Creative partnerships

On Friday, I visited the Mobile Foodshare site hosted by St. Catherine Church in the Broad Brook section of East Windsor.  If you've ever been to Broad Brook, (perhaps to the Opera House?) you know what a lovely little New England village it is.  And yet, we served 93 households with food on Friday!

But what struck me was how the Church, which sponsors the site, had addressed the issue of people lining up outside to get food by investing in some "easy-ups" to provide shade and weather protection for both the tables and for the waiting area for the line.  I've never seen a Mobile Foodshare host site do this and when I commented on it, I was told it was a partnership with Foodshare.

Each year, Foodshare sets aside a portion of our fundraising efforts to assist the smaller food pantries, community kitchens, and Mobile Foodshare sponsors.  Formerly called the "Helping Hand" program, we now call this the "Partnership Program," because partnership is what it's about.  We look for ways we can help our partners at the local level do a better job with their part of the work of providing food to people in need.