The
Norma F. Pfriem Foundation
awards
The
Council of Churches of Greater
Bridgeport
$150,000 for Hunger Outreach
Capacity Expansion
The Norma F. Pfriem Foundation
recently awarded a grant of
$150,000 to The Council of
Churches of Greater Bridgeport (CCGB)
for hunger services. The
purpose of the grant is to
expand food storage and
distribution capacity of the 38
agencies of the Hunger Outreach
Network.
The Hunger Outreach Network is
made up 38 independently
organized and operated area
feeding organizations, combining
to offer 17 soup kitchen
programs (serving hot nutritious
meals), 25 food pantries and
three mobile food kitchens.
These programs are mostly based
in churches and community
organizations but also include
several municipal food
pantries. They range in size
from programs like the Thomas
Merton House and Bridgeport
Rescue Mission who serve three
meals a day, to programs that
serve once weekly. With the
impact of the economic downturn,
these programs served over 2
million meals to hungry people
in Bridgeport and the
surrounding suburbs (Monroe,
Fairfield, Stratford, Trumbull,
Easton) in 2009, up from 1.4
million meals the previous year.
Twenty-five agencies applied to
The Council of Churches for
funding for capacity expansion
projects for their programs.
After carefully reviewing the
various requests, CCGB used
funds from the Norma F. Pfriem
Grant for the purchase of 16
commercial freezers, 9
refrigerators, 14 storage
shelving systems, and 6 storage
room expansions. These various
projects effectively doubled the
capacity of the programs to
store food. This in turn
enables The Council of Churches
to realize the cost-saving
benefits of bulk purchasing,
particularly of non-perishable
foods – and streamlines the
Hunger Outreach Network’s
distribution processes in the
work of feeding hungry people.
Summerfield United Methodist
Church’s “Light on the Hill”
food pantry, located on the east
side of Bridgeport, at 110
Clermont Avenue, is one of the
twenty five feeding programs to
undertake a capacity expansion
project, made possible by the
generosity and civic-mindedness
of the trustees of The Norma F.
Pfriem Foundation.
The Black Rock
Food Pantry, located at
15 Princeton Street in
Bridgeport , purchased several
shelving units with
funding from the Norma F. Pfriem
Foundation, more than doubling
their storage capacity.
More
photos from Calvary St. George,
Daughters of Charity , St.
John's Church and Agape Food
Pantry.
