Tag Archives: food pantry

Westporters Help Food Pantry Meet Surging Demand

Posted on November 8, 2025 | 3 comments

The halt in SNAP (food stamp) benefits for millions of American during the government shutdown has gotten plenty of media attention.

It’s exacerbated by rising prices for food (and other items) — and uncertainty over what’s ahead for health insurance.

The national press is filled with stories of long lines at overwhelmed food pantries. People in line — some for the first time ever — talk about uncertainty, fear, and the very real pocketbook choices they must make.

It’s a frightening problem everywhere.

Including Westport.

Homes with Hope — the 41-year-old non-profit dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness and food insecurity in Fairfield County — runs an important food pantry.

 

It’s well stocked, and has always served a steady clientele.

Last week saw a surge in visitors.

Last week also saw, Homes with Hope says, “the true power of community.”

Since November 1 — the day SNAP benefits stopped — the pantry at the Jesup Road Gillespie Center, behind Barnes & Noble, has seen a 70% increase in the number of individuals and families seeking assistance.

Stocking up, at the Gillespie Center food pantry.

In just 4 days Homes with Hope greeted nearly 400 people, representing nearly 1,200 adults and children. New faces appeared every day.

The aid they receive is essential. Clients are grateful that the pantry helps relieve stress and uncertainty — and with healthy food. (The pantry includes meat and perishable goods, along with non-perishables.)

To help serve the increased number of visitors, and reduce wait times, HwH has  introduced a “Grab & Go” program. Quick pick-ups of pre-packed essential and fresh items can save 2 to 3 hours in line.

“Grab & Go” food, outside the Gillespie Center.

Homes with Hope says, “This overwhelming demand was met with overwhelming generosity. We thank everyone who participated in recent food drives, dropped off donations at the Gillespie Center, contributed financially, or sent items from our Amazon Wish List.

“Our shelves are still fully stocked during a time of urgent need. Westport always steps up!”

Residents have generously shopped, using Homes with Hope’s Amazon wish list. Food is delivered quickly to Westport.

Homes with Hope also thanks food retail partners: CT Foodshare, Trader Joe’s, Food Rescue US, Fresh Market and Stew Leonard’s. Their contributions of fresh, healthy food enable HwH to meet rapidly growing needs. 

Pantry organizers are also grateful for the encouragement of local officials. Several visited this week — including 1st and 2nd Selectwomen Jen Tooker and Andrea Moore, and state legislators — and affirmed their strong commitment to helping address food insecurity in this area.

From left: Homes with Hope director of development Katharine Murray, State Senator Ceci Maher, HwH board chair Becky Martin, State Representatives Dominique Johnson and Jonathan Steinberg.

“This has been an unprecedented week,” Homes with Hope notes.

“We look forward to greater stability and clarity in the SNAP program moving forward. We remain committed to ensuring that every person who needs help will find a warm welcome — and a full bag of groceries.”

NOTE: Food donations can be dropped off any time. The Gillespie Center on Jesup Road is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Click here to donate cash, enabling Homes with Hope to purchase food.

The pantry is open Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 1:30 to 4.30 p.m., and Thursday from 1:30 to 6 p.m.

Another way to help: Shop directly from Greens Farms Church’s Amazon Wish List (click here).

Homes with Hope’s Community Kitchen is open daily for lunch (12 noon) and dinner (5 p.m.). It is at the Gillespie Center on Jesup Road (behind Barnes & Noble). 

Homes with Hope staff members — including CEO and president Helen McAlinden — offer individual tours of their facility. Call McAlinden: 475-225-5292.

Volunteers are always welcome — in the food pantry, and to serve meals at the Gillespie Center.

Click here for the Homes with Hope website.

FURTHER NOTE: Governor Ned Lamont announced yesterday that all eligible Connecticut households that receive food assistance through SNAP will have full amounts for November transferred onto their EBT cards within the next several days.

State funding will fill the lapse in federal funding, if the US Department of Agriculture does not follow Thursday’s federal court order to provide full benefits for November. 

 

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Fresh Beginning For Food Pantry

Posted on June 4, 2024 | Comments Off on Fresh Beginning For Food Pantry

We’ve all heard it: “When one door closes, another opens.”

What seems disappointing or the end of one opportunity, often leads to a different, better, outcome.

That’s true for Homes with Hope — literally.

Last month, their food pantry at the Gillespie Center closed for renovation. They had to find a new place to serve scores of hungry Westporters.

They moved to the Sasco Creek Village community center, at 1655 Post Road East.

Warm and welcoming food pantry, at Sasco Creek Village.

The new site is bigger. It’s brighter.

It’s fresher too — and not just metaphorically. With room now for a refrigerator and freezer, the food pantry can stock meat, bread and other perishable items.

That’s opened up whole new, and healthy, possibilities for food-insecure clients.

Ever since the new doors opened, they’ve raved about the big, bright, fresh Homes with Hope pantry.

The shelves in the community center contain everything the former location did: canned soups and stews, cereal, peanut butter and jelly, tuna fish, crackers, pasta sauce, rice, granola bars, baby food and the like.

But there’s also — in addition to all those fruits, vegetables, eggs and more — a gluten-free section.

Plenty of food in the new pantry.

Volunteers — those who donate food, and those who donate time — have always been the backbone of Homes with Hope’s pantry. All are excited about what they can donate, and give away, now.

The refrigerator was donated by the Aspetuck Health District. It had been used to store COVID vaccines.

Now that items can be kept for more than a day or two, staffers plan ahead. They print up and hand out recipes, using the healthful ingredients they know are on hand.

Recipes, using ingredients available at the pantry.

“We can now offer what people want — not what we thought they wanted,” says Katharine Murray, Homes with Hope’s senior director of marketing and development. “They really, really love the fresh foods. Now they’re ‘shopping,’ not just ‘taking.'”

Another addition: toiletries like toothpaste, razors and shaving foam; feminine hygiene products, and cleaning items. Those are vital to people on limited budgets — but not covered for those using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called “food stamps”).

Shoppers register once, using a short form that includes questions like family size. There is no formal income verification process. About 90 different individuals have come since the pantry relocated last month.

Clients can shop once a week. Food pantries elsewhere often limit shoppers to once a month, Murray says.

Homes with Hope marketing executive Katharine Murray (left) and CEO Helen McAlinden, with food donation.

The new location has opened up the pantry to new clients. Many come from Sasco Creek Village itself. Some use wheelchairs.

But longtime clients are served well too. Sasco Creek — one of 4 sites run by the Westport Housing Authority — is on the Coastal Link bus line, opposite Goodwill. There is plenty of parking.

That’s great for people dropping off food, as well as those picking up.

As it has since its inception decades ago, the pantry draws many donors. Some are loyal, like “Miss Jane.” She’s dropped off several bags, several days a week, for years, and continues to do so.

Trader Joe’s has become a generous donor at the new site. They’ve been very generous, with fresh vegetables, eggs, fruits and corn, and frozen meats and vegetables.

The new freezer and refrigerator, filled with healthful food. (All photos/Dan Woog)

The pantry is open to clients and donors from 1 to 4 p.m. every weekday, except Wednesday.

People sometimes stand outside at 1:00.

They are grateful that although the Gillespie Center pantry door closed last month, the new one at Sasco Creek Village opened.

Homes with Hope CEO Helen McAlinden and 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker (front row, 3rd and 4th from left), with staffers and officials at last month’s ribbon-cutting.

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