Our History

 When I began the PPBs, I was a Public Defender, and I saw every day that people were struggling financially. In 2019, I asked permission to place a food pantry at the Milford Court House, where I worked, to help people who were struggling. I thought if we could help with food, folks could have less pressure. People were having to make impossible choices, do I pay rent or pay a fine, do I buy diapers or food? I heard these questions every day! Unfortunately, permission was not granted and the courthouse did not get a pantry. As the reality of COVID started to set in and businesses were closing, it was clear that the population of people who struggled with difficult choices was growing.
March of 2020, The Purple Pantry Boxes began, with this in mind. We started with 3 plastic bins, filled them with food and placed them around Milford CT. Each bin had a sign, please leave the bin we will put more food in it. We also put food in the mini libraries around town. Within a month, we had our wonderful carpenter building our wood pantry boxes. We quickly placed 5 wooden pantries around the city.

Our mission was two fold, we wanted to get food to people who were struggling with food insecurity quickly and without barriers, while engaging the community, to support their neighbors in need. While there are other ways to access food, the purple pantry boxes are open for use 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You don’t need permission to take food out of a PPB, you don’t need to show proof of identification nor do you need to fill out an application. Just walk up to a PPB and open the door. Our motto is take what you need, donate what you can. People are living our motto every day. One day someone needs food and takes, while the same person puts food in a different day. No one is judging what someone needs, we only hope that their needs are taken care of. When we first began PPB, the pantries were never empty, we filled them every other day and there was always something to eat. Now, the pantries are filled every day and they are often empty within a few hours. I thought the pantries would be removed after the worst of COVID was over. It never dawned on me that the need for the pantries would continue to grow! After 3 & 1/2 years, we now have 18 PPBs in 4 different cities, 13 of them in Milford. Through the pantry system, we distribute over 10,000 pieces of food per month, in Milford. We engage with the community often. We speak at churches, civic organizations, schools and businesses. All you have to do is reach out, we will happily speak to your group.

 So what is a PPB? A wooden structure that is filled every day with shelf stable food. The pantries are designed to be self service, Take what you need, we do not define someone’s need. We do hope that everyone remembers that many people need support and to be mindful that the food is for the community and the Panay will be filled again tomorrow. 

What food do we put in the PPBs? The goal is to have the pantries filled with nutrient dense food. To that end, we put at least 5 sources of protein in each pantry every day: tuna, sausage, chicken, sardines, meat all come in cans. We also use peanut butter, nuts, beans, jerky, protein drinks, protein bars, granola, cereal, vegetable, pasta, water, mac and cheese and rice. Toiletries are happily accepted also. All the food we use is factory sealed!  

Who uses the PPBs? 1 in 3 people are struggling with food insecurity in Milford. We have 4 PPBs on housing authority land. Approximately 60% of our consumers are over the age of 60. People struggling with food insecurity come from all walks of life, elderly, people who are under employed, folks who are dealing with challenges of the high cost of rent, disabled people, and those dealing with housing insecurity.  

What we can’t use in a PPB. We can’t use any perishable foods. We can’t use any food that is not factory sealed. So no baked goods in zip lock baggies, no homemade peanut butter sandwiches and no leftovers, no matter how yummy they may be. These things are put in the garbage. We don’t keep or use bags of used socks or clothes either.  

In the past 3 1/2 years we have developed wonderful relationships with community partners : Adam’s Hometown Market, churches, Elks, Havens Harvest, Rotary clubs, schools, ShopRite, TrinityPoint Wealth and many local businesses.  

Many people donate food directly into the PPBs. We have donation locations at Adam’s Hometown Market, AT Sangha Yoga Studio, West Haven City Hall. We will happily pick up donations, just reach out to arrange a pick up, it’s as easy as leaving a bag of food on your doorstep.  

It is challenging to meet our food needs. Distributing 10,000 plus pieces of food every month just in Milford keeps us very busy. 

Would you like to help? We truly appreciate when businesses create food drives, neighborhood food drives are wonderful too! 

We accept financial donations including Venmo. We are a 501(c)(3), which makes it possible for us to raise money to support the PPBs. We have an annual birthday party in March to raise funds, a golf tournament in May and we just had our first Block Party. If you have fundraising ideas or experience, let us know, we would appreciate the assistance.  

