Category Archives: Programs

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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Our Kids’ BackPack Program recently received a major boost from 300 Dunkin’ Donuts corporate employees. For the second consecutive year the “BackPack Pack-a-Thon” event at the Mohegan Sun Arena was held to determine which Dunkin’ Donuts employee team could fill the most bags with nutritious food in an hour.  In the weeks and days leading up to the event, teams with names like “Brew Crew,” “Top Javas” and “Raise the Dough,” practiced and strategized on how they could outperform the others and win the coveted “Golden BackPack” award from Connecticut Food Bank. In the end, more than 7,500 bags were filled with healthy food for more than 2,000 Connecticut children who receive the food on weekends when they don’t have access to school meals.    In addition, The Dunkin Donuts & Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation presented Connecticut Food Bank with a $6,000 donation to support the Kids’ BackPack Program. “Connecticut Food Bank...
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Editor’s note: Today’s blog entry is submitted by Cheryl Kaiden, a Board member of Branford’s Community Dining Room. With the sun shining and temperatures warming, summer feels like it’s arrived. At the Community Dining Room (CDR) in Branford, CT, we’re more focused than ever on helping our clients to enjoy the outdoors in mind and body! This is the time of year, when many local farmers and neighbors share their bounty with us, dropping off vegetables and fruits that we can incorporate into our daily meals. CDR kitchen volunteers have made an increased commitment to focus on developing healthy, nutritious meals using whole grains and natural ingredients whenever possible. We’ve increased the number of vegetables and fruits we serve and decreased sugary desserts. To help clients make life-long changes, we regularly offer nutrition and health clinics for adults during our Noon Lunch Program, and hands-on education programs for children at...
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Connecticut Food Bank’s Programs Director Luray Shepard is serving as a panelist at this week’s Northeast Food Bank Closing the Meal Gap conference in Boston, Massachusetts, hosted by The Greater Boston Food Bank and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Northeast Region. Shepard is presenting information about Connecticut Food Bank’s Kids BackPack Program which benefits nearly 1,750 students in 16 Connecticut school districts. The program supplies students in nearly 70 schools with nutritious food during weekends when other resources, including free/reduced price school meals, are not available to them. By partnering with local public school systems, teachers and staff, Connecticut Food Bank provides these students with kid-friendly food distributed discreetly at school at the end of each week, using their own backpack or one given to them. The children receive two servings each of 100 percent fruit juice, shelf-stable milk, two whole grain cereals, two high-nutrition entrees and two low-fat,...
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March is National Nutrition Month® and Connecticut Food Bank is recognizing the event in honor of the more than 50 million Americans who lack access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life. Connecticut Food Bank provides food assistance to more than 300,000 people who are served by its 650 member programs in six of Connecticut’s eight counties. Last year it distributed 2.4 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to those suffering from hunger. “National Nutrition Month presents a wonderful opportunity for Connecticut Food Bank to educate and promote its nutritious food programs to the public,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank’s president and CEO. “It also allows us to encourage more people to become involved in helping us promote healthy food choices at our local agencies and to the hungry individuals we serve every day.” In September 2010, Connecticut Food Bank launched the operation of...
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In 2006, the Quota Club of New Haven wanted to add additional projects to its community outreach program. Then club President, Patricia Jakupkovic, recalled that while teaching in the New Haven school system, she would see children sneaking an extra cereal to take home in their backpack. As a result of this line of thinking, the Quota Club contacted Connecticut Food Bank to determine how it could help hungry students and a long and solid partnership was formed. At the time, Connecticut Food Bank ran a small scale food distribution program to local schools and was considering linking up with the national Feeding America Kids’ BackPack program. This program involves packing and distributing bags of kid-friendly, single-serving, nutritious foods to selected school systems. On Friday afternoons, school staff distributes the food to children identified by school personnel as being at risk of hunger over the weekend. The Quota Club of...
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The Mohegan Sun Arena is known for WNBA games and rock concerts. But on Thursday morning, the floor of the arena was taken over by corporate employees of Dunkin’ Donuts and Connecticut Food Bank for two hours of competitive community service and chaos. At the invitation of Dunkin’ Donuts, the food bank brought in two truckloads of Kids’ BackPack supplies in the wee hours of the morning. By 10 a.m., the Dunkin’ Donuts employees arrived to hear a challenge: a similar group in New Orleans had packed 6,000 packets of food for its local Kids’ BackPack program and we wanted to beat that record. After a Dunkin’ Donuts Baskin Robbins Community Foundation check presentation of $5,700 to help defray the costs of the Kids’ BackPack program, the employees were divided into five teams. To promote that competitive spirit, the team that packed the most bags was going to get a...
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On December 9, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Weekends Without Hunger Act (H.R. 5012), which Feeding America has been working to pass. This bill would support community efforts to feed low-income children during weekends and long school holidays. If the bill passes the Senate before Congress adjourns for the year, it would result in new opportunities for food banks to feed children on the weekends when they don’t have access to child nutrition programs. Help us urge the Senate to pass this important legislation. Here’s how you can call your Senator: Dial 877-698-8228 and enter your zip code to connect directly to your Senator’s office. Deliver this simple message: Please bring the Weekends Without Hunger Act (HR 5012) to the floor and pass it this year! Please take a moment to call your Senator today!

Master’s Manna Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen of Wallingford will be heading to Washington, D.C. on Nov. 8 to deliver Paper Plates to End Hunger to the White House. The delivery is part of the Empty Plates Empty Pockets Campaign that Master’s Manna has been conducting. Since August, Master’s Manna has been asking the community to write anti-hunger messages on paper plates that will be delivered to the President. If enough people can get together and write a message to the President regarding what people need to just keep food on the table maybe he would listen, said Cheryl Bedore, founder and director of Master’s Manna. Master’s Manna operates a food pantry, clothes closet, soup kitchen and resource center, including a computer lab and dental/medical clinic. In 2009, 1,636 families came through the doors of Master’s Manna seeking help. Master’s Manna is a member program of Connecticut Food Bank. In...
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One child in six doesn’t have enough to eat in Connecticut, according to a report released by Feeding America, the national network of food banks. The report, titled Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2006-2008, listed Connecticut among the Top 10 states with the highest increase in the rate of children under 18 who are food insecure. Connecticut’s numbers jumped 2.9 percent from the previously reported study released last year. Connecticut is the only state in the Northeast to see such a substantial increase. “That’s a Top 10 list that we don’t want to be part of and it shows that we need to do better for our children in Connecticut,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Chief Executive Officer of Connecticut Food Bank. “We at Connecticut Food Bank are trying to do as much as we can to be part of the solution through our child nutrition programs.” Connecticut Food...
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