Food Drive-Thru at Danbury High School Supplied Local Families With 122 Tons of Meals

Danbury High School was the scene of a wonderful, charitable effort over the last three months that gave out 122 tons of food to feed families in our local area, according to a City of Danbury press release.

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A massive, local coordinated effort resulted in over 12,000 families receiving free food over the last three months. The United Way of Western Connecticut teamed up with the Walnut Hill Community Pantry, Connecticut Foodshare, Public Works, Danbury Police Traffic Division, the Danbury Police Cadets and the Danbury Health Department to hand out over 122 tons of food to families in need.

Each weekend, Danbury High School was transformed into a food drive-thru and many local families benefited from the events thanks to countless volunteers. The President of United Way of Western Connecticut Isabel Almeida had this to say of the event:

“We are grateful for the partnership with the City of Danbury, Walnut Hill Community Pantry, and Connecticut Foodshare for making this food distribution so successful over the past few months. While this effort addressed an immediate need for food among our neighbors, we know that the challenges of food insecurity among struggling families and seniors is not over. As we head into the winter months, household budgets will be stressed by higher utility costs, and healthy food purchases can fall by the wayside. Please consider helping your neighbors in need by donating to food pantries and food banks. No one should have to forego eating healthy food to pay for heat or other necessities.”

To Isabel's point, come join us at Camping for Cans this weekend. I'm typically a competitive person but when it comes to feeding those in need, I don't care what organization has its name on it, as long as those in need, get fed. Camping for Cans is a joint effort between the Hillside Food Outreach, everyone at I-95 and our amazing sponsors.

Every year, my colleagues and I from I-95 gather in a parking lot in the Greater-Danbury area to collect non-perishable food items, cash and checks made out to the Hillside Food Outreach and we are back again this year in the BJ's Wholesale Parking lot at 106 Federal Road in Brookfield.

Hillside Food Outreach is a wonderful organization, built on volunteerism and a giving spirit that makes sure our neighbors don't go hungry. We kickoff Camping for Cans Friday morning (11/19/21) and go until Sunday afternoon (11/21/21) and we would love to see you down there.

Come down, meet the entire staff at I-95 and make a contribution that you can make certain, goes directly to Greater-Danbury area families. We will have music, samples of Coke Zero Sugar, AHA Sparkling Water and special guests throughout the weekend that include:

• Comedian Christine O'Leary
• Danbury Mayor Joe Cavo
• Danbury Mayor Elect Dean Esposito
• New Milford Mayor Pete Bass
• Newtown First Selectman Dan Rosenthal

Thank you to our amazing corporate sponsors for their help and generous donations, we could not do it without:

• Savings Bank of Danbury
• Coca-Cola Beverages - Northeast 
• Down the Hatch
• Novella's Scrapyard 
• Clausthaler Non-Alcoholic Beer
• BJ's Wholesale (Brookfield)
• Dave's RV 
• Lesser Evil
• Dawn's Pizzazz
• Durkin's Tent Rental
• Mitchell Oil
• PJ's Porta Johns

The event cannot go without you, so please drop by with a donation and you will be positively impacting your community in ways you cannot imagine.