Category Archives: Uncategorized

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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  Connecticut Food Bank has three immediate volunteer opportunities.  If you are interested, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator Kim Damien at 203-469-5000, ext. 311. Procurement Department Administrative Assistant:  A volunteer is needed with all-around office skills to assist with filing documents, doing mailings, phone work, copying, postage and data entry. This is an ongoing weekly need at our East Haven location for a 2-3 hour time block and can be arranged for any week day except Tuesdays. Internet Research Supporter: The Operations Department needs a volunteer to search for label ingredient information on the Internet and transfer the data to an Excel spread sheet. The volunteer needs to have a solid grasp of the Internet and basic Excel and typing skills, and must be available Monday and Friday mornings in February from 9 a.m. to noon. If the project is not finished by the end of February it may carry over into March. Programs Department...
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Are you looking for a way to give back to your community on an ongoing basis?  Connecticut Food Bank is looking for volunteers to help with a very important nutritional program that helps improve the lives of people who struggle to put food on the table.  Read the description below, and if interested, we encourage you to contact our Volunteer Coordinator Kim Damien, kdamien@ctfoodbank.org  or 203-469-5000. What/Where:  Volunteers are needed to assist with the Mobile Food Pantry distribution at the Brennan- Rogers School in New Haven on the third Thursday of each month through the remainder of the school year. When: 5:15 – 6:45 p.m. Why: This program distributes fresh produce, whole grain and dairy items to families whose children attend the school. Requirements: Volunteers must enjoy helping people, have the ability to lift 25 pounds, and ability to withstand varying weather conditions (this is an outdoor event). This opportunity is...
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Program provides healthy weekend meals for students at risk of hunger Connecticut Food Bank is the recipient of a multi-year gift from Fairfield County Community Foundation that will double the number of children in Bridgeport who participate in its vitally important Kids’ BackPack Program. Through the Foundation’s initial gift of $124,000, more than 900 Bridgeport school children will receive nutritious food during weekends when other resources, including free/reduced price school meals, are not available to them. “Well-nourished children tend to have fewer illnesses and better school achievement than those who are chronically hungry,” said Nancy L. Carrington, president and CEO of Connecticut Food Bank. “We are extremely grateful to the Fairfield County Community Foundation’s long-term support of the Kids’ BackPack Program in Bridgeport. It is such an important component of child nutrition for those who participate.” “The Foundation and our donors support many programs to address the achievement gap in...
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Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days. I am sitting here, staring at the computer with a raging headache, trying to concentrate on what it is I might want to write in today’s journal entry. I’ve had this headache on and off for two days. I’m on the sixth day of the Challenge. I am finding that even when I eat enough so that I don’t feel hungry, I am still not feeling well. I can’t help but think it has to do with a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. Today’s menu is much like the past few days: oatmeal with brown sugar for breakfast, lentils and rice for lunch,...
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Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days. Analysis Again, I started the day with oatmeal with brown sugar. I like oatmeal a lot, but I am having a harder and harder time putting the spoon in my mouth. Eating like this does lack a bit of variety. I know that eating a variety of foods gives you a better chance of getting the nutrients you need. I was feeling very hungry and tired yesterday so I did a little analysis of what kind of nutrition I was getting. First of all, I want to say that it is not as easy as one might think to figure out what you are...
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Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days. Today is the first day that I have really felt very, very hungry. I started the day with my obligatory bowl of oatmeal with a tablespoon of brown sugar. At about 11a.m., I started longing for lunch and feeling a bit tired. For lunch, I had an apple dipped in about three tablespoons of peanut butter. I chose a red delicious apple because I recently read an article that said the skin in a red delicious apple has more vitamins in it than any other apple variety. It filled me up at the time, but at about 3:00 pm, I got really, really hungry....
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Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days. Day 2: It is hard to concentrate when you are hungry. I woke up craving eggs this morning. I had oatmeal with brown sugar. One serving today. For lunch, I wrapped leftover black beans and rice in two soft taco shells with salsa and packed it away to bring with me to work. It traveled better than I thought it would. My colleagues went out to lunch together today. I did not. For dinner, I made lentil soup with onion, celery, carrot and the diced tomatoes. I missed putting potatoes and zucchini in it. I put in extra salt in place of the pepper,...
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Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days. In this entry, Deb recounted the social isolation of people who are food insecure. Morning Ritual Looking at my schedule today, I realized that I was going to have to make the bulk of my food this morning since I would be gone most of the day (church, kids’ soccer, 9/11 Memorials, etc,). We would have to go right from church to soccer so I’d need to bring a lunch. So I set the alarm an hour earlier and got to work in the kitchen. First I made some oatmeal for breakfast. Though this was the real oats that you make on the stove,...
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Can you live on $4.00 a day for food? Be honest with your answer. That’s how much some of us spend on coffee or latte during the day. For more than 380,000 people right here in Connecticut, it’s not a question. It’s a reality. In September, designated as Hunger Action Month, we’re asking our supporters to experience that reality for one week. Called the SNAP Challenge, participants are asked to live as if they are on food stamps, now known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Details of the challenge are included below. Nearly 11 percent of people living in Connecticut depend on SNAP/food stamps to put food on their tables, according to the latest report from the Food Research and Action Center. The SNAP program helps people and families buy food. Eligible people receive a monthly benefit that they can use to buy food, non-alcoholic beverages and...
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