By Ellen Russell Beatty
Ponder This
Ellen Russell Beatty
Many people inquire about the purple boxes in varied locations around Milford. One constituent thought that these purple stations, resembling colorful mailboxes, might be drop-off stations for miniature libraries. In fact, these boxes are locations for the Purple Pantry initiative.
Founded during the pandemic, Purple Pantry is a food distribution project for those in the community experiencing food insecurity. The Purple Pantry webpage declares its mission as providing support to those in need. The boxes offer immediate food assistance on a self-indicated basis. The purple boxes are open 24 hours daily, seven days a week and 365 days a year. The philosophy of Purple Pantry translated into action is “Take what you need, leave what you want.”
There are currently 13 Purple Pantry boxes in Milford. These stations are filled daily with shelf-stable food by volunteers.
There are no paid staff members of any kind in the Purple Pantry project. This is an entirely volunteer organization so that 100 percent of food donations go directly to people in the Milford community facing food insecurity on either a temporary, episodic or more consistent basis. The pantry boxes are replenished daily by volunteers who operate private vehicles at their own expense to maintain the routes. Currently,18,00 food items are delivered each month with the program considered a major success that meets a unique and previously not fully recognized community need.
I first knew of Purple Pantry founder Susan Brown in her previous professional role as attorney, public defender and educator. Brown spent her professional life helping people and has carried that philosophy into her retirement. She is a highly competent, trustworthy, organized and hardworking individual.
Purple Pantry was started as a temporary project that uncovered food insecurity needs not previously recognized, even by those involved with programs designed to assist the needy. The participants of Purple Pantry are not served by any other government agencies or services. The targeted recipients fall outside of the parameters for seniors or disabled programs, so they are the proverbial “fall between the cracks” population. Many of the Milford residents helped by the program do not have home insecurity and can store and prepare food but still experience food insecurity.
Brown manages the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and does the fundraising along with volunteers. Purple Pantry has stepped up fundraising to create a sustainable revenue stream. The goal is to get food into the community with the fewest barriers – hence distribution boxes are embedded in the community for ease of access.
A long-term goal is to create additional space for perishable supplies, thus improving the nutritional value of the distributed food. The demand for the program has expanded with more requests for home delivery. This indicates that access to food remains a barrier even if people are not facing home insecurity.
The pantry box donations do not supply enough food to balance out the demand. There are necessary donations of food from Stop & Shop in Fairfield, other organizations and high school food bank projects help to meet the demand. The volunteers pick up donated food and then pack accordingly and distribute to the Purple Pantry boxes.
Purple Pantry has reached a turning point in development and looks to the next phase. With the aim of serving only Milford residents, there is need for additional space for perishable food storage along with increased need for home delivery to an underserved population.
It is important to note that the various church groups and nonprofit organizations are not in competition with one another. All efforts are directed at helping alleviate food insecurity and mutual aid and respect occurs among the different agencies. Purple Pantry has shared resources and food donations to Beth-El Center and other not-for-profit agencies in Milford.
Dr. Ellen Russell Beatty is in her fifth term on the Milford Board of Aldermen. She served seven years as Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at Southern Connecticut State University, and also served as interim Academic Vice president, Dean of Health & Human Services and Director of Faculty Development. In addition to the broad perspective and a multitude of skills required of high-level administrators, her areas of special expertise lie in strategic planning, accreditation, assessment and planning and budgetary allocation.