Food is the centerpiece of so many of our holiday celebrations, but on an everyday basis roughly 1 million New Jersey residents go hungry. Children, college students, veterans, senior citizens – no group is immune to this gnawing need.

This problem is known as “food insecurity,” which is defined as lacking access to enough food on a consistent basis to lead an active, healthy life. The impact of food insecurity isn’t always obvious, but those of us who work in healthcare see its toll.

We’re not just talking about malnutrition. Food insecurity is linked to a long list of other health conditions including asthma, arthritis, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hepatitis, hypertension, osteoporosis and stroke. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of food insecurity – and in far-reaching ways. These kids are at greater risk of poor performance in school and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

For a nurse, it’s sad and frustrating to help take care of patients while knowing that they may not have what they need at home to be healthy. We’ve witnessed the coping strategies they are forced to use – watering down infant formula to stretch it further; buying cheap processed foods (which have less nutritional value); leaving prescriptions unfilled to buy groceries instead. One study in the American Journal of Medicine found that one out of three chronically ill adults is unable to afford medicine, food or both.

Those are some of the human costs, and they are immeasurable. But there’s also dramatic dollars-and-cents impact. Hunger and food insecurity leads to an estimated $160 billion in healthcare costs in the United States annually, according to Bread for the World Institute in Washington, D.C.

This is a public health crisis, but there is hope. The healthcare community is focusing more attention and resources on so-called “social determinants of health” – things like food, housing and education that are as essential to health and well-being as doctor visits or hospital care. New Jersey hospitals and health systems provide some truly exceptional nutrition programs in their communities, from urban gardens where families can help grow healthy produce to mobile farmers markets that take food on the road to vulnerable communities.

In Trenton, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has developed a package of bills that tackles hunger in New Jersey in a variety of ways, from filling gaps in the state where there’s a lack of stores selling nutritious foods (known as “food deserts”) to requiring food providers to donate surplus food to local food pantries or other nonprofits. We at the New Jersey Hospital Association applaud him for his leadership.

We’re not going away on this issue; we’re exploring additional approaches to address food insecurity and give New Jersey communities all the ingredients for good health.