Home/Stay Informed/All Diocesan Articles

All Diocesan Articles

 

 

St. Vincent de Paul, Middletown Much More than Food and Fellowship

Posted on May 04, 2023 in: News, Volunteer Opportunities

St. Vincent de Paul, Middletown Much More than Food and Fellowship

Through its soup kitchen and Amazing Grace Food Pantry, St. Vincent de Paul, Middletown has provided meals and groceries to those in need for 43 years. 

Our soup kitchen opened with a shelter on Main Street in 1980 as a response to homelessness in our city. The kitchen was modeled after what Dorothy Day started in New York City during the Great Depression: a place to get a warm meal and fellowship. 

Today, we’ve expanded our soup kitchen model to do much more than feed people and provide fellowship. As our community and its needs change, so must our programs for those in need.

Nothing has affected our soup kitchen guests more than the opioid crisis. Today, death from opioid drug use is a norm and one we see every day in the soup kitchen. Our staffers have saved many lives in the last three years by administering NARCAN during an overdose.

While we saved lives by feeding and sheltering people, we have to do much more today to help our soup kitchen guests work toward recovery. Recovery takes many shapes and is specific to each individual. It can be recovery from homelessness, recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, recovery from domestic violence and abuse, recovery from toxic relationships.

We’ve thought long and hard about recovery in our soup kitchen and in the last two years have transformed the program to a recovery model of care.

First, we revamped the dining room into an inviting space. We transformed how we prepare and serve food. We added a salad bar, cut out desserts and now cook most meats and fish in a convection oven and use healthy fats. Organic eggs come from our backyard chickens daily, and we serve whole grains.

There’s no shortage of meals: guests can have seconds whenever they want more during breakfast and lunch. We educated our guests and surveyed them on what they want to eat. Working with our community food drive groups, we were able to provide them with healthy options in abundance. 

Preparing healthy meals, growing our own food and providing choices has strengthened the diets of our guests and given them greater ability to maintain their health. 

Secondly, we had to heal our guests’ spirit and minds, often so stricken with mental illness and addictions. 

We brought in master-level occupational students and opened the dining room every afternoon to provide programs that engaged our guests in healthy activities, such as trivia, chess, karaoke, gardening, fishing trips and cell phone and computer training. Known as occupational justice, the activities provide the framework for our guests to learn positive socialization skills, engage in healthy activities and reduce addiction, along with the stigma that can come with mental illness. 

As part of our weekly Clean Crew, guests sign up to clean our Main Street and its storefronts. It’s a way to give back to our community. Each guest who volunteers gets a gift card in return for their labor. The pride they feel and the thanks they receive from our business community lifts their spirits. They are seen as an asset rather than a problem in our city.

Our farm-to-table gardening program allows the students to take guests to tend crops and then enjoy eating what they grow. Guests can also volunteer daily in the kitchen by cleaning, stocking, dishwashing and tidying the grounds. They receive a gift card for their efforts. 

We have a social worker and licensed clinician in the dining room weekly to connect guests to treatment, mental health care, substance abuse treatment and housing. The dining room, rich with access to services in the community, eliminates the cumbersome, complex system to provide access to treatment on all fronts. 

Vinnie and Paula, our resident pet rabbits, are trained to be in our offices. Guests are welcome to visit them, and they provide joy for our staff, who work so hard and often spend a few minutes with the rabbits to ease their day. Offering a non-judgmental, peaceful and soothing relationship, rabbits are known to be very effective around individuals with trauma histories.

Our chickens, known as the Holy Hens, not only provide organic eggs. They and the rabbits eat most of our produce waste we would otherwise put in the trash. We are doing our small part to reduce our carbon footprint.

Our recovery programs give guests a safe place to be together, learn coping strategies, gain sobriety and abstain from drugs. The work is based on simple principles. As the saying goes, “Give a person a fish to eat and they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and they eat for life.”

The program teaches individuals how to live in their community with greater ability to make better choices, reduce alcoholism and other addictions, gain greater mental health and begin to believe they can overcome what has kept them at our soup kitchen.

Most soup kitchens and food pantries measure success on how many meals were served or how many pounds of food were given. While these outcomes are impressive and provide food security to many, we must look to the underlying issues of food insecurity for truly reaching sustainable outcomes to those we serve.

The outcomes for success of our recovery services are much smaller than in our meals served and pounds of food provided. Our recovery services work to give guests a path to change habits that keep them oppressed, ill and at risk of dying far too young.

Our core mission is to provide meals and groceries, supportive housing and a safety net. We will continue to work on recovery initiatives, and to strengthen those we serve so that they may live and thrive.

