portal show that Middlesex is not the only area town with food insecurity above the Garden State figure. Others lie directly to the east and west, one in Middlesex County, the other in Somerset.

Dunellen had a 2021 poverty level of 14.8% of households and 27.3% in the ALICE level, according to the Rutgers portal. 

Bound Brook’s poverty level was at 6.4%, but its ALICE number was 46.9%. Combined, the two figures show the majority of that town’s homes suffer food insecurity.

The Rutgers portal listed 2,392 of Bound Brook’s households in the poverty and ALICE levels combined. That municipality’s household total stood at 4,478 with 2,086 earning above the ALICE threshold. 

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