We are fully staffed by volunteers, over 30 people regularly donate their time and energy to our cause. If you are looking to volunteer, let us know. We have 3 different schools that also volunteer with us.  

Finally, we are proud and honored to report that we have won Best Local Cause in 2022 and 2023.  At the Purple Pantry Boxes we believe that FOOD IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE.

Please help us help our neighbors in need.  

In 2022, the Purple Pantry Boxes was awarded Best Local Cause by The Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce and everyone who voted. Our founder, Susan Brown won Volunteer of the Year due to her work with PPB and the rest of the food rescue community.  Susan was also honored by the Elks Lodge #1589 and named Elks Distinguished Citizen.

We held 15 food drives at Supermarkets while community members hosted 17 food drives at various locations including: Devon Stroll, The Milford Bank, Peoples Bank, Haven’s Harvest, ShopRite, Adam’s Hometown Market, CappuGino’s, Staples, AT Sangha Yoga Studio, Athleta,  Shoreline Family Chiropractic, Walks With Buddy, Elks, American Legion, Orange Rotary, 

The following businesses also held food drives in our honor. MoJoes Gym, My Gym, Connecticut Orthopaedics, Bend Yoga, Sewa Diwali.

 Stop and Shop has partnered with us 3 times with their Blooming’ 4 Good Program and we are part of their Giving Bag program.  

2022 was a tremendous year for the Purple Pantry Boxes.  We have our wonderful volunteers, who truly keep us growing, and our community members, who donate food on a daily basis, to thank for this.

Thank you to all who made 2022 a wonderful year.  Bring on 2023!!

2023 was an amazing year for the Purple Pantry Boxes (PPB).  In fairness, I say every year is great, and they all have been. As we grow, the years get better, and so do we. The PPB team has grown to over 40 volunteers, which helps us with our expansion!  No worries, we always have room for more volunteers 😀, more about this, so keep reading.  As always, it is important to note that we are all volunteers that work as a team. We are all important and appreciated. 

The year began with a bang, as a representative of the PPB, Sue Brown, was invited to be part of a panel in food insecurity, Rep. James Maroney put the panel together as part of his Pints and Policy series. The event was well attended and it was the first opportunity many had to hear her speak. Additionally it was the first time Sue said publicly that Food Is A Right, Not A Privilege!! Days later, Sue was awarded Volunteer of the Year and months later PPB won Best Nonprofit by the Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce. Sue was honored to accept the award on behalf of all the PPB volunteers and the community for all of its support. 

Highlights:

3 PPBs were added in 2023, including East Haven at The Old Stone Church.  Milford added 2 more to the city. 

The Orange, Devon, West Haven and Milford rotaries joined forces and have adopted one of the Milford PPB. 

The Milford Public Schools have gotten involved, many schools have hosted food drives, Calf Penn and Live Oaks began the trend which has spread to many other schools, much thanks to the PTA/PTO involvement. The superintendent of schools office was instrumental in getting a PPB donation bin at Parsons Center. 

Milford Living Magazine did an article on PPB for their summer issue.

Local Business Support:

Local businesses are very important to PPB, they not only donate to our fundraisers, they also hold food drives for us. Hair of the Dog, AT Sangha yoga, Bend Yoga, CappuGino’s, Athleta, Scents of Empowerment, Pops, Adam’s Hometown Market, ShopRite, Stop and Shop, Trinity Point Wealth, Valero Tax, Milford Health and Rehabilitation, Touchdown Nutrition, MoJoe, Metro Star, Sensitive Dentistry, Family Shoreline Chiropractic, CT Orthopaedics, Sole to Soul, New England Brewing Company, Brewport, Connecticut Beardsley Zoo. 

Religious and Civic Organizations:

We speak at any organization that asks!  It is part of our mission to speak openly about food insecurity, 1 in 3 people in Milford struggle with food insecurity. Did you know that?  We have engaged with several churches, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, American Legion, Elks, Orange and Devon Rotary. 

Fundraisers:

March is our birthday, we had our second raffle fundraiser, a yearly event,  sponsored by Wendy Barry, a Coldwell Realtor. 

May we had our first Golf Tournament and is now an annual event. 

