BTC –Day 5 Journal – West Hartford, Holy Family to New Haven, St. Aedan’s

BTC –Day 5 Journal – West Hartford, Holy Family to New Haven, St. Aedan’s

We all attended 7:00 am mass at Holy Family. Fr. John served mass. We also engaged in a special breakfast. Fr. Terry has been such a great supporter of Brake the Cycle and our mission. Thank you Fr. Terry!!
After breakfast we continued a group discussion about the incident that occurred Saturday afternoon. Many feelings were expressed but it appeared more discussion has to occur.
We headed out around 8:15 Charlie and Wayne were not riding this day so Lou rode in the sweep position. The ride went smoothly except for the number of traffic lights and stops because on the number of bikers. It was difficult for the entire team to get through the green light.
The ride was made more fun because Johnnie F kept getting flat tires, three in fact! But that helped Lou get out of the funk he appeared to be in after the discussion this morning. He was able to discuss with Johnnie and get his feeling out there.
During the ride around the Southington area we came across some men picketing their place of business and we stopped to engage in conversation. They were not on strike but were picketing in favor of establishing a Union and to secure their contracts through negotiation.
As a result of Johnnie F’s third flat tire, he and Lou were late for lunch at St. Ann’s Soup Kitchen and did not get a chance to finish their meal. Luckily the Support crew had made lunches provided by Holy Familiy.
While at St. Ann’s Lou did get a chance to talk to one of the clients there. This individual told Lou that he really didn’t have to come to the soup kitchen that he was retired, had a place to live and only came to meet his friends. He did share that he collected empty bottles and cans for extra income. He told Lou how it takes so many bottles and cans to really add up to any significant amount of money. He shared that many of his fellow clients come because they have to, that they lost their jobs. He seemed happy. We saw him picking through the trash container while we gathered before leaving. We assume he was searching for bottles or cans.
We listened to Luke who runs the St. Ann’s Soup Kitchen and he advised us as to the number of folks they feed each day, anywhere from 100-150. The soup kitchen has been around since 1989.
After Luke gave us his little talk, he shared with us that he would be going over to CT Foodbank to pick up food for the soup kitchen and food pantry.
We left At. Ann’s and departed to either Rosa DeLauro office or to CT Foodbank. We split up into two groups of six and went our separate ways.
The CT Foodbank was excellent and we were provided with a lot of information that we compared to Foodshare in Bloomfield. Between these two, they serve 850 “programs”. CT Foodbank serves 220. The rest are served by Foodshare. We were again amazed on how they make the process work and also had to bid for certain produce.
We were again impressed by the fact they sometimes had to bid on shipments of various commodities. But apparently it all works out fine.
As we were there, different “clients’ came in to collect food for their respective agency. We met Luke there as he had said he would be there.
St. Ann’s is not only a Soup Kitchen but is also a Food Pantry where folks come to get specific foods only appropriate for Food Pantry, i.e. can goods, non-perishables.

Those of us who attended Rosa DeLauro’s office, met with Lou Mangini her congressional aide. We thanked Rosa for all her help in speaking for the poor. Lou stated that there has definitely been a change in thinking towards social services with the new administration. Money from the Recovery Act has begun to come into the state, but due to no budget being passed, the money may be sitting around. He said that it is very important for the budget to be passes because some of the funds have dates on them to be allocated. New Haven has started a program for affordable housing. Apartment buildings are being constructed and 80% will be rented at market value and 20% will be affordable housing. They are hoping this model will help all people renting take pride in where they live. We asked what we could tell people in New Haven during our presentation. He said you can have people write, e-mail or call Rosa’s office, but know she will always fight for the people in her district. He suggested people really getting involved in working with the youth in New Haven. He stated that the more these youth can see people care about them and are positive role models the better off we will be.

Those of us coming back from Ct Foodbank met the rest of the team at the Office of Urban Affairs building. We had a mini tour and talked to Lynn Campbell a bit.
The team left together to ride to St. Aedan’s. we got there shortly before Lina Alpert who organized our visit to St. Aedan’s. Loaded most of our bikes on the support vehicles at this time.
We set up for our presentation and suppered on sandwiches donated by Subway. Desserts were donated by Stop and Shop and Dunkin Donuts.
A nice crowd turned out, even New Haven Mayor John Destefano attended for a while anyway. We filled the small room. Our presentation went smoothly and last slightly more than an hour. We had some nice dialogue form some non-Catholic attendees and their perspective on our presentation. We actually had a godd interchange of dialogue.
Made some good contacts for the future. Possible interaction with the Deacon Group.
Talked to Lina afterwards and listened to her plea for assistance in getting more support for what she is trying to do at St. Aedan’s. She is a committee of one and needs help.. suggested she follow up with OUA. They should assist in this regard.
Lina was very pleased with our presentation and the number of people who showed up.
We left St. Aedan’s all in a good mood for a job well done.
When we arrived at Holy Family and congregated on the third floor for refreshments, we decided who would get up early to bike over to WDRC and tlak with Brad Davis and then proceed over to Senator Dodd’s office. Lou, Fr. Stephen, and Johnnie F would meet Charlie there at 7:30.
The rest of the crew would breakfast again at Holy Family after attending 7:00 mass. They would depart for the Capital and meet the others there.

Lou