West River Food Giveaway Hits The Doors

Six hundred whole chickens. Countless toys. T shirts. Drawstring backpacks.

It was all there for the Frosty’s Food Giveaway in the brightly-lit lobby of Barnard Environmental Science & Technology School on Tuesday afternoon, with families filing in and leaving with arms laden with bags and beaming faces.

But then there was Stacy Spell heading out the front door. 

“We gotta get to the people,” said Spell, vice president of the West River Neighborhood Service Corporation (WRNSC), adjusting his grip on the four canvas bags he was holding, two in each hand, each containing two whole chickens. 

West River Alder and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers and the New Haven Youth and Recreation Department co-hosted the giveaway, with the WRNSC lending a hand.

Youth and Recreation Department Director Gwendolyn Busch-Williams said the chickens came from Minore’s Poultry & Foods and Stop & Shop, both on Whalley, and were purchased with city funds. 

“This is about helping with food insecurity, and also, with the toys, giving them that holiday spirit,” she said. The giveaway, she said, coincided with the end of the school day, ​“so we were able to hand the bags to the families as they picked up their kids.” 

Youth and Rec park rangers Jesus Reyes and Harry Coyle stood behind a table, bagging chickens. 

“This brings the community out,” said Coyle, over the squawk of the P.A. system. ​“You got toys, food, you’re helping impact people in a good way. A lot of people need assistance but this is also about showing we’re there for them.”

Outside, Spell was greeting a policewoman, then passing school nurse Cynthia Harris-Jackson, whose hands were filled with bags. She told him she was delivering them to families in the community who needed it. 

“We’re all working toward the same thing, which is community building,” Spell said, as he crossed Derby Avenue toward the Berger Apartments in the bone-chilling air. ​“Normally we did this every year, but Covid put a crimp in that, so we’ve had toys that we’ve been holding onto.” 

Spell said the building housing the Berger Apartments was originally a corset factory. ​“Now it’s a combination of elderly and people with substance abuse issues, so it has its challenges.” 

By then, he had reached the front of the building. Walker-Myers, along with Ronald Huggins, city youth service manager, and volunteer William Simmons, were handing out bags to the handful of residents outside. 

“Chicken from your alder and the city of New Haven,” Walker-Myers told a woman named Nancy. Her small dog showed little interest. 

Nancy thanked her. ​“You need a jacket on,” she said to Walker-Myers, peering in the bag. 

The group headed inside and into an elevator to the second floor.

“Feliz Navidad,” a resident said as she passed them. 

“Let’s do this,” Huggins said, knocking on a door. ​“Free chicken, Merry Christmas, this is the Youth Department,” he bellowed. 

“I got nothing to give you,” said a voice inside.

“You got a free chicken, open the door,” Huggins said.

“I don’t need no food,” she said. 

“It’s free,” Huggins replied. ​“Just open the door.” 

It stayed shut. 

“You talk to my constituents like that?” Walker-Myers asked him, rolling her eyes, as Spell chuckled, shaking his head. ​“This is how you do it.”

She knocked on another door. ​“Happy holidays,” she said, as Simmons tried another door further down the hall. ​“On behalf of the city of New Haven, your alderperson, the West River Neighborhood Association, we have a gift for you.”

The door opened. 

“Here’s a free chicken and a $20 gift card from Walmart,” she said. ​“Hope you enjoy it.”

After a stop at the Barnard School to restock the truck, the group set off.

“People don’t want to go out in the cold, so you gotta do unorthodox things to get to them, you gotta improvise,” said Huggins, as the truck proceeded along George Street.

In the passenger seat, Walker-Myers was on the phone. ​“There’s lots of kids coming?” she said. ​“Oh good. We want them all to get toys.”

“A lot of people are coming because of the Facebook video I posted of the giveaway, they’re like I seen it, I’m on my way, and a lot of people are sharing it,” Huggins said. ​“That’s what we do. We try to get the word out.”

There was one response from a woman that, he said, ​“almost made me cry.”

At a red light, he shared it with the group. 

“I’m on my way when they stole my car they took all me and my son belonging I was just crying having a mental breakdown and u posted that I’m coming I need it bad,” it read. 

“You never know what people are going through,” he said.

“That’s what makes it all worth it,” said Walker-Myers, as the truck parked at the Waverly Townhouses on George Street.

“Free chicken,” Huggins shouted into the night, his enthusiasm apparently unchecked. ​“Get it while it’s hot, well, cold.” 

“Ronald, stop disrupting my neighborhood,” Walker-Myers said, before knocking on another door. In reply came a dog’s vicious bark. She backed away. 

“I got 68, you get the other one,” Huggins was calling out to Simmons. 

On they went, knocking on each door at Waverly Townhouses, then at 365 Orchard. Some doors opened. Some didn’t. They kept on.

In the mellow glow of the street lamps outside 365 Orchard, they encountered a group of girls. ​“Hey, you want a chicken to take home?” Huggins asked. Walker-Myers handed bags to two of them. ​“They have Walmart gift cards too,” she said.

After finding a half-dozen takers at Kensington Square Apartments, the truck bed had only a few bags of chicken. 

“Wait wait wait,” Walker-Myers called out. ​“I gotta make sure Rosetta gets one.” She punched a few numbers in her phone, then made her way up the street.

“You good?” she asked from outside a wire fence when Rosetta opened her door. ​“You want me to come in and bring it to you? Tell me what to do.”

Rosetta beckoned her inside the fence. ​“Alright then,” she said. ​“Thank you, ma’am. Thank you and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.” 

“I’m gonna call you, Rosetta,” Walker-Myers called back to her. 

“That’s what community is, right there,” Huggins said, as they motored back to the school. 

Walker-Myers agreed. ​“This means people can go shopping for everything else,” she said. 

Back at the school, there was an air of satisfaction.

“It went wonderful, we gave away over 400 chickens, 200 to 300 toys, T shirts, maps of the city,” said the Youth Department’s Lisa Staggers, as another group headed out with bags of chickens to The Shack, the Valley Street community center spearheaded by Alder Honda Smith. 

“We made a lot of people happy.”