By MaryEllen Shuckerow


Most Viewed Articles of the Last 30 Days

Episcopal Ordination of Archbishop Kevin Randall: Video and Pictures
The motto Sub Umbra Crucis, or “Under the Shadow of the Cross,” underscored the special and holy gathering Nov. 4, 2023 at the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Norwich to celebrate the Episcopal ordination of The Most Rev. Kevin S. Randall to Titular Archbishop of Glenndalocha and Apostolic Nuncio to Bangladesh. “The cross is for us inevitable,” Archbishop Randall said in his remarks following his ordination, “But bearing it brings us our salvation.” The Most Reverend Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, con...

Read More

A Prayer of Thanksgiving - 2023

Posted on November 16, 2023 in: News, Reflections

1845

A Prayer of Thanksgiving - 2023
Heavenly Creator, In this season of gratitude and abundance, we give You thanks for our many blessings as we pray for all who struggle with hunger and want. Be with them in the dark of night, when all hope seems lost. Keep their faith strong as they await relief. Let Your goodness flow throughout our hearts and hands as we reach out to one another in the full, true joy of Thanksgiving in Christ. Amen

Read More

Prayers for Our Veterans

Posted on November 09, 2023 in: News

1140

Prayers for Our Veterans
"God of compassion, we remember and honor those who have served our country with courage and sacrifice. Bless them and their families. Grant strength to the injured and comfort to those who have lost loved ones. May your peace surround them, and may we, as a nation, strive for a world where conflict is replaced by understanding. Amen."   “Dear Lord, Today we honor our veterans, worthy men and women who gave their best when they were called upon to serve and protect their country. We pray that you will bless them for their unselfish service i...

Read More

Rest in Peace- Deacon Anthony Dombkowski

Posted on November 13, 2023 in: News, Vocations

1139

Rest in Peace- Deacon Anthony Dombkowski
Deacon Anthony Dombkowski   Deacon Anthony Dombkowski, a Permanent Deacon of the Diocese of Norwich, died on Sunday, November 12, 2023. Obituary and arrangements are below.    Griswold-  Anthony Dombkowski of 163 Geer Road, Griswold died on November 12, 2023 after a years-long struggle with Parkinson's disease.   Anthony was born on February 24, 1938 and was a lifelong resident of Griswold Connecticut. He attended Griswold High School and later proudly served in the United States Marine Corps. He worked as a pipefitter and we...

Read More

Spiritual Solidarity: Parishioners Unite to Pray the Rosary
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)           In a powerful and uplifting display of unity and faith, over 80 parishioners from St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Colchester and St. Francis Assisi Catholic Church in Lebanon gathered on Sunday, November 19th, in Lebanon, to pray the Rosary. The occasion? A response to the introduction of a controversial 'Satan Club' at Lebanon Elemen...

Read More

Welcoming the Stranger: Archbishop Kevin S. Randall Embraces Diversity, Service in Bangladesh as Church's new Apostolic Nuncio
Archbishop Kevin S. Randall had the opportunity recently to celebrate Mass with members of Connecticut’s Bangladeshi community, a tight-knit group of about 600 worshipers based in Manchester.  A well-traveled man who has served in Roman Catholic diplomatic posts on four continents, Archbishop Randall, the Church’s newly-named Apostolic Nuncio to Bangladesh,c “We’re a country of immigrants and it takes different forms at different times. It’s interesting to see what attracts them,” the New London native said several weeks before...

Read More

Annual Fundraiser

Help Us Spread the Word with Your Gift

Your 100% tax deductible gift will help us continue to bring the gospel message and the news of the diocese to the faithful throughout eastern Connecticut and the world. Your generosity helps defray the production costs of our print, online, and email newsletter editions of the Four County Catholic, as well as enhancing our Social Media presence. 
 

For those who would rather mail their gift click here.

 
Signup for Weekly Newsletter


    Recently Added Galleries
    Click to view album: Nativity photos
    Click to view album: Archbishop Kevin S. Randall - Episcopal Ordination, Nov. 4, 2023
    Click to view album: Rite of Election
    Click to view album: Mass of Ordination  for Fr. Jacob Ramos
    Latest Articles
    Calendar of Events
    What are the Precepts of the Church?
    The Annual Convocation for Priests in the Diocese of Norwich - Dec. 4-6
    Church Craft Fairs & Bazaars
    Preparing Heart and Home: Meaningful Advent Activities for Families
    Celebrate: The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12
    COP 28: U.S. Bishops Call for International Climate Policies that Promote Justice
    Where has the Reverence Gone? 

    Annual Catholic Appeal

    ACA DONATE

    English

     

    Español

     

    Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich
    201 Broadway
    Norwich, CT 06360-4328
    Phone: 860-887-9294