There’s no summer vacation from a healthy mind and body!

Editor’s note: Today’s blog entry is submitted by Cheryl Kaiden, a Board member of Branford’s Community Dining Room.

With the sun shining and temperatures warming, summer feels like it’s arrived. At the Community Dining Room (CDR) in Branford, CT, we’re more focused than ever on helping our clients to enjoy the outdoors in mind and body!

This is the time of year, when many local farmers and neighbors share their bounty with us, dropping off vegetables and fruits that we can incorporate into our daily meals. CDR kitchen volunteers have made an increased commitment to focus on developing healthy, nutritious meals using whole grains and natural ingredients whenever possible. We’ve increased the number of vegetables and fruits we serve and decreased sugary desserts.

To help clients make life-long changes, we regularly offer nutrition and health clinics for adults during our Noon Lunch Program, and hands-on education programs for children at our Tuesday Night Family Dinner. This spring we added “Walking for Wellness” on Wednesdays. A healthy walking program aimed at getting our clients to improve their physical condition and control appetites.

At the CDR, we don’t see summer as a time to cut back on programming, we see it as a time to renew our commitment to good health: to get clients moving, and help change eating habits from bad to good with local vegetables, herbs and fruits. As we move ahead, our mission to end hunger and isolation with food, fellowship, referrals and education remains the focus of our programs.

To learn more about the CDR or to make a donation, visit our Web site at www.communitydiningroom.com, visit our blog at www.cdrbranford.wordpress.com, or Find us on Facebook.

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Connecticut Food Bank Director Presenting at Regional Conference

Connecticut Food Bank’s Programs Director Luray Shepard is serving as a panelist at this week’s Northeast Food Bank Closing the Meal Gap conference in Boston, Massachusetts, hosted by The Greater Boston Food Bank and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Northeast Region. Shepard is presenting information about Connecticut Food Bank’s Kids BackPack Program which benefits nearly 1,750 students in 16 Connecticut school districts. The program supplies students in nearly 70 schools with nutritious food during weekends when other resources, including free/reduced price school meals, are not available to them.

By partnering with local public school systems, teachers and staff, Connecticut Food Bank provides these students with kid-friendly food distributed discreetly at school at the end of each week, using their own backpack or one given to them. The children receive two servings each of 100 percent fruit juice, shelf-stable milk, two whole grain cereals, two high-nutrition entrees and two low-fat, low sugar snacks.

Other conference speakers include Kevin Concannon, the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at the United States Department of Agriculture; as well as representatives from Feeding America, The Greater Boston Food Bank, Food Bank for New York City and Foodshare.

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Connecticut Food Bank Recognizes National Nutrition Month

March is National Nutrition Month® and Connecticut Food Bank is recognizing the event in honor of the more than 50 million Americans who lack access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life. Connecticut Food Bank provides food assistance to more than 300,000 people who are served by its 650 member programs in six of Connecticut’s eight counties. Last year it distributed 2.4 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to those suffering from hunger.

“National Nutrition Month presents a wonderful opportunity for Connecticut Food Bank to educate and promote its nutritious food programs to the public,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank’s president and CEO. “It also allows us to encourage more people to become involved in helping us promote healthy food choices at our local agencies and to the hungry individuals we serve every day.”

In September 2010, Connecticut Food Bank launched the operation of a Mobile Food Pantry that brings nutritious items such as fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grain goods and dairy products directly to individuals in need. The program is convenient for people in need who may not have the transportation or financial means to access resources for fresh, nutritious products. The Pantry makes monthly visits to neighborhoods in Bridgeport, Danbury, Middletown, New Haven, Plainfield, Torrington and Winsted.

In addition, Connecticut Food Bank operates a Kids’ BackPack Program that provides nutritious meals to children on weekends when they do not have access to school meals. The program currently serves 1,700 students from 65 schools in 15 school districts. Each Friday, the students discreetly receive two whole grain cereal products, two shelf-stable milks, two protein-based entrees, two healthy snacks, and two 100% juice boxes to take home.

National Nutrition Month® is an education and information campaign promoting nutrition, sponsored annually by the American Dietetic Association (ADA). The mission of the ADA “is to promote optimal nutrition and well-being for all people by advocating for its members.” ADA is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, including more than 67,000 members of mostly registered dieticians and dietetic technicians, registered.

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Quota International of New Haven Partners with Connecticut Food Bank

In 2006, the Quota Club of New Haven wanted to add additional projects to its community outreach program. Then club President, Patricia Jakupkovic, recalled that while teaching in the New Haven school system, she would see children sneaking an extra cereal to take home in their backpack. As a result of this line of thinking, the Quota Club contacted Connecticut Food Bank to determine how it could help hungry students and a long and solid partnership was formed.

