Covid19 pick up procedure

Due to the Covid-19 safety concerns we pack food boxes for delivery to clients' vehicles instead of letting them enter Pilgrim House."

For the safety of everyone.

 

Cooler for dairy products

We were thrilled to be the recipient of a beautiful cooler for dairy in October.

Amanda Freund, of Freund's Farm, helped us apply to New England Dairy to obtain the cooler.

Ready for Autumn at Pilgrim House

Early fall colors in our vegetable and herb garden signal the end of the growing season.

We are getting in the spirit of fall holidays and will distribute soup, oatmeal and other cold weather staples to our clients.

USDA Farmers to Families Program

Above is one of four weekly deliveries of 25 boxes we received through the USDA Farmers to Families Program during the month of October.

Each box of fresh produce, milk, dairy and processed meat contained food to feed a family of four for a week.

We are very thankful to Friendly Hands Food Pantry in Torrington for organizing the distribution for our area.

Community Food Production Garden

We are so thankful to Catie Aakjar for establishing a Community/Food Production Garden this summer as well as the many people that helped support and maintain it.

The bountiful 250-lb. harvest including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, lettuce, kale and squash was all donated to Fishes and Loaves.

Your support is needed

Fishes and Loaves at The Pilgrim House

Letter from our Director:

We continue to be amazed by the food contributions that come through our doors; many times with no indication of who the donor is. Serving people in need from Canaan, Falls Village and Norfolk, we are privileged to have this very important work within our church. The pantry originally opened by Lois Carlson in 1992 as a church-supported program. 

We are more than just peanut butter, jelly and tuna fish. 

We are about making people feel more secure about where their food is coming from.  Our clients depend onus to provide some of their staples; whether that is potatoes or rice, tuna fish or peanut butter, onions or apples, cereal or mac and cheese, milk, eggs, chicken, beef, pork, black-eyed peas, hummus chips, greenbeans, spinach, cabbage, kale and bread. Sometimes, thanks to generous donors, we offer coffee and cakes; and for Valentines Day every client who came to the Pilgrim House walked out with chocolate truffles.

Our prolific alliance with Stop & Shop, through a partnership with the Connecticut Food Bank, yields donations to our pantry three times a week. From the CT Food Bank we also receive meat, produce, eggs, milk and dry goods, which are delivered to us on a regular basis. This requires weekly and monthly reporting plus yearly inspections and staff training. We also travel to Waterbury to pick up turkey and all the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal.

Next are the community churches, which notably include: St. Joseph Catholic Church, Canaan United Methodist Church and Canaan Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Bill Knutson finishes unloading a huge donation from 

The Seventh Day Adventist Church.  

This is the south storage room a major facelift.

There are many organizations that we depend upon. These include: Community Foundation of NWConnecticut, Music for Food at Music Mountain, Immaculate Conception Church, The

Boy Scouts of America, CropWalk, The Canaan Foundation, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, The Archdiocese of Hartford, Daughters of Isabella, The Salisbury Rotary Club, Geer Village, Northwest Connecticut YMCA, North Canaan Elementary School, Local 1303 AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Berkshire School and Salisbury School. Salisbury Bank holds collections for food and money on a regular basis. 

We would like to mention one particular individual who generously donates turkeys to us twice a year: Known as NASCAR Dave, he is Dave MacMillan of Millerton, New York. We also collaborate with Pet Partners and can provide our clients with dog and cat food. There are, of course, many farmers, businesses and individuals who donate food as well as monetary funds to Fishes and Loaves. We celebrate all the individuals and organizations that support us.

We are currently providing more food to each client than we ever have before. Clients are actually able to shop for the food that they want from our store shelves.

Helping people get enough food for their families is gratifying work for the staff of Fishes and Loaves. We feel it is an honor and are all committed to what we do. We strive to make people feel comfortable and welcome at Pilgrim House. We care.

We are available to anyone from North Canaan, Falls Village or Norfolk who needs food. 

 Some folks need help for just a week or two and others for a more extended period of time. Looking toward the future, we have these goals:

• To raise the community’s awareness of our program.
• To make everyone who walks through our doors at Pilgrim House feel welcome.
• To reach more of the community members who are in need of our services.
• To increase the nutritional value of the food we distribute.
• To have the food pantry open every week, unless severe weather conditions prohibit.

We help people cope with the struggle.

Please send your funding donor gifts to:

Fishes & Loaves Food Pantry
P.O. Box 306
North Canaan  CT 06018

Thank you for your continued support and generosity.

Louise Riley, Director
 

Her spirit lives on

Volunteer Peg Cser’s spirit, who sadly passed away but will long live on here.

Local Eggs

Local farmers are very thoughtful in donating eggs when their hens produce an overabundance! 

We thank Farmer Foley, in particular, for his generosity.

Product labeling

Gladys explains product labeling to Louise.

Keeping things organized

Barb checks the squash while Gladys organizes the meat.

Meet our Director

Louise Riley joined as director in April, 2018.

Keeping things straight

Catie Aakjar greets clients and ensures that we maintain the proper paperwork.

Volunteer Manager

Gladys Wilcox is the volunteer manager of Fishes and Loaves. 

She oversees operation of the pantry, regularly picks up food from 

Stop and Shop, and brings items no longer suitable for clients to a local pig farmer. 

She also takes excess bread and pastries to the Corner Food Pantry in Lakeville.

Salvation Army summer help

We were very thankful to receive 25 boxes of mixed food bi-weeklly over the summer from the statewide Salvation Army. 

 This helped us offer patrons the food they needed."