Food Rescue Nonprofit Looks To Grow

As Sheilah Fields loaded a box full of avocados, apples, and mangos into her car’s back seat to deliver to residents on Waverly Street, Haven’s Harvest inched closer to its goal this year of rescuing two million pounds of food that might otherwise be thrown in the trash.

That was the scene on a recent Friday as Fields made her usual stop by the Haven’s Harvest warehouse at 266 Morse St. in Hamden. 

Founded in 2019, Haven’s Harvest is still going strong as one of the New Haven area’s nonprofits trying to find a more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible way to handle food that might be thrown out, even though it’s still good to eat. 

The nonprofit has also received a $250,000 state Community Investment Fund (CIF) grant to help it plan for expanding into a new, larger location at a site yet to be determined. 

All the while, Executive Director Lori Martin is working toward a long-term vision of moving Haven’s Harvest into a new, larger site — ideally in New Haven — that would accommodate food storage, a commercial kitchen, and a nonprofit grocery store to redistribute the donated foods. 

This reporter stopped by the Morse Street warehouse late last week to catch up with Martin about the food rescue nonprofit’s work. 

Fields, along with her helper dog Cookie, have been volunteering for the past year with Haven’s Harvest to deliver local rescued food to partner organizations that disperse the food to residents. Martin and Field met a year ago during a golfing tournament. Fields has since established a life-changing partnership with Haven’s Harvest to keep New Haveners fed daily. 

Fields visits the warehouse every other day to pick up pounds upon pounds of groceries. Some go to Kingdom Living Church in the Hill. Others are prepared and given out as meals on the Green four days a week and on weekends. 

While loading up every corner of her car, Fields shared that her organization — which supports feeding homeless New Haveners downtown — was dropped by its two other food suppliers in December due to financial cuts. ​“If it wasn’t for [Martin], since these cuts, my organization wouldn’t be able to feed all the people we do.”

Martin reported that Haven’s Harvest has been averaging rescuing 5,203 pounds of food per day. It is on track to have rescued 2 million pounds of food by the end of the year. 

That’s nearly double what the nonprofit rescued its first year, which was 1.1 million pounds of food recovered. It’s also a step up from last year, when Haven’s Harvest averaged 5,143 pounds of food a day, and recovered a total of 1.87 million for the year. 

Martin’s team is currently organizing a 10 million-pound fundraiser celebration for the nonprofit this summer, as it ended last year with a total recovery of 9,037,542 pounds of food that would’ve otherwise been thrown away over the course of the nonprofit’s existence.

“We are the bridge between excess and access,” Martin said, thanks to the organization’s volunteers. 

Last week, Haven’s Harvest called on its dedicated volunteers to support New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) food gap distribution for 300 families in need of meals during spring break. In partnership with United Way, Martin’s team added additional fresh produce to 1,200 grocery bags, then assigned its volunteers each with delivering groceries to three nearby families around New Haven.

The planning grant is helping the nonprofit work with partners around the state to help design a new hub space and do environmental assessments of properties currently under consideration. Martin said she’s looking at organizations like Build Green CT to help out and make sure the new space uses the most sustainable practices. 

Once funds are used up and a more solid plan is crafted, Martin said the team will go back to the state for more funding to ideally help secure the larger space. 

She also hopes to establish a network of trucking companies which, while traveling on I‑91 or I‑95, can connect with Haven’s Harvest during times when they have excess food from deliveries. The new space would ideally have a loading dock to accommodate this growth. 

The goal is to keep the food in a revolving system that’s accessible to organizations that provide food to residents. 

The idea for the trucking partnership came about when the operator of an 18-wheeler traveling from the Midwest recently contacted Martin when it had 16 cases of ham leftover that would otherwise have been discarded. 

The high-quality rescued food that Haven’s Harvest works with comes from universities and local businesses small and large. The food is delivered to veterans and senior centers and churches.

Among the half dozen other volunteers like Fields and Cookie that stopped by the hub last Friday were Pastor Phillip Boone of the Cathedral of Higher Praise Church and volunteers from the Park Ridge Apartments in West Rock. 

“I’m always moved by what our community can do. I don’t take any credit for the magic. It’s the people who show up and make magic,” Martin said. ​“Recovered food is a community resource.”

Martin added that ​“federal chaos” has resulted in the loss of the nonprofit’s Common Ground Green Jobs Corp interns this year. It’s also resulted in cuts to staff hours, and has its three full-time staffers taking on more work as a result. (Click here to read more about the impact of Trump administration budget cuts on local food-access and anti-hunger nonprofits.)

She still hopes to expand to a bigger space than the current 3,500 square-foot warehouse that the nonprofit moved into last summer.

She envisions the nonprofit grocery store being located in New Haven and being accessible to those with SNAP benefits in order to help those struggling with the rising cost of food.

Rather than working remotely as scheduled Friday, Haven’s Harvest contractor dispatcher Bailey Mitchell-Warren decided to help out at the warehouse with Martin. 

Mitchell-Warren is a philosophy major at Albertus Magnus College and started at the nonprofit last year. ​“It’s not just saving food. It’s building community entirely,” Mitchell-Warren explained.

Mitchell-Warren’s role is focused on seeking out organizations that can accept the food donations, and volunteers to make the rescues and food deliveries. 

While looking at a dozen IKEA bags full of bread, Mitchell-Warren told this reporter, ​“I should have all of this gone today and the fridge stuff gone by Monday.” 

Another pick-up Friday was by Barbara Sweeney and Janet Vanterpool, who filled up their sedan with cases of food and drinks to deliver to the Park Ridge Apartments at 40 Austin St. Vanterpool picks up groceries for the senior residents of the building every other week. 

“I’m old myself, but I come out and do what I can because so many others are immobile and can’t get out,” Vanterpool said.