Maya McFadden Photo
Students, Women of the Village, Yale police, and NHPD partner.
A trio of New Haven high schoolers joined the fight to address local food insecurity by supporting a food pantry run by the nonprofit Women of the Village.
The three students — Hillhouse sophomore Dylan Caldwell, 16, High School in the Community (HSC) sophomore Osiana Brown, 15, and HSC freshman Saumora Short, 15 — joined with Women of the Village Thursday to hand off boxes of donated food products gathered over a two-week-long food drive.
The students gathered with help from Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Programs, Inc. academic advisor Errol McDonald. McDonald coordinates the program’s Youth at Work group, which does community service work.
The students decided to donate to Women of the Village in hopes of putting food on the tables of their neighbors, they said. They collected the food during the last two weeks of March by placing donation boxes at Career High School, Hillhouse, and HSC.
“I’m probably helping out one of my friends and don’t even know it,” Short said.
The group gathered with Women of the Village, Yale Police, and the NHPD to officially hand off the food to the women-led nonprofit run by Sharon Waddley-Stevens, Andrea Mastracchio, and Margaret Gainey.
The Women of the Village were honored by the New Haven section of the National Council of Negro Women Inc. (NCNW) with the Community Service Award last year.
The team distributes food from the Dixwell police substation at 26 Charles St. every Tuesday from 1 to 2 p.m. (Click here to find out more about the organization and the giveaways.)
The organization has been providing packaged and fresh food to visitors since 2017 through local donations provided weekly.
The weekly food boxes are made up of donations gathered from sponsors like Yale Dining, Quinnipiac University, Trader Joes, ConnCORP, and Haven’s Harvest. About 75 percent of the food distributed by Women of the Village comes from local donations. The team does not get products from the food bank.
The group also sometimes hosts overflow giv aways on the weekends.
“The demand hasn’t slowed down,” Waddley-Stevens said.
The group is working to provide more fresh produce and foods with more nutritional value in the near future.
“It’s not only food that people are looking for,” Mastracchio said.
The organization uses monetary donations to stock the pantry with diapers and personal hygiene body-care products.
Throughout the pandemic the nonprofit has been receiving support from the NHPD and Yale police to get resources and at times make deliveries to those in need.
Yale Officer Myisha Giddings, Yale Sgt. Martha Ross, and NHPD Lt. Dana Smith have been aiding Women of the Village more often over the past year as food insecurity has increased.
“I think this is the role of the police,” Giddings a New Haven native said.
Ross, who grew up in the Bronx and Smith, who was raised in Bridgeport, each said they “can see myself in a lot of these families.”
Mastracchio said the food donations from the students would be used for the upcoming Tuesday distribution to create an “overflow table” with random items that residents can pick from on their own.
This summer the group hopes to enlist young people to help distribute food.
Women of the Village volunteer Fred Christmas added that the organization needs more donations to continue its weekly distributions. “There’s a need for these women,” he said.
On June 18, the organization plans to host a Juneteenth community day celebration allowing vendors to advertise for free, live entertainment, and food.
Osiana Brown, Asumora Short, Dylan Caldwell, and Errol McDonald.
Thank you to Women of the Village, Dylan Caldwell, Osiana Brown, Asumora, Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Programs, Inc., Errol McDonald at Youth at Work, and everyone who donated and volunteered to help feed hungry people and help get diapers and period products to people in need.
This is a wonderful example of the good young people can do when given the opportunity and mentorship they need to be involved with helping the community.