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Daily Bread West
A "Super Pantry" for Danbury
| Our long search for a new location is over! We have signed a lease for the first floor of 125 Park Avenue - just one mile west of Terrace Place. |
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The new location, which formerly housed the Military Museum of Southern New England, will be open six days a week and incorporate best practices for modern food pantries.
The building needs some changes for our use, so we will not be ready to open until early fall at best. But if you would like to see the space now, and hear more about our plans, we've set aside some dates to take a tour.
| Can't make the tour? Have a look at the proposed layout below. And please reach out with questions at any time. This is a huge endeavor, and we can only make it work with everyone's help and support. | |
2024 Commemorative T-Shirts!
What could be more exciting than moving to a new location TEN TIMES bigger than our current space? Only the prospect of free stuff of course! Yep, our 40th Anniversary T-shirts are available to order NOW. If you have volunteered in 2024, your first shirt is free - but you MUST place your order before May 5. Additional shirts can be purchased for $20.
| Sample colors and styles. Click the "Order" button for more choices | | |
Daily Bread Children's Book Club! A few weeks ago, all our younger guests got to take home a copy of Cows Can't Jump - in English or bilingual Spanish and Portuguese editions. This fantastic initiative was made possible by super-generous volunteer Sirely Shaldjian (pictured at right with Gladys "I love you all" Almonte). Plot twist: Cows CAN jump, just not very high, and certainly not over the moon. | | |
In what historians believe is a Daily Bread first, we had a baby shower at the Pantry! Loyal volunteer Ana Barragan is expecting, and the Daily Bread family really stepped up with a huge amount of baby paraphernalia to welcome the impending new arrival. Pictured (L to R) are Baby Shower Committee member Elizabeth Day, big sis (pending) Angela, mom-to-be Ana, and her hubby Marco. | | |
Our hard-working van took a trip down to Norwalk the other day to pick up a ton or more of super-fresh cantaloupes. Our wonderful partner Food Rescue US did a phenomenal job organizing this opportunity, working with The Farmlink Project to source the fruit. Norwalk Department of Public Works pitched in with logistical support. Special thanks to Haley Schulman (pictured), Laney Lloyd, and Karen Saggese at Food Rescue US for including us in such bounty. | | |
Missed the recent eclipse? Can't have enough news about cantaloupes? We've got you covered! In a rare conjunction, watch as a melon transits an orange at a recent distribution. Don't stare at the orange!! And in other news, we had an earthquake smack in the middle of our April 5 distribution. Surely another Daily Bread first! | |
Announced with much fanfare only a month ago, our driverless home delivery system has been nixed by safety-mad bureaucrats at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Sure, we had a few fiery crashes - who hasn't? - but this seems like a massive overreaction. Anyone need a modified robot vacuum cleaner that can outrun a Porsche 911? | |
Once again, Daily Bread walked away with the "Best Swag" award at this year's Danbury Health Fair. Other exhibitors gave away the usual pens, key rings etc. We gave away "Cutie" mandarin oranges, and adorable bunny baskets full of (mostly) sugarless candy and kid's toothpaste. Thank you to Maria Johnson and Julie Johnson for giving up their Saturday to staff our table. And to Mary Gonzalez for the bunny baskets. | |  |
What's more fun than volunteering at Daily Bread? Volunteering at Daily Bread with your best bud of course! Maria J. and Julie J. (previous News Bite) have gone so far as to show up with the same name, but Sharon Sass and Diana Friedlander are giving them some serious competition by showing up with the same handbag. We're gonna have to call that a draw. Do YOU have a best bud who is not volunteering? Bring 'em along! | | |
Snackfest Triple Threat!
Something Lesser Evil This Way Comes
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Local hero company Lesser Evil pulled out all the stops to help us out in April with a three-pronged initiative. First up was to supply us with a small army of enthusiastic volunteers to staff up our Tuesday and Friday distributions. Next, they donated SEVEN PALLETS of yummy gourmet popcorn and other snacks. | | |
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Finally, they organized a hugely succesful food drive - so big it had to arrive in two separate installments. Thank you to everyone at Lesser Evil who participated in any or all of these activities. Special thanks to Sophie Sallusto for coordinating everything (pictured at right with colleague Megan Reid).
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Dawg House Does It Again! | The last couple of months have seen us receive some wonderful donations, whether financial or in-kind, and it is always difficult to single any one out. Sometimes it boils down to the best picture, and this one is hard to beat. Thank you to Jess and all her clients at The Dawg House for another hugely succesful food drive. Gita (at left), you are a good girl too! | | |
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Top Secret Project!
Shhhhh!
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A while back, we received a unique (and extremely expensive) donation that has been sitting in storage because we currently have no space to install it.
But working with the incredible folks at Sox Box Software (makers of our pantry management IT system), we have developed a custom integration that will amaze and delight. Provided you are easily amazed and delighted, of course. What is this mysterious thing? We can only say there is a clue buried deep in this Newsletter, somewhere.
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