Community Table/Mesa Comunitaria by Windham Communnity Food Network
Since June of 2020, Windham Community Food Network has been coordinating grocery delivery to Windham area residents in need. The project is called Community Table/Mesa Comunitaria and Grow Windham's Youth CORE is one of the growers- a project of the Windham Regional Community Council whose mission is, " To cultivate relationships and creates space for youth, community members, and food system partners to work together to build a stronger community and local food system. "
Through the project, weekly boxes are delivered to residents that weigh anywhere from 10-25lbs and are full of produce gleaned from local farms and grown by community gardens and home gardeners, non-perishable items from pantries, and other items purchased from grocery stores.
The program has been serving 20-22 families weekly since June and plan to continue until at least next fall. The families who receive the grocery boxes were identified through recommendations from community members, non-profit agencies and churches in Willimantic.
Alongside Windham Community Food Network, there are three community volunteers who are in charge of doing the grocery shopping and deliveries and are paid stipends for their time. This past summer they also had five home gardeners who were given free seeds and seedlings to grow extra food for the program and three farmers who were paid stipends to let them glean extra produce from them as well.
What's unique about their program, besides the delivery, is that each of the recipients are surveyed to find out their food preferences which allows them to stuff their boxes with more intentional items so community members receive things they enjoy while also cutting down on waste.
The majority of the summer was funded through a crowdfunding campaign GROW Windham did on IOBY and they have also received some small grants to supplement the program from the Women and Girls Fund, Neighborfund and the Community Foundation, and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Foundation who funds the bulk of WCFN's work though.
For questions and more information, please contact Windham Community Food Network at windhamfood@gmail.com.
Photo thanks to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care