ST VINCENT DEPAUL PLACE MIDDLETOWN INC

ST. VINCENT DEPAUL MIDDLETOWN (SVDM) WAS FOUNDED IN 1980 BY THE SISTERS OF MERCY AND THE CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF NORWICH. SVDM'S MISSION IS TO PROVIDE FOOD, SHELTER AND BASIC HUMAN SERVICES TO POOR AND HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS REGARDLESS OF RACE, CREED, NATURAL O

Meeting needs, offering hope.

Goal One: Meet basic needs of food and shelter of men, women, and children who live in poverty, unemployed or underemployed, homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Goal Two: Link guests with emergency funds, identification, and/or housing opportunities Individuals and families receive consistent help at one centralized location. Don't have to search churches/organizations

Goal Three: Formerly homeless people with disabilities (mental illness, addiction disorders) stay in own apartments with aid of housing case managers who support activities of daily living.

Our long-time bookkeeper has been trained and promoted to financial director. A new assistant to the executive director is being cross-trained to help with development areas (grants and marketing). We recently restructured our dining room management to promoting an assistant manager to manager.

On March 18, 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Executive Director, Maryellen Shuckerow, working closely with Middletown Mayor Benjamin Florsheim, announced that the Soup Kitchen would be open with take-out food service only from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Sunday meals were suspended until further notice. SVDM's Amazing Grace Food Pantry, 16 Stack St., Middletown, would be limited to just Wednesdays and Fridays, 11-4, with no inside shopping. A limited number of staff packed food boxes outside for distribution. In the first three weeks of the crisis, our Soup Kitchen experienced a 24% increase in food being distributed each week from “normal times,” an average of 2,620 meals, up from 2,100 per week. Using social distancing measures, our Soup Kitchen staff prepared and distributed prepackaged meals, lunch and dinner, (270) outside of the Soup Kitchen daily. Under the direction of the mayor, the Soup Kitchen also delivered two packaged meals each day (90) to the Eddy Shelter Monday through Saturday, two packaged meals (80) on Wednesdays and Fridays to Riverview Services rehabilitation center, and 60 meals a day to residents at the YMCA. Our Amazing Grace Food Pantry saw a 20% increase in families served. Parents whose kids ate two meals at school five days a week now have to feed them three meals a day at home. The pantry partnered with the City of Middletown’s Senior Services to provide free groceries to people who were appropriately shut-in.