With each Tyson Foods truck delivery, we have asked our local partners to tell the story of hunger in their state and showcase the good work of volunteers and donors.  On Wednesday, May 19, we will deliver a truckload to both food banks serving the Nutmeg State – Connecticut Food Bank in East Haven and Foodshare in Bloomfield.  Here are their stories:

Connecticut Food Bank
Hunger in Connecticut is Sara, a mother of four, making a difficult choice every day: Should I give my children breakfast in the morning and let them go to bed hungry? Or should I let them start their day hungry so I can feed them dinner at night?

Sara, a middle class homeowner living in a suburban shoreline town, lost her purchasing job last year when her company downsized. She has been unable to find a job since then. She has had no choice but to cut back on the meals for her four children, between the ages of 7 and 15, because she simply doesn’t have enough money for food.

She’s not alone.

In Connecticut, about 1 in 7 households had difficulty putting food on their tables in 2009, according to a Gallup survey conducted for the national Food Research and Action Center.

Sara, whose name was changed for this article to protect her privacy, goes to Community Dining Room for meals so she can have more food at home for her family. Community Dining Room is a soup kitchen in Branford and one of 650 food-assistance programs served by Connecticut Food Bank in its service area, consisting of six of the state’s eight counties.

Food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters served by Connecticut Food Bank reported seeing an average of 30 percent more people come through their doors in 2009. Many were people seeking food assistance for the first time.

In an effort to meet the growing demand, Connecticut Food Bank, the largest source of emergency food in the state, increased its distribution by 16.6 percent from 2008. In 2009, Connecticut Food Bank distributed 18.7 million pounds of food, an average of about 37 tons of food every business day.

Since its incorporation in 1982 as the state’s first regional food bank, Connecticut Food Bank has distributed more than 200 million pounds of food to people in need. Throughout our history, we have seen such inspirational moments in the fight against hunger.

Recently, we were heartened to learn that a family served by TEEG, a food pantry in North Grosvenordale and a Connecticut Food Bank member program, came not to seek food assistance, but rather to help another struggling family.

Paul, whose name was changed for this article, had supported TEEG in the past when he helped his church pack holiday baskets for the food pantry. But in October 2008, after being out of a job for more than four months, Paul went to TEEG requesting help and food assistance for his family, including three children between 8 and 17 years old.

About a year later, Paul got a job, and he and his family were able to start rebuilding their finances. In December 2009, he and his family called TEEG and asked to “adopt” a struggling family for the holidays so they could reciprocate the help they received and assist another family through a difficult time.

Connecticut Food Bank believes that it is through this collective effort that we as a community can alleviate hunger one person at a time, one neighborhood at a time and one community at a time.

Foodshare
Hunger has become a hot topic of discussion over the past couple of years in our nation. With a downward spiraling economy, hunger grew exponentially in many places, including the suburbs, where most of us may have imagined being immune to such problems. In a time when much of the public is forced to face this issue head on, organizations like Foodshare are looking to change the conversation about hunger in America.

As a powerful partner in this global economy, there is really no excuse for our shortcomings here at home. Americans should never have to stand in a food line to make ends meet. Unfortunately, many of them do, including more than 128,000 living right here in greater Hartford. So, Foodshare works hard to ensure that our neighbors in need get the food they need each day. But it will never be enough to simply meet the demand. We need to find ways to lower the demand and bring an end to hunger for good.

In 2010, Foodshare will reach out further than ever before, in hopes of collaborating towards change in our communities. Partnering with local government, faith & civic groups and social service organizations we will strive to create a Hunger Action Team in each town throughout Hartford and Tolland Counties. While this is a long-term project that we expect to take many years, our eventual hope is to facilitate public and private groups coming together to build each community’s capacity to efficiently and effectively meet local needs. Efforts have already begun in 9 towns throughout our service area and we are seeing exciting results!

Distributing food via our network of partner agencies and our own Mobile Foodshare initiative is an important first step for families in our community that find themselves struggling to make ends meet. But as a community, we must get those families past the next meal, and to a better place where they no longer need help to put food on the table. To learn more about our Hunger Action Team Initiative, please call us at 860.286.9999 or visit www.Foodshare.org.