Community garden at Long Hill Bible Church

It exists!

Waterbury Mutual Aid, with the support of Justice Southbury/Justice Woodbury, has installed at Long Hill Bible Church a community garden with 20 raised beds roughly 3 feet square. We built this garden for use by residents of the surrounding neighborhood, which includes the Davis Gardens housing complex.

The community garden at Long Hill Bible Church

Most of the beds are planted. We are tending it, but only as caretakers. Our hope is that neighbors will come forward to lead the project into the future. Anyone interested in participating can find more information on flyers soon to be posted in the neighborhood. Or come by anytime you see us working.

Thanks to our gracious hosts

This community garden would not be possible if not for the continuing support of Long Hill Bible Church, where WMA has been operating since November, 2020. Initially, they let us assemble our grocery bags in their facility and run our delivery logistics from their parking lot. Later, they helped us access significant quantities of Farmers to Families food boxes by hosting our (in)famous 48′ refrigerated trailer, which acted as a sort of regional hub for many like-minded grassroots organizations.

Now they are extending their generosity even further, with the establishment of a permanent neighborhood resource. Interested supporters can make a donation to LHBC via this link.

F2F truck delivery a success

May 18, 2021–Waterbury Mutual Aid successfully received 1,200 food boxes from the USDA Farmers to Families program, immediately sharing 600 of those boxes with allied organizations. WMA will distribute the remaining 600 boxes on Saturday, May 22. WMA would like to thank all the comrades and volunteers who helped us with this important work.

Delivery of our 6,000 lb. capacity fork lift rental

As direct recipient of a full F2F trailer, Waterbury Mutual Aid was responsible for unloading the trailer within the maximum time of 2 hours. In fact, it took less than 90 minutes. To receive a trailer of F2F boxes, recipients must provide a 5,000 lb. capacity fork lift and two 5,000 lb. capacity pallet jacks as well as trained workers to operate them. In addition, recipients must provide at least 1 additional worker inside the truck and 1 additional worker outside the truck.

The fork lift at work. Each pallet weighs about 2,000 lbs.

WMA to receive F2F truck on May 18th

After months of work, Waterbury Mutual Aid has finally been able to secure an entire truckload of Farmers to Families food boxes. WMA will receive the truck on Tuesday, May 18th at our 48′ climate-controlled trailer on the grounds of Long Hill Bible Church.

Distribution planned for Saturday, May 22

WMA is currently working with our partners and allied organizations to distribute as much food as possible on Saturday, May 22. Grassroots organizations and informal activist networks that would like to distribute these food boxes should inquire via email.

Farmers to Families Update

Waterbury Mutual Aid–along with the rest of the nation’s food support community–learned on Friday that the USDA’s popular Farmers to Families (F2F) food box program will have its current phase of funding extended through the end of May, but then that will be the end of the program. We also learned that many of the gatekeeper organizations in CT that were receiving F2F trucks don’t want to participate in the extension.

As a result, Waterbury Mutual Aid is currently expecting to receive at least one F2F truck in the month of May. Each truck contains 1,260 boxes of mixed groceries weighing over 30 lbs. each. Our climate-controlled trailer can store boxes safely for up to 10 days, so we will organize a series of distribution events. More information as it becomes available

The very 1st Farmers to Families truck in Waterbury, summer 2020.

April 24 F2F food box distribution event

In under 3 hours, WMA, our volunteers and partners distributed almost 400 F2F boxes to individuals and small, grassroots organizations. In addition to 111 in our Food Support Network, we brought about 100 to two nearby housing complexes and shared more than 100 with allied groups in Waterbury. Only one non-Waterbury group participated in this distribution as we had shared with most of them earlier in the week.

In April, WMA secured and distributed a total of 1,144 F2F boxes. About 75% were distributed in Waterbury, and 25% we shared with allied organizations in Hartford, Bridgeport, Middlebury, Mansfield and Meriden.

WMA F2F volume at new record

In a single day, Waterbury Mutual Aid secured 8 full pallets (504 boxes) from the USDA Farmers to Families program. 3 pallets (a little more than our standard allotment) came through the regular Waterbury supply chain. The other 5 came through an allied organization in Hartford with contacts at a major food support supplier.

This was WMA’s largest 1-day acquisition of F2F boxes since we began requesting access in summer 2020, when the project first came to Waterbury. And it set a new mark for number of boxes stored in our climate-controlled trailer at 441 boxes.

Our 48′ climate-controlled trailer being delivered

This was the second time WMA helped this ally get F2F boxes from this supplier. Working with this project at scale requires industrial-level logistical equipment. A single pallet of 63 F2F boxes weighs nearly 2,000 lbs. WMA has developed expertise with this equipment and can now help allied organizations access larger quantities of this resource.

Like the first time, WMA immediately delivered in Hartford and then stored the remainder in Waterbury, allowing several small orgs and informal networks to come get boxes. These boxes ultimately reached families in Bridgeport, Middletown, Hartford, East Hartford/Manchester, Meriden and Waterbury.

If you are a small, grassroots organization or informal group of activists in CT, we might be able to help you access Farmers to Families food boxes. Please send an email to info@waterburymutualaid.com to become part of our network.

Participating organizations will need to come to Waterbury with enough/big enough cars to carry the boxes you need. Boxes weigh about 30 lbs. each. A Camry with an empty trunk and backseat fits about 15 boxes weighing a total of 450 lbs. A pickup truck fits about 25.