Enfield Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen volunteers.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
ENFIELD — Enfield Loaves and Fishes, a soup kitchen that serves the greater Hartford area, is currently seeking volunteers for the summer.
Executive Director Maya Matthews explained that the nonprofit organization is mostly volunteer run with about 80 active volunteers throughout the week, but their roster consists of over 500.
The soup kitchen has various corporate groups that come in when they have volunteer days, along with church groups that volunteer on the weekends or on specified days that they do every month and have been doing for years.
While the kitchen has head chefs during the week that are scheduled out, Matthews noted that they have lost a few chefs over the years, which has affected some of the days.
During the summer months especially, a lot of the volunteer groups are on vacation, hanging out with family, among other summer activities, which makes the kitchen even more short staffed.
To fill this void, Matthews said they are looking to take anyone willing to volunteer.
On the Enfield Loaves and Fishes website, enfieldloavesandfishes.org, Matthews explained that there is a tab where people can view the daily schedule, which is broken up into two shifts — 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3-5:30 p.m. Each shift has an explanation on what type of work will entail.
Some of the work includes cleaning, basic food prep such as making salads, washing and chopping vegetables, and dishwashing.
During the day, Matthews said the kitchen usually has “fairly large” crews because that’s when they receive deliveries.
“We get truck loads that come in throughout the week that need to be sorted through; anything that’s not good needs to be discarded,” she said.
For serving, Matthews said they are comfortable with having eight to 10 people every night on the serving line, as well as to be there to do dishes.
There is also someone that mans the “giveaway room,” which is the pantry aspect of the kitchen.
“We’ve got people that are on the side that are sometimes preparing [things] like peeling and cutting up potatoes for the next day’s meal; anything that may be time consuming for the crew we like to have some extra people preparing that food for the next day,” Matthews said.
For those interested in volunteering, Matthews explained that the process can be done online, by visiting the Enfield Loaves and Fishes website and clicking on the volunteer tab. Based on one’s interests from the shift descriptions, there is a sign up button to upload your information.
Once you have signed up within the system, click the schedule button that signs you up for what shifts you want.
Matthews said they have shifts open throughout the end of the year so people can pick what day and time works best for them.
Established in 1983, Enfield Loaves and Fishes celebrated its 40th anniversary last year.
Serving the greater Hartford area, Matthews said, “We are the only soup kitchen in the area for about a 20-mile radius around us.”
She went on to say, “It started off as an after-school lunch program for about a dozen kids back in the ‘80s and it has grown to an operation where we provide one hot meal a day, seven days a week.”
The soup kitchen serves anyone that walks through its doors, without asking.
“Anybody that walks in gets dinner. And we’re talking 50 to 75 [people], to our busiest time in the fall or winter, about 100 people a day,” said Matthews.
“Our mission is really to battle food insecurity in the community, no matter who it is or what they look like,” she shared.
The soup kitchen opens for drinks at 3:30 p.m., Sunday through Friday. Dinner is served from 4-5 p.m. On Saturday, the kitchen provides a lunch service, with the doors opening around 11 a.m. and lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Matthews explained that it is a rotating menu. “We’re partnered with Connecticut Food Share and Connecticut Food Share is a large operation that partners with all of the grocery stores and they employ a food rescue program so this is if something is like labeled incorrectly from the stores, they bring it in and they relabel it but it can’t be resold so that goes to us. If they have too much of a product, we get that overspill. If it’s something that doesn’t sell well, we’ll get that or if it’s something that will go out of date by the time it’s processed through and reaches the product shelves at the grocery store, we get that product as well,” she said.
Matthews noted that about 85% of the food they receive is donated through the Connecticut Food Share Program.
“Depending on what we get donated is what we’ll make for dinner,” she said.
When individuals come in for food, they receive a sit-down meal. Matthews said the only time they have a takeout service is if the kitchen were going to be closed the next day, either for inclement weather or a major holiday. “If we know that that is going to happen, we make sure that everybody has a takeout meal the night before so that it can hold them over for that day that we are not open,” she explained.
She continued, “The majority of our folks are actually homeless and if they don’t eat with us, they don’t eat at all.”
In addition to the daily meal, there is also a pantry aspect to the kitchen. “Once they’re done eating their sit-down meal, we provide them with food from our side room which can be bread, snacks, we definitely give them drinks — especially in the summertime, we [got to] keep people hydrated — so they have something to take with them, to hold them over throughout the next day until they can come see us the next night.”
Matthews noted that the soup kitchen is 100% donation and grant based. She is the grant writer for the organization and has been the executive director for almost three years.
She shared that they receive a lot of individual donations and a lot of corporations in the area are keeping them afloat.
“It’s really just out of the kindness of people’s hearts that we exist,” Matthews added.
Enfield Loaves and Fishes is at 23 N. Main St. in Enfield. For more information, visit enfieldloavesandfishes.org.
