Connecticut Food Bank Hunger News & Advocacy Blog

Connecticut Food Bank is joining the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) on Saturday, May 12, to Stamp Out Hunger. Now in its 20th year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, representing 1,300 local branches of the postal union. Participating letter carriers across the country are collecting non-perishable food donations that day along their postal routes. Held each year on the second Saturday in May, the event helps replenish food banks and pantries in more than 10,000 communities. Last year the Stamp Out Hunger food drive collected 70.2 million pounds of food donations, pushing the 19-year total to more than 1.1 billion pounds of food. “Connecticut Food Bank thanks the letter carriers for efforts to help us alleviate hunger in Connecticut,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank’s president and CEO. “This food drive is important because recent data tells us that 61...
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Connecticut Food Bank and Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, today released the 2012 “Map the Meal Gap” study, which offers a detailed look at food budget required to meet the needs of families struggling with hunger here in Connecticut.   According to the study, nearly 14 percent, or 493,020 of Connecticut’s residents are food insecure, and it would take nearly $232 million to meet the needs of Connecticut’s food insecure population, or $16 per week for each food insecure person.  Those figures are an increase over last year’s data which showed 12.3 percent food insecurity rate, with a $199 million budget shortfall in Connecticut.    This is the second year Map the Meal Gap is being released, providing the latest county-level food cost data compiled by The Nielsen Company.  The study breaks down the food budget shortfall of residents and calculates the approximate number of meals missing from the...
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Connecticut Food Bank’s Greater Bridgeport Walk Against Hunger is this Sunday, April 29, at Seaside Park in Bridgeport.  Registration is at 1 p.m. for the  family-fun event, with the 2.5 to 3 mile walk beginning at 2 p.m.  You can still register online as a individual, team or “virtual walker” at www.ctfoodbank.org/walk.  Presented by Webster Bank, the Walk helps Connecticut Food Bank in its mission to alleviate hunger in Connecticut. If you can’t make it this weekend, there are two more Walks in May on the following dates and locations:  36th Annual Greater New Haven Walk Against Hunger Sunday, May 6, 2012 College Woods Pavilion at East Rock Park, New Haven 7th Annual Greater Waterbury Walk Against Hunger Sunday, May 20, 2012 Library Park, Waterbury Walk participants are supported by family members, friends, colleagues and others prior to the event. Proceeds helps Connecticut Food Bank transport, warehouse and distribute donated food to local community agencies such...
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This Thursday, April 19, is Free Iced Coffee Day at Bruegger’s!  From opening until until 4 p.m., Connecticut-area residents will be the first to get a taste of summer at Bruegger’s when the bakery-café chain hosts Free Iced Coffee Day at its nine New Haven and Fairfield-area locations. Guests are invited to stop in for a free 16-ounce iced coffee, and are asked to make a donation to Connecticut Food Bank via collection canisters, located next to each bakery’s register, to help the organization alleviate hunger in the state. Along with helping an important cause, Bruegger’s wants to give new and loyal guests the chance to try its iced coffee, a summer favorite, before summer officially begins. In addition to iced coffee, Bruegger’s offers Mocha and regular-flavored Iced Coffee Coolers, triple-brewed coffee with sweet cream, and a frozen blended coffee drink – the popular Brueggaccino – also available in mocha. ...
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Stone Gardens Farm of Shelton, Connecticut, is a 50-acre vegetable farm run by down-to-earth Fred and Stacia Monahan, who are passionate about Connecticut-grown agriculture. In addition to growing a wide variety of seasonal produce, they raise grass-fed beef, pork and poultry which is processed and sold directly to customers. The farm runs a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, where customers pay for a share of the farm’s produce harvest at the beginning of the year in exchange for a weekly box of vegetables they can pick up throughout the growing season. When Connecticut Food Bank asked the Monahans if they could donate fresh produce, they mentioned they had CSA shares that people either forgot to pick up or left behind. We suggested an agency partnership and quickly found two that could take the items off their hands. Spooner House of Shelton and Salvation Army of Ansonia picked up unwanted or...
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Connecticut Food Bank is a nonprofit organization which does not participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office. Connecticut Food Bank does not donate to political candidates, political campaign organizations, political parties, political action committees (PACS) and “Section 527 Organizations.” Connecticut Food Bank does support policies that help solve America’s growing hunger crisis, while raising public awareness about the issues of hunger in our country.  The views expressed here are those of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and do not necessarily reflect those of Connecticut Food Bank. Good afternoon. And thank you all for coming. Let me first thank Nancy Carrington, the President and CEO of the Connecticut Food Bank, and Lucy Nolan, the Executive Director of End Hunger Connecticut, for joining me today. Both Nancy and Lucy have dedicated their careers to seeing that every man, woman, and child in...
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Connecticut Food Bank is the largest source of emergency food in Connecticut, serving a network of 600 member programs.  We are a partnership to end hunger.  We also partner with the food industry, with corporate and foundation donors, with small businesses, civic and faith based organizations, and with thousands of compassionate people who care about their neighbors.  And we partner with the government.  We can’t and don’t fight hunger alone. Our network of soup kitchens and food pantries has seen an average thirty percent increase in demand for their services for the last two and a half years – with some local programs reporting an increase of 100% or more.   Many are seeing people who are seeking help for the first time.  Financially challenged households are struggling as the cost of food, gas and utilities continue to rise.  They can’t do it anymore by themselves.     Food insecurity exists in...
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Today’s generous donation of 96,000 eggs from Kofkoff Egg Farm – Moark, LLC, of Bozrah, will give a boost to our member soup kitchens, food pantries and emergency shelters this Easter holiday. That’s nearly four miles of eggs if stretched shell to shell! The egg donation will help our network of food-assistance programs meet increased demand. Bob Hodge of Moark said he’s proud to be partnering with Connecticut Food Bank, “to provide much needed protein to the most needy in our community, especially during the Easter holiday season.” A Land O’Lakes wholly-owned egg subsidiary, Moark’s donation is part of a national effort, organized by the United Egg Producers and Feeding America, to donate 10 million eggs to food banks around the country. Since 2008, Connecticut Food Bank has received more than 800,000 eggs from Kofkoff Egg Farm- Moark to help with hunger-relief efforts in Connecticut.

We recently met Joe and Tom at The Community Soup Kitchen in downtown New Haven, who are among 150 to 250 people who receive daily hot meals prepared by staff and volunteers.  Joe said although he’s had some financial hardships, he was too prideful at first to eat at the soup kitchen.  He eventually put his pride aside and is now able to use the limited amount of state assistance he receives on things that the soup kitchen is not able to provide for him.  Tom was a bit more quiet about his personal situation, but told us that being able to have a guaranteed hot meal each day from Community Soup Kitchen is making a major difference in his life.  When we asked what they would say to the food industry members who donate product to Connecticut Food Bank on a regular basis, both men smiled broadly and said...
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February 17, 2012 Good evening, Senator Harp, Representative Walker and members of the Appropriations Committee.  My name is Nancy Carrington and I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of Connecticut Food Bank. Connecticut Food Bank is the largest source of emergency food in the state of Connecticut.  Now in our 30th year of operation, we distribute food and grocery items through a network of 600 local, grassroots programs in six of Connecticut’s eight counties:  Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New London, New Haven and Windham.  Last year we distributed almost 17 million pounds of food, an average of 33 tons of product every business day.  Yet we haven’t alleviated hunger. Our job has become more challenging over the last few years.  The economy has impacted hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents.  The USDA now estimates that more than 400,000 of our neighbors, who are your constituents, are food insecure.  One in...
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