Maeson Wagner, Executive Editor
@mwagnercourant
490,000 CT residents struggle with hunger and more than 131,000 children are food insecure. Since Covid hit in 2020, Feeding America estimated that as many as 116,000 people could go hungry in Fairfield County each year.
Thankfully, several organizations have grown within Fairfield County helping to combat food insecurity. Some of these include, Filling in the Blanks, Feeding 500 and Open Doors. The growth of these organizations has increased awareness of food insecurity in recent years and encouraged community engagement.
One of the first of these organizations was Filling in the Blanks. Shawnee Knight and Tina Kramer started the initiative in 2013 after finding out there were 34,000 children in Fairfield County living in food insecure households. “The fact that there were kids struggling with hunger in our community was something both Shawnee and myself wanted to change.” Tina said.
Ms. Kramer and Ms. Knight’s goal when starting the program was to feed as many kids as possible on the weekends. “The children in our program qualify for the free/reduced meal programs at school and receive breakfast and lunch during the week but have no resources available to them on the weekends. That’s the gap that we decided we would step in to fulfill.” Tina said.
Tina and Shawnee coordinated with other organizations to help feed children on the weekends before starting their own organization, “We became program coordinators with Blessings in a Backpack which provides food on the weekends to kids that are on the free and reduced meal programs in early 2013.” Ms. Kramer said. “But we soon realized there were a lot of restrictions working with Blessings and we wanted to expand upon what we could do for the kids, so we started Filling in the Blanks. It was a great starting point to work with Blessings as we had never run a business before, but we were up for the challenge together.”
When Tina and Shawnee began their efforts in 2013, they were serving 50 children at one school in Stamford CT. Now, they feed 4,000 students at 88 sites in Connecticut and Westchester.
Filling in the Blanks began their operations out of a house in New Canaan, purchasing food from local markets. Kaster Moving volunteered to deliver food from the supermarkets and groups like the NC Youth Football Team unloaded the trucks into the house and packed the food into grocery bags for the children. “Fast forward nine years later, FITB has a 5,000 square foot warehouse with a loading dock and 800 square foot offices that house all our operations. Weekend meal bags are delivered to the schools by our fleet of two trucks and in some cases picked up from the warehouse by school staff.” Tina said.
Filling in the Blanks has encouraged awareness of food insecurity exponentially by encouraging the community to help achieve their goal of providing food to hungry children on the weekends. However, some are still shocked when they hear of those struggling to put food on the table in New Canaan and surrounding towns. “Fairfield County is a wealthy area but there are diverse communities within the county with areas of low-income households. It is shocking to people when we speak about the large number of students struggling with food insecurity, because of the perception of wealth in Fairfield County.” Tina said.
Ms. Knight and Ms. Kramer have worked for years to build their large scale operation, providing inspiration for students who are starting on a ground floor level hoping to achieve the same goals.
Popular student organization, Feeding 500, has quickly gained recognition in the New Canaan community and worked tirelessly for the last year to feed those in need in Fairfield County.
Junior Oliver Tuff, founder of Feeding 500, said, “Last March I was visiting a shelter, Open Doors in Norwalk, and I was approached about a need for youth involvement at the shelter, because one, they weren’t getting enough interest from high schoolers and youth to volunteer and raise money. So I took up the opportunity and started Feeding 500.”
Oliver coined the organization “Feeding 500” with the intention of Feeding 500 individuals a year. “Originally our goal was to feed 500 people a year. An estimate for a meal is about $2.50. And so if you multiply that by 500 meals, it’s $1,250, but obviously we’re way past that. To date, we’ve raised $35,000 and since the start of the school year we’ve raised $20,000.” he said.
Oliver and his team has completely engaged the community and encouraged those interested in honing their collaboration skills to join. “Feeding 500 is a team-based organization. Here in New Canaan, we’re made up of nine teams. It’s me and eight other leaders and we each run our own team and have four other people on our teams besides us.” he said.
The organization’s popularity has inspired other towns to begin their own teams as a part of Feeding 500, “The team structure is also reciprocated across other towns.” Oliver said. “We have a branch in Darien, we just started one in Wilton, and we’re looking to expand into Norwalk soon. We have one starting up at St. Luke’s, too.”
While food insecurity once was a scarce topic of conversation in New Canaan, Feeding500 has been a driving force in uniting the community to fight this issue. “I always knew the potential for Feeding 500 to grow into a big organization was there because New Canaan has always been known for a town that really likes to give back to their community. I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly but I’m just thankful for all the support I’ve received to make it possible.” Oliver said.
Oliver also says it’s incredibly rewarding to see the community recognizing the work he and his team are doing, “When I got my team together it had immediate support from the community. I don’t think I’ve been approached in public more than I ever have since starting Feeding 500 and so it’s just cool to see people recognizing what we’re doing.”
All of Feeding 500’s proceeding go to Open Doors in Norwalk. Specifically, their pantry where individuals can come get groceries for free and hot meals in their kitchen.
Yolanda Mateo, Director of Client Services at Open Doors, said, “What differentiates Open Doors from other food pantries is that you’re allowed to go in and shop for yourself instead of someone giving you a bag of food telling you to go on your way.”
Ms. Mateo attributes food insecurity in Fairfield County to the pricing of basic needs. “In terms of food and housing everything is so expensive in Fairfield County. People are just trying to get by. You might get resources such as food stamps, but it’s not always enough.” she said.
Food insecurity continues to grow because of the negative stigma around it. “Some people don’t want to go to the food banks because they think others need more help than themselves or they don’t like the way they’re treated when they do go so they never go back. Some people don’t feel comfortable asking for assistance, so they continue to struggle.” Ms. Mateo said.
Because food insecurity is such a deep rooted issue, when individuals do seek help they often don’t know how to shop for food or cook for themselves. “When we are moving people out of the shelter into their own apartments, most of the questions they have are related to food. Because of the food insecure state they’ve been in, they don’t know how to cook so we teach them how to make meals for themselves.” Ms. Mateo said.
While several organizations are working to end food insecurity, it is still a prominent issue. “Prices are constantly rising causing so many to go without food, such a basic need. It’s really difficult and no one should have to question where they’re getting their next meal.” Ms. Mateo said.
