By providing supplemental groceries to food insecure families and individuals, Branford Food Pantry is working to end hunger in its local community. Stop & Shop has supported this nonprofit organization through its Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs.
Tell us about the Branford Food Pantry.
The Branford Food Pantry was started in 1978 by a handful of people who felt food was an important need within the town. Like most food pantries, the Branford Food Pantry began in the basement of a church. Soon, the organization left the church basement and went to a school basement.
Shortly after the Branford Food Pantry started in the late 70s, there was an oil crisis, and gas prices went through the roof. People were going hungry just to afford the gas that would enable them to get to their jobs. It was a terrible cycle.
Eventually, the town of Branford created the Volunteer Service Center, which houses the Branford Food Pantry, the Community Dining Room, the Clothing Bank, and the Friends of the Library. We coordinate efforts, but we are all completely separate entities.
The mission of the Branford Food Pantry is to provide supplemental groceries to those in need. The word supplemental is extremely important. We have no ambitions to provide all the food someone needs for every day of the week. We cannot do it. Instead, we see ourselves as a helping hand.
What services do you provide to the community?
Every week, registered clients can come in and shop. A volunteer will shop around with each client. The volunteers help people who don’t speak English as a first language and help limit quantities to ensure there is enough to go around. Volunteers also help explain what unfamiliar items are. They help them with their shopping choices and often pack their groceries for them.
Our method gives our volunteers a chance to really be there for our clients, and it gives people coming to our pantry someone to talk to. Many of our clients are elderly, so they often don’t have many people to talk to. A lot of them come to us for social aspects as well as food. We listen to many hard stories that explain their reasons for needing food assistance.
Our method gives our volunteers a chance to really be there for our clients, and it gives people coming to our pantry someone to talk to.
We try to make coming to the pantry as pleasant as possible. We even painted one wall bright yellow! We want clients to know that every week, if nothing else, they can get bread, eggs, milk, fresh vegetables, fruit, and lots of dessert from the pantry. Clients get to choose what they take home.
We have sliding racks to make sure more food comes down as soon as a box is empty. On these racks, we keep all the staples, such as cereal, peanut butter, jelly, beans, canned tuna, canned meat, vegetables, and all the other shelf-stable items. We intentionally mix brands and food items to ensure people always have options.
For Thanksgiving and the December holidays, we also distribute food baskets. From 2020 to 2023, we gave out about 2,000 holiday baskets. For Thanksgiving, these baskets include a whole turkey, potatoes, apples, carrots, green beans, mushroom soup, fried onions, cranberry sauce, gravy, pie crust and filling, and evaporated milk. Since many people live in trailers and cannot fit a whole turkey in their oven, we also offer a chicken alternative. To receive a basket, all you have to do is be a Branford resident and either walk in or call us. People often tell us that they wouldn’t have had Thanksgiving if it weren’t for us.
Some people are ashamed to get help, and one of our goals is to remove that shame. Getting food should not be shameful. We treat people with dignity and try to give people back a sense of self. Most people we serve are part of the Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) population. Since many people work two or three jobs, we schedule evening hours one night a week. We coordinate these hours with the Community Dining Room, a neighboring hunger organization. This way, after people shop, they can have a family dinner in the same building.
We try to meet different needs. For example, we provide a weekly bag of snacks for school-age children. We also deliver to homebound clients, bringing them groceries every week. We don’t want people to feel bad that life has turned out differently than they thought it would.
Yesterday alone, 127 families came to the pantry. On average, we serve about 300 Branford families every month. It may sound surprising, but 34% of Branford qualifies as part of the ALICE population. We are not a poor town. Driving around, you might only notice the beach houses, but there is another side of town. There are 17 trailer parks, and even the people in the beach houses are often holding on by a thread. You don’t see it. You can’t tell by the cars they drive or the clothes they wear. Through no fault of their own, life took a turn that they never saw coming, and they ended up in an unfortunate situation.
Through no fault of their own, life took a turn that they never saw coming, and they ended up in an unfortunate situation.
What sets the Branford Food Pantry apart from other nonprofits in your community?
We are 100% volunteer-run. Every dollar we earn from these programs or any other donations goes to our primary goal of providing food.
To my knowledge, we are the only true food pantry in town. Our goal is to provide the food people need and offer alternatives, such as meat substitutes and oat milk, so people get the food they want.
Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization.
The police brought one elderly couple to our attention. The police came and said, “We need some food. This elderly couple is struggling. They have nothing.”
We immediately put together a bag of food for them. Since they were homebound, we added them to our delivery list. The elderly couple wrote us a lovely letter saying how wonderful it was that we were there for them when they had nothing and nobody else to call.
We also helped a young woman who managed to get out of Ukraine when the war broke out. She came to us for a while and is now going off to her first year of college. She even learned to speak English at the food pantry! Now, she speaks it beautifully.
Another man was our client for years. He had been gone for a few months when we received a letter. He went into great detail about how helpful we’d been over the years and that he wouldn’t have made it without us.
It’s stories like these that keep us going. There’s no sin in needing help and no shame in asking for it. Everybody needs help once in a while.
There’s no sin in needing help and no shame in asking for it. Everybody needs help once in a while.
What is your most outstanding achievement or contribution to the community?
When the pandemic hit, we never closed. We didn’t even close for one day. We managed to continue our work while still in a tight, cramped space in a basement. Since we couldn’t have crowds of people in there during the pandemic, we reinvented the wheel. We took some rainy-day money and put an awning over our loading dock area. With the awning, we could spread out even if there was rain or snow. We could be outside and continue to help people.
Our volunteers were the reason we were able to continue serving throughout the pandemic. These volunteers were willing to risk their health to help their neighbors. They could have just stayed home, but they came day after day to help.
The Branford Food pantry has also changed a lot. We used to only have canned fruit and vegetables, but now we are dedicated to offering fresh produce. Every week, we have potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, oranges, and apples available. We prioritize choices, such as offering meatless products and milk substitutes. We even have baby food now!
What do you want people to know about the Branford Food Pantry?
The first thing is that we’re here! We exist!
Next, there is no shame in coming to our pantry. We will not shame or embarrass you. We do not perform any means testing. We will only ask about your income to guide you to other services in town that can help make your life better.
We want to help you get the food you need and make ends meet. It’s what we’re here for. We acquire, store, and distribute food, then rinse and repeat. The food is available to anyone who needs it, so don’t let it go to waste!
How have you used the funds you’ve received from the Stop & Shop Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs?
We use the donations from Stop & Shop to fill any gaps we have. For the majority of our food, we rely on donations and what we can get from the Connecticut Food Share. These funds from Stop & Shop are particularly important when we can’t get items from our core list. If we don’t have enough, we will buy it with money from the Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs. Using this money, we can focus on variety, nutrition, and freshness.
Interview with Jaye Andrews, President
Published February 4, 2025.