Support Basic Needs and Food Systems
Since 1996, American Savings Foundation has awarded over $1.7 million to meet basic needs and address food insecurity in the 64 Connecticut towns we serve.
Since its inception, the Foundation has supported families through grants to organizations that provide groceries, bagged lunches, warm meals, clothes, toiletries, diapers, and so much more.
Someone experiences “food insecurity” when they have difficultly affording or accessing healthy, nutritious food, The Foundation awarded its first grant to meet this need in 1997 for Gifts of Love’s weekend backpack program. The program supplies enough food for two days for a family, which students take home from school in a backpack.
Over the years the Foundation has supported many organizations that work to reduce food insecurity, including: Covenant Soup Kitchen, Farmington Food Pantry, Foodshare, Hebron Interfaith Family Services, Plainville Community Food Pantry, Shoreline Soup Kitchen, St. Vincent DePaul Middletown, St. Vincent Waterbury, Waterbury Interfaith Ministries, Windham Area Interfaith Ministries, and many others throughout the 64 Connecticut towns we serve. These agencies all go beyond supplying groceries - they help connect families to other services that help them address the root causes of food insecurity.
Meeting Need with Action - Hunger Action Teams
American Saving Foundation staff serves on the New Britain Hunger Action Team (HAT). This Coalition works not only to meet immediate needs of our neighbors, but to improve food systems to help eliminate food insecurity. The New Britain Hunger Action Team helped establish the Osgood Food and Resource Center, which serves a New Britain neighborhood that lacked access to healthy food and resources.
The Foundations supports organizations that enrich our food system by connecting urban communities to the land where food is grown. New Britain ROOTS and Brass City Harvest in Waterbury go beyond urban farming. They teach nutrition and cooking classes for children and adults, share healthy recipes and ingredients, and teach math and science concepts during after school garden clubs and in school-based greenhouses. Brass City Harvest now runs the Waterbury Food Hub which also offers food-related job training and opportunities.