Safe Net Ministry - Food Cupboard of Stafford Springs, Connecticut

In January 2010 our ministry opened the Safe Net Food Cupboard at 68 Main Street in Stafford Springs, CT. The Food Cupboard was relocated to 86 Main Street February 2011. This Food Cupboard serves Stafford and Union residents and any member of their congregations. In 2011 Safe Net distributed 101,000 pounds of food to 283 families that represents 767 people, of which 265 our children. This is 75,160 meals. Over the past 2 years we have distributed a total of 190,979 pounds of food, for a total 144,160 meals. Our volunteers logged an astounding 3,990 hours. An average distribution takes a 173 volunteer hours to perform. For the second year the food cupboard team also distributed about 65 backpacks to children with school supplies appropriate to their grade levels. This not only helps the children, it also assists the teachers, many of whom purchase school supplies with their own money. The team also started a new program for children during August called “Breakfast and Beyond.” Children were able to pick up a bag of food for breakfast and snacks for later in the day. We distributed 444lbs. of food. This filled a void after the town recreational programs ended. We also distributed 130 turkeys this Thanksgiving along with a $20 gift card to The Stafford Food Center for the fixings. The Gift Cards were donated by Stafford Family Services, for which we are all very grateful. Increased community support was exhibited by the 20,560lbs. of food collected by local food drives: Feinstein challenge 3,415lbs.; Postal Food Drive 3,715lbs; TTM 1,600lbs. and the 11,560lbs donated by private collections. In 2011 it cost $31,766 to operate this cupboard. Safe Net is a Foodshare partner which enables us to obtain food at an average cost of 17 cents a pound. According to Foodshare the Safe Net Ministries Food Cupboard is one of the top performing cupboards in their network. This is a remarkable advantage to Safe Net in meeting our goal of eliminating hunger in our town. There is no reason someone should be hungry in Stafford or Union! Qualification for food stamps (or as it is now called SNAP) is 185% of poverty; however Safe Net is able to distribute to families at 235% of poverty. This enables us to assist those who fall just short of the mark, along with those on SNAP and other state and federal programs. We do this at no cost to the people we serve. Safe Net’s primary mission is to assist those whose income is just a little over the cut off for services. All we require is that prospective recipients come to the Food Cupboard with a picture ID and fill out a self-declaration of income form.