The Mayor’s Office, United Way, and Foodshare are working together to offer another Farmers to Families Produce Distribution program in Bristol.
Upcoming dates have been scheduled for the following Saturdays: February 27, March 13 and March 27th.
Distribution will take place from 10am-Noon or until all boxes are distributed. The location for these events is the Public Works Garage, located at 95 Vincent P Kelly Road.
Those participating are advised to follow the signs from Middle Street to Cross Street, right onto Lake Avenue and a right onto Vincent P Kelly Road.
“The free program is sponsored from a grant through the United States Department of Agriculture and is being handled now through Foodshare. The boxes include meat products, vegetables, and dairy products like yogurt, cheese and milk. We reserve the right to limit boxes so we can have maximum households receive something. If you have multiple households in one car, we will try to accommodate people to the best of our ability,” said Donna Osuch, President of the United Way.
“During the pandemic, we have realized that Food Insecurity is a community issue, and we are very excited that this program is back for 2021,” said Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu. “The boxes are large, so we also encourage people to share with a neighbor or family members to ensure nothing goes to waste.”
Volunteers will be pre-selected by the United Way and the Mayor’s Office in order to adhere to COVID guidelines.Anyone who is not registered to be a volunteer that day will be asked to leave in order to ensure the safety of both the volunteers and the community. If you would like to put your name on the list to volunteer, you may call the United Way of West Central Connecticut at 860-582-9559 or the City of Bristol All Heart Hotline at 860-584-6253.
The entire distribution is contact-less and adheres to all COVIDprecautions. In the event there is a major snowstorm, the snow date will be the next day on Sunday, February 28th.
“We strongly ask that people NOT arrive early,” said Police Chief Brian Gould. “That negatively impacts our ability to set up and negatively impacts the traffic flow on local streets.”