Paul Bass Photos
Donated produce arrives at Sherman Avenue pop-up.
David Burgess at work with food-giveaway crew.
David Burgess, retired from stripping metal parts at the old Sargent’s factory, found himself on another assembly line Wednesday: breaking down emptied cantaloupe and watermelon boxes in a joint quest to nourish families.
Burgess, who’s 82, joined a dozen fellow retirees from his church unpacking, repackaging and distributing bags and boxes of fruits and vegetables and bread to hungry households.
The crew sets up the first Wednesday morning of every month to distribute the food, which comes from the Connecticut Foodshare food bank. On Wednesday the food bank sent over a truckload of donated bread (including loaves of Pepperidge Farm cinnamon swirl), bulk corn, melons, broccoli, bananas, bok choy, and other produce.
The crew set up on the first of two decks of a parking structure on Sherman Avenue near the corner of Whalley. Families waited their turns while lined up in cars 30 deep at a time down Sherman and around the corner up Elm Street …
… across from Union Temple Unison Freewill Baptist Church at the corner of Platt Street. The church began organizing these monthly giveaways in the early stage of the pandemic to help growing numbers of “food-insecure” families. Now inflation is putting new pressure on financially-strapped households. All the volunteers in the food giveaways are active in the Union Temple congregation. All present Wednesday were octogenarians …
… except Faith Jones (pictured above). Faith, a 9‑year-old student at Booker T. Washington Academy, was busy Wednesday crushing emptied Chiquita banana boxes — and clearly having fun. Whenever school’s out on a Wednesday, she said, she accompanies her grandmother …
… Louverta Knox (pictured) to the giveaways. Knox retired from the old Jewish Home for the Aged after working 26 years as a certified nursing assistant. Besides working the monthly food giveaway, she serves as an usher, does “Covid cleaning,” serves as missionary, and takes on “whatever else needs to be done” at Union Temple. “I’m blessing other people because God blessed me,” Knox said in between ferrying fruit-and-veggie-filled boxes into trunks of cars. “I’m passing it on.”
“How you doing?” Union Temple Deacon Theodore Cooper asked drivers entering the parking structure as he directed drivers through the parking structures and brought them boxes of produce. “Go on, brother!”
Cooper, a retired construction worker, showed up early, before 8, to help get the operation ready for its 10:30 opening. He’s a produce fan — he turned vegetarian in 2018, and saw his weight drop from 373 to 270 pounds. That was part of a larger transformation.
“I changed my life around. I’m a former alcoholic and addict. Now I’m a deacon in the church. God let people see something in me. Now I’m doing this for God’s people,” he said. “We are servants for God. That’s why I do what I do, because of the grace of God and where he brought me from.”
Most recipients interviewed said that without the monthly food boxes, they probably would not be able to afford fresh fruits and vegetables, and therefore would not eat as healthfully. Rising prices are squeezing them even more, they said. (The recipients interviewed declined to be photographed.) Many had learned of the giveaway online.
One first-time participant, a biology researcher at Yale, is a recent immigrant from China; he said his three-generation household, in which he is the only employed person, needs the help with putting food on the table.
Back in line, a disabled Vietnam-era vet said he relies on these and other giveaways to cover 50 percent of his budget since quitting his gig as an Uber drive out of fear of contracting Covid-19.
Another woman in line, who’s 45, has attended Union Temple since she was 5. She lost her job, she said — and was able to turn to her community to keep her and her daughter fed.
Click here to learn more about Connecticut Foodshare giveaways.
Thank you to everyone who is helping to donate and distribute good food to those who need it. Thank you to the CT Food bank and food pantries and soup kitchens and to those who donate and volunteer to feed the hungry, the need is great, especially with school out for summer, children are not getting as much food and families are struggling to pay rising
food and gas and rents.
It is a disgrace in one of the richest countries in the world that our people are going hungry.
We say we support the Troops, but veterans and junior enlisted people are starving and some are homeless.
We say we support life and want to protect innocent children, but then we see children going hungry, and seniors and disabled and families struggling to put food on the table and to find a place to live.
We claim greatness as a country but yet we let our people go without food or shelter or medical care.
We are only as great as we treat our most vulnerable people.
I hope more people volunteer and donate to programs like these. The fact that most of the volunteers in this story are in their eighties or older, means that we need more people of all ages stepping up to help, otherwise when these good people can no longer help, who will fill their shoes?