A Food Distribution Service Delivers Joy
By Michelle Madden
Photographs by Anne Day
“When kids are stealing food from the high school cafeteria it’s not just ‘what teenagers do.’ They’re stealing because they’re hungry.” Angela Chastain is the founder of the food service Camella’s Cupboard. She remembers her boys coming home from school and telling her that some kids never brought lunch. She began packing three sandwiches every day for her kids to give away.
Hunger is easily hidden. It could be the young teacher with a family, or the carpenter whose seats at the table more than double—from two to five—overnight. “Our triplets are now ten,” explain Bill and Jill, holding a box of cabbage, spaghetti squash, and microgreens. “They love cooking. With food like this, we can eat well.”
Chastain is well acquainted with hunger. Her mother, Camella, was one of eight, with an alcoholic father who moved the family every time he couldn’t pay the rent. Chastain began the organization in 2017 as a summer lunch program for youngsters who qualified for free school lunch. From this seed has grown an operation serving 800 families, and relying on 60 volunteers to collect, pack, stack, and distribute weekly. To date they have served more than 1 million “meals.”
Camella’s Cupboard differs from most pantries, as the staples are not canned goods but fresh produce, bread, dairy, and meat. Clients must have children at home, and be residents of the greater New Milford area, including Washington, Kent, and New Preston.
Outside the building, a line of cars is forming. Pick-up starts at 4:30 pm on Fridays at the Pettibone Community Center, but cars start coming at 2:30 pm. “We never run out of food,” says Chastain, “but families are excited.” One volunteer greets the driver and gets a headcount of children, to determine the number of mixed snack bags. “Three kids and a pack of size two pullups [diapers are distributed too],” she calls to another volunteer, then opens the trunk, and carefully lays the purple bags inside. By the time distribution is over at 7 pm, 250 families will have been served.
Food and personal items are donated from stores such as Big Y, Whole Foods, and Stew Leonard’s. The reasons are many, from slightly damaged containers to expiration dates approaching, or a company’s change of package graphics.
In the early days, Chastain relied exclusively on community donations. “I created an Amazon wish list with $25,000 worth of goods. By the end of the summer, everything was purchased. It was then that I knew we were going to be OK,“ she says, her eyes welling up with tears of gratitude. “Most of our donors are not wealthy. They are people who know that they may be one job away from needing this themselves.”
The virtuous cycle of giving is powerful. One of the women registering families is trilingual, and translates for those in need. When she is done, she will collect her own purple produce bags and bring the love home to her own family.—camellascupboard.com
