New London It’s early on a Friday morning and the main gathering room at the New London Senior Center is abuzz with activity. A group of volunteers is furiously sorting through food that covers tables stretching the length of the room.
The senior center has been shut down throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the gathering space once used for things like bingo and yoga is transformed to accommodate the once-weekly headquarters of a mutual aid program some are calling “Food for the People Delivery Pantry Program.”
It doesn’t really have a formal name and it doesn’t advertise. But the collaborative effort to supply food to some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, much of it delivered to front doors, has spread by word-of-mouth and continues to grow.
New London For a few frantic hours, Linda Berard worried that a single positive COVID-19 test of an employee at the New London Community Meal Center might have a devastating domino effect.
That positive case led the meal center to make a tough call and turn away the volunteers lined up to cook for the week at the center’s Montauk Avenue kitchen.
Because of the center’s small paid staff, volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization and help to prepare as many as 300 meals per day, including about 120 that are shuttled each day to the New London Homeless Hospitality Center.
New London When Thomas “Chef Tomm” Johnson began his Whalers Helping Whalers initiative early in the pandemic to help feed the masses, he had no idea how long the need would last.
It’s eight months later and, after a break after summer, Johnson is at it again and leading a band of volunteers to raise money, secure food, cook the food and deliver upward of 600 meals each week to people in need.
With the high school under construction, Johnson, who is the culinary department manager at New London High School, has found a new home at the Elks Lodge in New London for his activities.