A new effort to drive out hunger.

And the state capital is getting underway as more residents face food insecurity.

The Trenton Area soup kitchen has seen a sharp increase in the number of people seeking help, and it's launching a food truck to meet the need, focusing on some of the city's most vulnerable residents and meeting people where they are.

Joanna Gagis report.

As part of our ongoing series Hunger in New Jersey, focusing on food insecurity here in the state.

We have been driving on hunger for a while, but now we're literally going to drive it out.

The Trenton area soup kitchen cut the ribbon on their newest vehicle to stop hunger and food insecurity in their community.

A food truck that will deliver free meals to those who need it.

TRENTON For as small as it is, it's difficult to get here.

Transportation is an issue working on it.

This is a way for us to really reach out to the people that can't necessarily get here.

Families with kids, the elderly, chronically homeless.

You know, the most immediate.

Task, as it's called for short, serves 1100 hot meals a week at each of its 36 sites in Trenton and the region.

They also provide weekly groceries to residents in need and deliver meals around the holidays.

But that 1100 number is double their pre-pandemic volume, says TASC CEO Joyce Campbell.

While one would hope that having 36 community meal sites spread through Trenton in the county would meet the need.

Sadly, it is not.

The numbers of those who are hungry have risen, and we've seen a sharp increase of those who are seeking help with food.

People like Angela Purcell, who comes here when she's not able to afford groceries but says a food truck would have helped a lot when she couldn't make it here to their main location on Esher Street recently.

When I had my foot surgery, there was plenty of times I can't take my medicine right now because I know that they can make it there to eat.

So it was a little difficult.

So this would have had a big impact.

Yeah, if they had a food truck, there would have been a great help to me.

The food truck is going to create so many more opportunities for test to reach the hungry in Mercer County.

It's going to also increase test visibility in our community.

Some people know about our site here, but they don't know about all the other things that task does.

And just having this truck rolling down the street will create so many more visible opportunities for test.

Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora came to celebrate the ribbon cutting and said the impact the task has not just with the food kitchen but all the other services it offers is a critical lifeline for so many in his city.

It's wonderful the task.

If they were not here, they would create a catastrophe out in the streets and they helped so many people lift them up.

And they do more than food.

They they help give computer classes, job training, literacy skills, mental health.

So they do a holistic approach to the community that's underserved.

The trucks have been going out for a week now and already the impact is tremendous, says Chief operating Officer Paul Jensen.

We started out with two sites this week.

Next week we're going to be at three different locations in the following week, which should be a four.

So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we'll be out in the community providing more meals in areas that we haven't been able to touch previously.

They're not delivering on the weekends yet, but it could be a possibility in the future, especially for families whose kids rely on meal programs in schools and often go hungry on the weekends.

There is no barriers to when we can go out and what we can do.

We're just trying to make sure we can staff and do it consistently is the case.

The goal is to get several more of these trucks out on the road every day.

Each one could average another thousand meals a week, having a huge impact here in Trenton and in the greater community.

In Trenton, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.