The Connecticut Food Bank will open a new distribution center in Bridgeport on Mountain Grove Street in late spring. The new facility, which will replace the Food Bank’s existing Fairfield County location at 74 Linwood Connecticut Food Bank moving Fairfield operation to BridgeportAve. in Fairfield, will offer increased fresh food storage capacity, better docking operations and more accessible space for community and volunteer engagement, according to Connecticut Food Bank CEO Bernard Beaudreau.
“We continue to seek ways to meet growing need in our communities,” said Beaudreau, “and to increase access for our member programs providing critically needed food to nearly 148,000 people in our six-county service area each month.”
Beaudreau said the move from Fairfield brings the Food Bank distribution hub closer to the more than 100 community-based programs in Bridgeport.
“Fairfield County is home to more than a third of the people the Connecticut Food Bank serves,” he said. “In the past seven months, we have distributed 4.1 million meals to neighbors in need in the county. More than 94,000 of our Fairfield County neighbors struggle with hunger.”
Beaudreau said an average of about 50,000 individuals in Fairfield County are served each month by 232 partner programs, including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and others the Connecticut Food Bank supplies with food. According to Beaudreau, half of the people served in the area live in the city of Bridgeport.
The new building will be on a single level, feature a new, 1,200-square-foot cooler and freezer, and include a meeting space that will offer member programs and community groups a place to convene outside of their own buildings.
The building will also offer more space for volunteers who currently assist with food packaging for the Connecticut Food Bank Kids’ BackPack program, which serves more than 3,300 children each week in 111 schools across its service area.
