On a recent sunny afternoon, 70 or so chairs were lined up in rows on one side of the room where nOURish Bridgeport runs its weekly food pantry. Nearly every seat was filled.
On the other side of the room were shelves of food products: canned vegetables, cereal, bread, peanut butter, soup, apple sauce, pita chips, fruits and fresh vegetables, including greens from nOURish's indoor hydroponic farm in Stratford. Turkey and fish were kept inside a set of coolers sitting on a table.
Volunteers in yellow vests pushed carts from one shelf to the next while their neighbors, as they're called at the food pantry, picked one or two items on each tier to take home.
"It used to be that food pantries were (for an) emergency. 'Oh ... I had a car repair and I don't have any money for groceries, can I...?' 'Yeah, here's a bag,'" said the Rev. Sara Smith, the senior minister of the United Congregational Church of Bridgeport and CEO of nOURish. "Not anymore. Now it's a grocery."
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