by Lisa Reisman The New Haven independent
There were 17 pizza boxes, stacked and ready to go. There were cartons with snacks from the Cheshire Food Pantry. And juice and drinks from another organization.
That was the scene at Da Legna at Nolo on State Street last Friday afternoon, the starting point of a two-stop tour slated to include a Fair Haven women’s shelter and a West Haven apartment complex that houses formerly homeless veterans in West Haven.
It was the most recent example of Newhallville Fresh Starts, potlucking its way toward ensuring everyone gets the nutritional sustenance they need to take the first steps toward realizing their aspirations.
Since early 2024, the Newhallville-based nonprofit, led by Marcus Harvin, has been using the excess dining hall food of area universities to meet that mission. In addition to the Cheshire Food Pantry, it gets donations from Haven’s Harvest, La Cucina in North Branford, as well as 50 meals three days a week from the Community Soup Kitchen.
True to the Fresh Starts philosophy of only serving meals that team members themselves would enjoy, “this is the pizza that people coming to the restaurant get,” said Derek Bacon, owner of Nolo, which is known for its wood-fired artisan pizza and microbrews, and as the former site of the iconic Jet Cleaners. It’s the same, he said, with his Monday pizza deliveries to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital through the Feeding Families Foundation.
Bacon said he learned about the nonprofit from Harvin’s father, Marcus Carpenter, a popular DJ also known as Marc Mecca, who routinely spins tunes at Nolo’s Wu Wednesdays. A few weeks ago, he and Harvin met after closing. “We’re always looking to do more for the community, and this hit a soft spot for me,” said Bacon. “What he’s doing is amazing.”
Bacon with DJ Marcus “Marc Mecca” Carpenter at Life Haven parking lot.
“I realized that Derek might be a businessman but he has a heart for the people,” Harvin said, as the group prepared to set off for Life Haven, a 40-bed Ferry Street facility that provides temporary shelter to homeless pregnant women and female heads of household with young children.
It’s among the area shelters and warming centers that Fresh Starts has been providing meals three times a week—part of the roughly 1,000 meals per week that it delivers—since the city closed the brick-and-mortar fResh-taurant in February 2024 for lack of a food service license.
Life Haven’s Eugenia Coleman with Derek Bacon.
“A lot of our clients are already going through things and may not know where their next meal is coming from, so to be able to provide them meals, and now pizza, is just amazing,” said Eugenia Coleman, a Life Haven peer counselor who helps clients search for housing and employment, as Bacon set eight large pizza boxes on a table in the conference room.
Joanne Sciulli, director of development at New Reach, the organization that operates Life Haven’s shelter, agreed. “Over the past five years, we’ve seen a staggering increase in the number of families experiencing homelessness — up 41 percent since January 2024 alone,” she said. “Whether you’re earning a living wage or a mom trying to balance child care and work, there’s simply not enough affordable housing.”
Because her organization doesn’t have the resources to address the growing food insecurity that its clients face each day, she said, “groups like Fresh Starts help fill that gap — ensuring that children don’t go hungry and families feel cared for during an incredibly difficult time.”
“This is a movement,” with members of Life Haven, Fresh Starts, and Nolo Pizza.
It was a little early for dinner, and Harvin and Bacon had another stop, but before that, members of Harvin’s family showed up, including his mother Stephanie and great aunt Rachel Allen, who’s part of the Fresh Starts kitchen crew. “It’s a celebration of the good we can do by coming together,” Harvin said. “I wanted everybody to share in the joy.”
Then it was on to West Haven’s Surfside Apartments where, Harvin reported, veterans enjoyed the pizza as they watched football together, as they do each Friday night.
Life Haven’s Coleman later related high marks for the pizza. “They couldn’t believe how good it was,” she said, adding that it furthered the aim of Life Haven for its clients to feel the space as less like a shelter than a home.
Harvin said Fresh Starts will continue the Friday deliveries to both Life Haven and Surfside apartments, with plans to supply other facilities, like Martha’s Place, on the route with pizza as well.
“Indefinitely,” he said, as Bacon nodded. “This is a movement, and we’d love for everyone to come along for the ride.”