FOUNDING BREAD FOR LIFE

The roots of Bread for Life, our community soup kitchen, are very intertwined with our own.  In the 1980’s, delegates from 14 town churches met monthly as the Southington Social Action Council.  That group, and the churches they represented, founded 3 community service organizations: Bread for Life, Southington’s Food Pantry and The Margaret Griffin Early Childhood Center.  While we were represented by several delegates through the years, Rose Dunlap represented us as Bread for Life began.  3 churches, including our own, offered their facilities as a home for Bread for Life in the early years.  The soup kitchen rotated sites, staying a week at each church and serving meals 3 times/week.  Food was kept in 6 different homes around town.  In addition to being a host church, our church also provided money, food and workers on a regular basis.  Darlene Steele (1^st Baptist) and Mary Ann Soboleski (St. Paul’s) coordinated Bread for Life, and it was first opened to the public in our church on 9/10/84.  In the 30 years since, Bread for Life has had a significant place in our community, filling a need that no other organization has filled.  Some 40-50 people per day and more are fed year-round at Bread for Life.  Though St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has housed the soup kitchen for many years now, ours is one of 13 churches still sponsoring it with both funds and workers on a regular basis.  Darlene Steele still and always does a superb job as its Director.  At this point in time, both the soup kitchen and St. Paul’s Church are in need of more space.  Therefore, creative ways of moving Bread for Life to a new site, maybe even its own site, are being sought and explored.  We are sure to be part of that process too.