NEWARK, New Jersey — Rock star Jon Bon Jovi was on hand in New Jersey Wednesday for the opening of the new JBJ Soul Kitchen at Rutgers University-Newark, the first of his non-profit restaurant chain to be located on a college campus.
Officials say one in three students attending a four-year college struggle with the issue of food insecurity, and more than 50 percent of students at the Rutgers-Newark campus have exceptional financial need.
As such, the campus community is rallying to find unique ways to remove food insecurity as a hurdle in student achievement.
JBJ Soul Kitchen, a community restaurant that serves healthy meals to paying and in-need customers, partnered with campus food service provider Gourmet Dining to introduce what it calls an innovative approach to addressing food insecurity on campus.
“For the last decade, the Soul Kitchen restaurants in Red Bank and in Toms River have provided well over 100,000 meals,” Bon …