The Fund for the Community Dining Room of Branford

They are families without consistent access to food, or couples living paycheck to paycheck or older residents who just can’t make the Social Security check stretch any further. They face hard decisions about which bills to pay, and how they might trim the grocery budget.

“If you’re driving through our beautiful shoreline communities, you might not see that there are people in need sleeping in parks and churches or living in a tent over by the truck stop,” says Judith Barron, executive director of the Community Dining Room (CDR) in Branford.

All are welcome at the Community Dining Room, where people stop in at noon for a nutritious hot meal, which could be jambalaya with a rice medley and three-bean salad, or a vegetable frittata, shrimp scampi, or pasta bolognese. Homebound residents can have those meals delivered, and there are Family Meal Nights in the summer on local town greens with food, fun, a DJ spinning music, and take-out dinners available every Wednesday and Friday night.

“Our name explains who we are – a community dining room – and we purposefully look like a restaurant with a homey feeling,” Barron says. “It’s a nice quiet community setting where everyone can gather and show support to one another through food – seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

During the pandemic, emergency grants from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven helped the nonprofit respond to the crisis.

The Community Foundation’s support is why “we were able to keep our doors open during the pandemic. We never had to close and that was so important because there were even more people in need,” Barron says.

The CDR had to completely change their way of operating – serving all meals to go – and that meant increased expenses they hadn’t anticipated. The Foundation provided consultant help and myriad ways of support.

“The Foundation staff were there with us every step,” she says. “They had Zoom discussions with directors of nonprofits to help us pivot and find solutions and vent our frustrations, even talked with us about the burnout that staff and volunteers may be facing and how to help with that. The Community Foundation is just phenomenal.”

In order to sustain its operations for the long term, the nonprofit moved its endowment to the Community Foundation to be managed as an organization fund.

“Prudent investing with the Community Foundation helps insure we are here to serve the community for the future,” says Dan Armin, the chair of the CDR’s Board of Directors, “It is not just about the dollars. The Community Foundation’s support comes through their knowledge.  They provide us with tools like roundtable discussion, networking, education, and general support.”

When the CDR first opened in a local church, it served 11 meals in a day. Last year, they served 48,500 meals to residents of Branford, North Branford, East Haven and Guilford.

There are now more than 400 volunteers, with 15 serving in the kitchen at a time. “They learn how to cook delicious nutritious meals in bulk,” Barron said. “We make sure the plates are full of nutrition, because, for many of our participants, this may be the only meal they have.”

The food comes from donations from restaurants, stores, and individuals, and all funding support comes from individual donations, community partners and foundations.

Continued charitable support is vitally important because the CDR provides “more than just a meal,” Barron says. It also offers wraparound services including a diaper bank, advocacy for people who are unhoused, and links to resources for people with a variety of needs.

“Not only do we feed the body,” Barron says, “but we want to feed the soul as well.”