On Saturday, relatives and friends from as far away as British Columbia packed Assumption Church for a memorial Mass celebrating the life of Dolores “DoDo” Bacharach.
The matriarch of a beloved and longtime Westport family died in May, at 97.
She lived her Catholic faith fully and well. She was involved with Westport’s pioneering Intercommunity Camp, along with Caroline House, the Interfaith Council, Assumption’s Senior Advisory Council and Social Concerns Committee.
After raising 5 children — and being a surrogate mother to many of their friends — she earned a master’s degree in social work at age 60. DoDo worked for Catholic Social Services, and established SAGE Associates, a private social work practice.
Father Tom Thorne — her former minister, who now lives in California but was asked by the family to officiate — said, “she would have been a wonderful nun.” But then, he noted, she would not have had her nearly 3-dozen children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to share with the world.
Dolores “DoDo” Bacharach
The night before, it was Homes with Hope‘s turn to honor DoDo and her late husband Jim. The Gillespie Center’s newly remodeled kitchen now bears the couple’s names.
It’s not their first recognition from Westport’s supportive housing non-profit. The Bacharach Community comprises 3 single-family homes in Westport that provide stability and a fresh start for formerly homeless mothers and their children.
Over 40 years ago, the Bacharachs were founding members of the Interfaith Council’s homeless shelter project, greatly expanded today and part of the Homes with Hope umbrella.
For more than 40 years, DoDo cooked and served meals at the Gillespie Center kitchen that now has a plaque with her name.
Rev. Pete Powell spoke at the Gillespie Center dedication. His words are worth noting — and not just because they offer important details about DoDo and Jim Bacharach’s contributions.
They also shine a light on the remarkable 40 year history of Homes with Hope. Whether you remember the first homeless shelter at the former Vigilant firehouse (now OKO restaurant), or recently moved here and just learned of Westport’s long tradition of helping those in need, this is a stirring reminder of what it means to be part of a great community.
And to do whatever possible to help make that community even better.
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Rev. Powell said:
What makes Westport different? People like Dolores Bacharach.
In 1982 she and her husband Jim, along with other volunteers, including many fellow parishioners of hers at Assumption Church, opened the Community Kitchen in the parking lot and community room of Save the Children on Wilton Road.
Jim and DoDo Bacharach
Hunger in Westport? Westport was a wealthy Gold Coast suburb even then. Of course, Westport has never been comfortable with that designation.
Comfortable or not, we are one of the 4 wealthiest towns in Connecticut. Could there be hunger here? In the midst of so much, could people from here lack for food?
Yes, they could.
How to respond? Dodo and those who volunteered with her took their Christianity seriously, and opened a feeding program. We are standing today in a future they could never have imagined.
However, they had enough imagination to meet a current need. They opened a basic program entirely run by volunteers and operating out of iffy places.
Who did the feed? I can only imagine.
In 1982 I had never heard of Westport. I was rector of an Episcopal church in Prince George’s County, Maryland, just outside of Washington. Dolores and Jim, Sister Maureen, Ann Rully, Kathy Romano and many whose names I can no longer recall, responded to the words in Matthew’s Gospel: “Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’”
DoDo Bacharach and Rev. Pete Powell, in 2014.
What did Westport look like then? There was no shelter for homeless people. However, homeless people were sleeping in Saugatuck Church.
Residents were worried that a feeding program was a solution to a problem that didn’t exist, and instead would be a nuisance attracting the needy to Westport.
Fortunately, these worries did not dissuade Dodo, Jim and the others who had the courage to act on the principles of their Catholic faith. They opened the Community Kitchen. We are standing in the heir to those efforts.
In the early years the reputations of the Bacharachs and others made it hard to challenge them. The Community Kitchen was lay-led — no clergy involved, as near as I can tell.
The founders took the Gospel seriously. As part of that they also reached out to Jews. Quickly, Temple Israel joined the churches in Westport in supporting this effort.
Their actions paved the way for the opening on Christmas Eve, 1984 of the Westport Emergency Shelter in the Vigilant Firehouse at 6 Wilton Road.
The Vigilant Firehouse on Wilton Road, circa 1977. Several years later, it was the first site of Westport’s homeless shelter.
It was a mess. The Community Kitchen volunteers worked out of the second floor in a space that had been condemned. They fed people in the parking lot outside of the firehouse and eventually in the bay of the firehouse.
By 1984 the kitchen had moved downstairs. It consisted of a refrigerator, microwave and utility sink. Food was prepared elsewhere, and served at the firehouse.
When I arrived in Westport in 1985, and was hired by the Interfaith Housing Association in 1988, the kitchen was a functioning and important part of the community. All of the religious congregations participated in providing dinner, 5 nights a week.
When we moved out of the Vigilant Firehouse and opened the Gillespie Center on Jesup Road in 1989, we were able to improve the kitchen facilities. Ultimately the kitchen served food, entirely provided by volunteers, from the religious community and many civic groups: 3 meals daily, 7 days a week.
The Gillespie Center in 2021, before a recent renovation. (Photo/June Rose Whitaker)
One of the people who prepared and served meals her entire life, from 1982 until very recently, was Dolores Bacharach. Her faith and the way she lived it is inspirational.
What difference did a feeding program make in Westport? Dodo and all who served with her gave people dignity. The founding principle of her work and that of this agency is that people deserve to be treated with dignity as human beings.
Whatever the reason for dining here, the people fed from this kitchen since 1982 were accepted and treated as an equal to those providing food. Dodo was not afraid of homeless people. She saw them as children of God.
Homes with Hope CEO Helen McAlinden (far left) community members like these, who frequently volunteer to serve meals. (Photo/Ted Horowitz)
Our work today is to continue to see the people fed through this kitchen as people of God who deserve the very best we have to offer.
DoDo and Jim’s Kitchen is not a place for charity. Charity is giving of our excess; giving of what we have left over. DoDo and Jim’s kitchen is a place of dignity, where we restore to people who are hungry and have real human needs a place where their needs and condition are honored and respected.
We do not give them charity. We give them what we have received: food to sustain life.
That’s the takeaway I have from knowing Dodo since 1985: Treat everyone with respect. She has been a blessing to all who came in contact with her.
She was humble. She was confident. She was present. She blessed us by her life and her giving her life to us.
So, let us pray: Bless this kitchen, Lord, and those who gather here each day. Let it be a place where we can meet to love and laugh and pray. Help us to live up to the example Dodo gave us, and meet each person with caring and dignity so that not only is the food a blessing in their lives, but their presence is a blessing in ours.
Members of the extended Bacharach family, and friends, at Friday’s Gillespie Center ceremony. The kitchen was named in Dodo and Jim Bacharach’s honor.
