Delicious Grab-and-Go Lunches and Dinners Are Served Outdoors Weekdays at Four
Times have gotten hard for everyone, and Enfield Loaves & Fishes announced that it has seen an unprecedented demand for meals amid the coronavirus pandemic and the economic shutdown that has accompanied it.
But, it also announced that it is continuing to operate seven days a week and to offer delicious meals made from scratch to anyone who is hungry. Today will be their 36th day of serving meals, outside, to comply with the mandatory “social distancing” rules.
Dinner is served, along with a lunch, weekdays and Sundays at 4 p.m. till 5 p.m. Saturday’s hours have changed. The day’s meals are served at 11:30 a.m. till 12:30 p.m.
“The other day, we served more than 200 meals, come, more than double our usual number,” said Director Priscilla Brayson. “We’ve never seen anything like this. We’re grateful to all who donate food and volunteer with us because we’d never be able to do any of this without them. If you have a hungry family, not everyone from your family needs to show up. You can say you have six hungry people at home, and we’ll give you seven to-go meals.”
As Connecticut’s shutdown of many businesses promises to continue for about another month at minimum, Brayson realizes it might become even more difficult for her group to feed the hungry.
“We know that grocery stores are already depleted in many cases, and we’ve had to spend a lot of money from our own coffers.”
Recent dinners have included: a Thanksgiving-style feast accompanied by all the fixin’s; chicken cacciatore, pancakes, home fries, and Canadian bacon; hot dogs and beans; and spaghetti with homemade meatballs.
“There are so many to thank: the grocery stores, the churches, the people who come in to help, in some cases every day,” Brayson said.
Donations in the form of food, supplies, and money are still enormously appreciated and can be dropped off at the back door on Thompson Court. We are on the left side, white building attached to a church. Priscilla Brayson kindly asks that you call ahead to announce you are coming: 860-741-0226.
“We know it’s hard for the vast majority of people right now, but for those who can, we would appreciate their donations now more than ever before.”
Brayson, who herself is elderly and asthmatic, and therefore more susceptible to getting sick with the virus, said she wasn’t worried about it, instead quoting the Bible verse: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” She supervises the soup kitchen’s operations every day.