The Need

The Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen’s efforts have been a blessing to the “food insecure” of the New Haven area since 1987. Today, an increasing number of families frequent DESK’s evening meals and participate weekly in the food pantry program. In fact, over 80% of DESK’s pantry requests comprise food items intended for children. The two demographic groups most frequently served are black and white men, respectively, but sadly, children constitute the fastest growing sector of those relying on the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen.

From January 2004 to June 2005, DESK experienced large increases in the need for food. DESK serves an average of 125 people per evening, assembles 30 bag lunches every day, and provides over 100 bags of groceries each week to the food insecure in New Haven. From January 2005 to June 2005, the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen served over 24,253 meals to its guests, distributed 2,675 food bags to those in need, and provided 4,694 bag lunches for the working poor.

April 2005 saw the greatest demand for DESK’s services in the organization’s history: 5,716 meals were served (an increase of 100%), 402 food bags were provided (an increase of 98%), and the number of 855 bag lunches were distributed (an increase of 155%).

PROGRAM STATISTICS

DESK is beginning to see increasing numbers of children and women at both our evening meals and our weekly food pantry. The impact of these DESK programs on families and children is enormous, and increasingly many working families with children depend on DESK to help supplement their meals on a daily basis. All of the DESK programs and services have been ongoing over the past ten years and are available for free to any individual or family in need.