At the time, Connecticut Food Bank ran a small scale food distribution program to local schools and was considering linking up with the national Feeding America Kids’ BackPack program. This program involves packing and distributing bags of kid-friendly, single-serving, nutritious foods to selected school systems. On Friday afternoons, school staff distributes the food to children identified by school personnel as being at risk of hunger over the weekend. The Quota Club of New Haven and Connecticut Food Bank both realized a huge need existed for the program throughout the food bank’s six-county service area. They also knew it would require a tremendous amount of volunteer and financial support if it was going to succeed. The Quota Club vowed to provide Connecticut Food Bank with both if they decided to go forward with it. The Kids’ BackPack Program has been growing rapidly ever since.

In the fall of 2006, the program began serving children in five school systems. About 18 Quota Club members volunteered each month to fill bags with selected food items, which were then boxed and distributed to the schools by the food bank. By the end of that year, the program grew to 17 schools and 287 students who were at-risk of hunger each weekend. It was not long before the program grew so much in scope that the Quota members began volunteering twice a month to pack bags and boxes. By the end of the school year in 2008, the program had almost doubled in size serving 527 students in 37 schools.

In the spring of 2010, the program had reached the point that Quota members increased their support to volunteering three times a month. Now, between 10 -15 members visit Connecticut Food Bank in East Haven on the first, second and fourth Tuesday of each month and dedicate two hours to filling bags with child-friendly food items. The club members pack between two and three pallets of food each visit – enough food for 360-540 children. Today, 1,700 children in 65 schools across 15 Connecticut towns receive food to take home on Friday thanks, in large part, to the team affectionately known as, “The Quota Ladies.”
 
Over the past four years, the club has donated nearly 1,300 volunteer hours to this project and packed more than 64,000 bags of kid friendly snacks. Its support doesn’t stop there. The volunteers continue to assist with a number of special events, and even collect 50-60 pounds of food from members at each monthly meeting.

Since 2006, the organization and its individual members have given more than $10,000 to Connecticut Food Bank, which includes a $5,000 donation in 2009 made by BJ’s Wholesale Club on behalf of Pat Jakupkovic. Pat was named a BJ’s Community Hero, in part for her work with Quota, and she chose Connecticut Food Bank as her charity of choice.

In all, Quota Club of New Haven has been a cornerstone and mainstay with the Kids’ BackPack Program and the fight against hunger in Connecticut. Because of its strong support we have been able to continue to expand the program. Knowing that we are supported by such a dedicated organization and faithful group of friends enables us to “get it done” no matter the need. Thank you, Quota Club of New Haven! You are a real community treasure.

Written by: Kim Damien
Volunteer Coordinator
Connecticut Food Bank

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Dunkin’ Donuts Employees Rise to the Challenge for Kids’ BackPack Program

The Mohegan Sun Arena is known for WNBA games and rock concerts. But on Thursday morning, the floor of the arena was taken over by corporate employees of Dunkin’ Donuts and Connecticut Food Bank for two hours of competitive community service and chaos.

At the invitation of Dunkin’ Donuts, the food bank brought in two truckloads of Kids’ BackPack supplies in the wee hours of the morning. By 10 a.m., the Dunkin’ Donuts employees arrived to hear a challenge: a similar group in New Orleans had packed 6,000 packets of food for its local Kids’ BackPack program and we wanted to beat that record.

After a Dunkin’ Donuts Baskin Robbins Community Foundation check presentation of $5,700 to help defray the costs of the Kids’ BackPack program, the employees were divided into five teams. To promote that competitive spirit, the team that packed the most bags was going to get a coveted Golden Backpack, made for this occasion by the Food Bank’s own Carly Yearsley, our Child Nutrition Coordinator.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect. Our typical backpacking volunteer experience has, at most, a dozen people quietly putting together the bags of food for children who would otherwise go hungry on weekends when they don’t have access to school meals. Each bag must contain two wholegrain cereal products, two shelf-stable milks, two protein-based entrees, two healthy snacks, and two 100% juice boxes. We distribute more than 1,700 of these bags each week to 65 schools in 15 school districts and depend on volunteers every week to make it happen. But 250 exuberant, caffeine-buzzed (we are talking about Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, after all) volunteers with slightly more than an hour available to beat a New Orleans all-time record was an all-new experience.

