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By Scott McLean Scott McLean is among our longest-serving Board members at Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen. Today, he serves as the Board Secretary. He’s also a regular volunteer at DESK, and can often be found working the line or sweeping floors. Outside of his volunteer work at DESK, Scott is Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University. –ed. When …
The “Yale Hunger Heroes” is student group that is part of the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project and Dwight Hall. During the school-year, the group partners with DESK to serve dinner on Fridays and Saturdays in the parish house of the United Church (next door at 323 Temple St.). This is a wonderful partnership that has benefited both …
The following is adapted from the Annual Address of DESK’s Executive Director, Steve Werlin, delivered at the Breaking Bread Inaugural Dinner on March 24, 2017. Accepting the Executive Director position at DESK has been a bit of a homecoming for me, and a step toward fulfilling a larger dream. When I moved to New Haven in 2011, DESK was my …
Dear Friends, Your contributions have helped DESK provide a steady source of food for those suffering from hunger since our inception in 1987, but as an organization, we recognize that we cannot say that we have fulfilled our mission. Whether it is because guests’ work schedules are incompatible with our own, because guests do not have transportation to get to …
As a child, my father was ill and could not work and despite the two or three jobs my mother worked, we never seemed to have enough money. There were holidays where neighbors brought clothes, other times when folks from church brought us boxes of food and even a time when our landlord forgave the rent because we didn’t have …
As you walk through Downtown New Haven, it’s likely that you’ll cross paths with people who are living on the streets, in parks and in various nooks and crannies around our city. It may not be your first thought to ponder what caused some these people to become homeless, but we see many of them each and every day. Some share their stories …