by Thomas Breen
Collecting food for DESK, at Edgewood School. Credit: Thomas Breen photo
Westville neighbors opened up their wallets — and their kitchen pantries — at two west-side polling places on Tuesday, as they donated a total of $1,800 and more than 1,000 pounds of food to help hungry New Haveners left in the lurch amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.
That food-aid-organizing effort took place on Election Day at the polling sites at Edgewood School in Ward 25 and at Davis Street School in Ward 26.
The food-and-cash drives occurred as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, remains lapsed — leaving more than 30,000 New Haveners scrambling to find ways to make up for federal food assistance that still hasn’t arrived this month.
Dozens of New Haven nonprofits and the city have stepped up to help over the past week.
And, on Tuesday, so too did community leaders in Westville and Upper Westville, who helped raise the food and cash.
Natalie Judd, a Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) board member who lives on Yale Avenue near Edgewood School, spearheaded the Ward 25 food drive.
She told the Independent on Wednesday that — thanks to support from Alder Adam Marchand, Westville Village Renaissance Alliance’s Lizzy Donius, Greater Westville Indivisible, and, of course, Ward 25 residents and voters — she and her husband Steven were able to collect more than 700 pounds of donated food at Edgewood School. She plans on dropping that food off at DESK’s food pantry on Thursday.
“We asked for proteins, and people really came through,” she said, with beans and canned tuna and canned chicken and so much more.
Judd said she was inspired to organize this drive after she attended last Friday’s city press conference about the launch of United Way’s new emergency food fund. “The numbers are staggering of how many folks in our community are reliant on SNAP benefits,” she said. “Now’s the time for everybody to act, no matter how big or small.”
Meanwhile, at Davis Street School, Upper Westville Alder Amy Marx — with the help of Democratic ward committee leaders and members Laura Cahn, Matt Smith, and Marjorie Wiener — organized a separate but similar polling-place food-aid initiative.
She said that, thanks to the many generous residents of her ward, she raised $1,845.65 in cash that she dropped off this morning at the United Way to support their Neighbors United program, which is providing cash cards loaded with $150 apiece and handed out at various food distribution sites across the city to people who have not received their food stamps this month.
Marx said that she was also able to raise “39 full tote bags” of donated food, which added up to around 384 pounds. That food has been dropped off at the Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven food pantry at 1440 Whalley Ave.
“It was a truly extraordinary experience,” Marx said about the generosity of so many Ward 26 constituents, of all ages, who donated cash and food on Tuesday.
She described people literally opening their wallets and pulling cash out and dropping it in the donation box upon arriving at the polls. Some people returned to the polls after voting to ensure that they could donate food, she said. Others called family members who hadn’t yet voted to ensure that they too could come and help.