Each team of 50 came up with a fast game plan and team member assignments – they had product box openers, runners to refill the packing tables, box makers, bag openers, and dozens of packers lined up at tables. And when the whistle blew, they were off and running.

It was frenzied, it was noisy, it was fun… and in the middle of it, WTNH showed up and waded into the middle of the action for a TV news story which didn’t slow the crowd down one bit. When Carly announced “Freeze” and they stopped packing (well, when Carly announced “Freeze” for the third or fourth time and they started to slow down – did we mention that caffeine-buzz?), we beat the New Orleans record by hundreds. A month’s supply of bags had been packed!

Of course, we added clean-up as a requirement – no prize awarded until the area was almost as spotless as it had been before the event started – and they managed that in record time too (there’s that caffeine-buzz again).

Congratulations to teams “Pack Pack Pack” and “Latte Packing Going On,” (yes, we had a tie!) who get to share that coveted Golden BackPack. But there were no losers because it was all for a good cause – to feed hungry children here in Connecticut.

To get a couch-potato view (but do have some Dunkin’Donuts caffeine and join the buzz), click on the link to the WTNH story here.

Our disclaimer: All references to a caffeine-buzz are strictly the opinion of this coffee-drinking reporter and not the official claim of the Dunkin’ Donuts brand. But it is a reason we all arrive to work every morning with that DD cup in hand…. After all, America runs on Dunkin’.

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Call to Action:

On December 9, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Weekends Without Hunger Act (H.R. 5012), which Feeding America has been working to pass. This bill would support community efforts to feed low-income children during weekends and long school holidays. If the bill passes the Senate before Congress adjourns for the year, it would result in new opportunities for food banks to feed children on the weekends when they don’t have access to child nutrition programs. Help us urge the Senate to pass this important legislation.

Here’s how you can call your Senator:

Dial 877-698-8228 and enter your zip code to connect directly to your Senator’s office.
Deliver this simple message: Please bring the Weekends Without Hunger Act (HR 5012) to the floor and pass it this year!

Please take a moment to call your Senator today!

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Paper Plates To End Hunger

Master’s Manna Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen of Wallingford will be heading to Washington, D.C. on Nov. 8 to deliver Paper Plates to End Hunger to the White House. The delivery is part of the Empty Plates Empty Pockets Campaign that Master’s Manna has been conducting.

Since August, Master’s Manna has been asking the community to write anti-hunger messages on paper plates that will be delivered to the President.

If enough people can get together and write a message to the President regarding what people need to just keep food on the table maybe he would listen, said Cheryl Bedore, founder and director of Master’s Manna.

Master’s Manna operates a food pantry, clothes closet, soup kitchen and resource center, including a computer lab and dental/medical clinic. In 2009, 1,636 families came through the doors of Master’s Manna seeking help. Master’s Manna is a member program of Connecticut Food Bank.

In a time when people are losing jobs, facing cuts in hours where they work and losing benefits, it’s now time for our government to step up to the plate, according to Master’s Manna.

There’s still time to support the Empty Plates Empty Pockets Campaign. If you’re interested, please contact Master’s Manna as soon as possible.

You can make a big difference by stopping in at Master’s Manna and jotting down your anti-hunger message to the President on a paper plate. Or you can get your friends, family members, classmates and congregation to write messages to the White House and drop the paper plates at Master’s Manna, 46 North Plains Industrial Road, Wallingford, before Nov. 8.

Posted by Gladys Alcedo, Communications Coordinator of Connecticut Food Bank

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More Children in Connecticut Are Hungry

One child in six doesn’t have enough to eat in Connecticut, according to a report released by Feeding America, the national network of food banks.

The report, titled Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2006-2008, listed Connecticut among the Top 10 states with the highest increase in the rate of children under 18 who are food insecure.

Connecticut’s numbers jumped 2.9 percent from the previously reported study released last year. Connecticut is the only state in the Northeast to see such a substantial increase.

“That’s a Top 10 list that we don’t want to be part of and it shows that we need to do better for our children in Connecticut,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Chief Executive Officer of Connecticut Food Bank. “We at Connecticut Food Bank are trying to do as much as we can to be part of the solution through our child nutrition programs.”

Connecticut Food Bank expanded its Kids’ BackPack Program in the past school year and has plans to reach more children in this school year.

Click here to view an Oct. 9 feature on the program by Crossroads Magazine. Fast forward to 14:08 to see the program in action at the Macdonough Elementary School in Middletown. The segment only takes about five minutes, but worth viewing to learn how we are fighting child hunger in our communities.

Posted by Gladys Alcedo, Communications Coordinator of Connecticut Food Bank

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