This fall we had our first block party!  Music, food and fun!!  This will definitely be a tradition added to 2024

Porchfest has houses that host donation bins. 

Thanksgiving day we are gifted with 2 events; Turkey Trot and Turkey Bowl. Both hold food drives and raise money for us. Are for a touch football player or a runner/walker?  These events have you covered. 

Food Drives, we had over 20 food drives this year and have been gifted with more than 20 others.

Volunteer opportunities:

We use volunteers in all aspects of our daily existence. While we can use more organizers and pantry fillers, we are also looking for help with social media and networking, grant writing and fundraising. 

January and February 2024 update

We have so many local businesses that are working with us. We are thrilled to have these new and continuous partnerships: CappuGino’s, Sole to Soul, Simply Scones, Custom Illuminations, Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church Souperbowl. Additionally Villa Ave Stop and Shop in Fairfield has been a grand source of donated food. We pick up donations 3x a week. The Stop and Shop on Bridgeport Ave in Milford is now hosting a permanent donation box for us and in March we will have our first food drive there. Adam’s Hometown Market gifted us with $1,000 in gift cards and we have been ordering cases of food with these; 30 cases of pasta, 3 cases of canned pineapple, 3 cases of cereal and so much more. Adam’s has hosted a donation box for us, we have monthly food drives and round ups at the cash register.  The law firm of Carter Mario hosted an office wide food drive. The donation box at the American Legion has been recently emptied. The Elks procured a grant for us to buy food. We have received a grant from the Milford Bank. Trinity Point Wealth donated $1,000 in Walmart gift cards. 

We continue to meet with food insecurity groups in both Milford and West Haven. We are also working with food and nutrition policy on the state level.  The Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce awarded Purple Pantry Boxes the Nonprofit of Distinction based on YOUR votes. Sue happily accepted the award honoring all of our community partners and volunteers. 

Food insecurity needs to be talked about every where. It isn’t a secret and together we can tackle the issue. 

Things to look forward too!

We are turning 4 years old. Please join us on March 22nd at New England Brewing Company from 6:00-9:00, for a food drive and raffle fundraiser. All are welcome and entry is free. Great raffle items and a wine wall!! This event is sponsored by Wendy Barry, a family and friend to the PPB!

The Golf tournament is May. We had so much fun last year, we had to do it again. 

Watch for news about our spring block party 

It is our goal to open a storefront in the near future. It is one of the reasons we are fundraising as much as we do. 

With a storefront, we will be able to give our consumers access to perishable food items. We will have refrigeration for produce, dairy and prepared foods. We will have a microwave, so people can heat food. 

We will of course still maintain our pantries every day!

Our motto will remain the same, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED, DONATE WHAT YOU CAN!

Please let us know if you are interested in helping us reach this goal. 

September is Hunger Action Month.  

We at PPB have been working to raise awareness of Hunger Action Month.  Our slogan for September is Purple Goes Orange for September because Orange is the color for Hunger Action month. We began this month by adding several new volunteers including staff and students from the Post Grad Transitional Academy.  They are doing one of our weekly shopping trips and then coming to our workspace to organize and shelve.  Many of the Milford Public Schools started the school year with Purple Pantry Box donation bins, in honor of Hunger Action Month, we have already started picking up the donations. We had our monthly food drive at Adam’s Hometown Market and the last week of September they will be holding a round up at the cash registers, in support of PPB. We participated in the Walk Milford Challenge, we are always a sponsor of this event, many of our team walk and we had a food drive at the event as well.  We spent many hours working with Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church, they had a dedication for their Purple Pantry Box, #18.  We worked on training their group on how to shop, fill and maintain one of our pantries. We were honored at First Baptist Church in Milford at their 130th birthday celebration, and they gave us a lovely donation that fills all of the pantries for a day! Milford Porchfest, a wonderful annual event, had donation bins at 6 porches this year.  With a week and a half left in September we still have much more happening!  Valero Tax Edge has made a financial pledge to PPB, We will be at the Savin Rock Communities Health Fair and we are having a Block Party on the last day of Hunger Action month, aka September 30, 2023.  We are also working on a short documentary of the Purple Pantry Boxes, how and why we got started and our plans for the future.  We are still in filming, and will keep you posted on our progress