Foodshare

Monday, July 21, 2014

Food pantry adds evening hours to serve working families


Hope Seventh Day AdventistChurch in Bloomfield operates a food pantry that receives food from Foodshare.  They recently decided to offer extended hours in the evening.  Foodshare staffer Vinh Vuong chatted with them about the new hours:

 

What motivated the program to provide evening hours?
Over the years we have been serving our clients primarily on scheduled morning hours, however we do have clients that utilize the pantry services outside of the regular scheduled times.
What prompted us to have regular scheduled evening hours is the fact that our clientele has doubled during the past two years and a great percentage of them have jobs during the day and yet are still eligible to use the pantry services. So by opening in the evening we will be able to better meet the needs of the working poor in and around our community.

How will this impact the clients you serve?
This will offer more flexibility to our clients, and especially those who are working, they will be able have the use of the pantry when it is most convenient for them.

What other information would you like Foodshare to know?
On July 10th the Hope SDA Food Pantry was opened for the first time on the evening schedule which is 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. We served twenty-six families of which fifteen were new registrations, and ten were existing. The clients were from Hartford, Bloomfield, Windsor, East Hartford and West Hartford. We are happy that we were able to make a difference in the community and continue to end hunger in Connecticut.


Are you involved with a food pantry or does your place of worship sponsor one?  Have you considered how to best serve people who work, but still need help with food?  Offering evening or weekend hours is just one of the best practices for food pantries that Foodshare recommends.  You can read more here.

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