Every third Tuesday of the month the Congregational Church of Easton collects prepared meals to feed those in need at Thomas Merton Family Center’s food kitchen in Bridgeport.
Genevieve Waterbury, an outreach coordinator with the Congregational Church, said the church has for decades been providing meals and stocking food pantry items for the needy in the area. Two years ago the church established a relationship with the Merton Center. The church has relied on parishioners to provide meals food items and is it now reaching out to the greater community.
“Easton is wonderful about banding together,” said Waterbury. “People love to help.”
If you would like to provide a meal for the center you can drop it off at the Old Academy building Sunday morning, Monday between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., or no later than Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
The center also needs pantry staples and toiletries. Those items can also be dropped off at the Old Academy building, for delivery the day of the food kitchen.
Cheryl Norton has been driving the donated items to the Merton Center for the last years.
“The Congregational Church and the Merton Center have been always been in my heart. I will do anything to help both of them,” said Norton, who served meals at the Merton Center throughout the 1990s.
The Thomas Merton Family Center, is part of Catholic Charities and one of the largest private family service agencies in Fairfield County. It serves about 350 meals every day for breakfast and lunch.
Nicholas Martinez, a food pantry coordinator with the center, said the need for donated food is great.
“The number one issue right now is getting enough food on the shelves so that everybody can get what they need,” said Martinez.
Martinez said the food pantry takes almost three days to fully stock and is run by a dedicated staff of workers. The center purchases about 60-to-70% of its stock at cost from local grocery stores to feed the community. Since its move to a new location in downtown Bridgeport, the need for food to stock the pantry has spiked.
The number of people and families the center feeds each month is continuously rising, said Martinez. And the trend continues to go up.
“Until something changes, the need is only going to continue to rise, so we will always need more food,” he said.
Waterbury said the prepared foods should not be hot meals. Chicken dishes, mac and cheese or pasta, vegetables, fruit, rolls and dessert are welcome.
For more information on how to donate food you can email the church office at cchurcheaston@gmail.com
