Our Latest News & Events

January Wishlist

Can you believe that last year we distributed an incredible 458,283 lbs of food to 4,997 families and 15,146 individuals?!!!

Jan 41 min read

colorful flyer advertising BINGO fundraiser February 28th

Join us for BINGO Feb 28th!

We are THRILLED to share our FIRST PUBLIC EVENT! Join us for a FUN night of BINGO!

Jan 11 min read

snowy background with "we're officially closed"

Closed until 12/29

We’ll be back Monday 12/29. Wishing you all a happy and restful holiday seasoning. ❤️

Dec 22, 20251 min read

What a Day!!!

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who showed up for our Holiday Meal Giveaway from the early morning food haulers, set up and distribution volunteers, clean up crew, donors, supporters, visitors, and even Santa!

Dec 21, 20251 min read

Sponsor a Meal flyer displaying snow globes with pricing info

Sponsor a Holiday Meal

We’ve had some folks reach out about how many meals 🍽️ a donation 💵 would cover. Although we don’t know the exact costs yet, based on prior Meal Giveaways, our estimate is about $35 per family.

Dec 12, 20251 min read

SOFB Director Kristina Walton Honored with CT ImpaCT Award

Congratulations, to our director Kristina Walton for being awarded the United Way CT ImpaCT Award for IMPACTFUL EMERGING LEADER!!!

Oct 21, 20251 min read

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Hey Community!

Just a reminder that our FIRST PUBLIC EVENT is coming up next month!

Join us for a FUN night of BINGO!

WHAT:
6 Games of Bingo/12 Prizes
Each game has two prizes – a Designer Bag* and a $100 Gift Card**
The Bingo Winner selects their prize … Designer Bag OR $100 Gift Card.
The prize not chosen is awarded via the Second Chance Drawing.

*MICHAEL KORS™, COACH™, KATE SPADE™ or DOONEY & BOURKE™
**NATIONAL CHAINS (i.e. AMAZON)

TICKET PRIZE = $35 per person
Ticket includes:
1 Bingo Card for all 6 Games
1 Second Change Drawing Ticket

WHERE:
Seymour Congregational Church
45 Broad St. Seymour

WHEN:
SATURDAY February 28th
Bingo starts at 7pm
Doors open at 6pm

WHY:
To raise funding to support our mission AND celebrate being in COMMUNITY with all of YOU!!!!

HOW:
*On-Line: https://forms.gle/6CjMYdE9Bm4bLVQd6
*Call/Text: 203-233-3116

WANT TO RESERVE A TABLE? Order 6+ tickets to get a reserved table and receive 1 BONUS Bingo Card for each of the 6 games.

PLEASE NOTE: Tickets must be purchased prior to the event

Additional Information:
Extra Bingo cards will be available for purchase
Daubers available for use – or you can bring your own
Bring your own snacks & beverages (non-alcoholic ONLY)
Gift basket RAFFLE will also be available

Hello Community!

Can you believe that last year we distributed an incredible 458,283 lbs of food to 4,997 families and 15,146 individuals?!!! That is DOUBLE the amount of food to almost THREE TIMES as many people.

And it wouldn’t be possible without YOU!!!

As we gear up for an even BUSIER 2026, we could use your help in stocking our shelves.

This month’s most needed items are:
❄️ Oatmeal
❤️ Cereal
❄️ Chef Boyardee
❤️ Protein/Granola Bars

Items can be ordered through our Amazon Wishlist, dropped off in person at 20 Pine St. Seymour OR shipped to 130 Bee Mountain Rd. Oxford. You can also support our work through a tax deductible monetary donation.

Wishlist Link:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/PBL224OCT0T?ref_=wl_share&fbclid=IwAR0ks14WaMqlCOaA1W038f8BvdzlL5vInQkPF6rdi-oNcnHWcaXDUlwpddc

Donation Link:
https://seymouroxfordf.securepayments.cardpointe.com/pay?signature=QtiIVY3cUHrn4mMgIq%2B%2BrQgo%2B0Qn%2FQ4jFw6O6moDoIXtKJPXzozBZkdqTN4qPa8Do%3D&paymentType=cc

We appreciate you!!!!

Meet Beth!

Have you ever heard the expression about wanting something done right?

Well, those people haven’t met Beth. She is an EXPERT LEVEL task manager. She knows the ins and outs of every piece of the food bank and can (and will!) step into any role to keep things rolling.

Beth is the person you call when you want to know the best way to do something, you need something done correctly, or need someone who’s not afraid to be in charge.

Need nonperishables bagged for 1,000 families for Thanksgiving? No sweat.

Need someone to do a news interview on flood response. Completely covered.

Need someone to step in and run the ENTIRE OPERATION as an interim director. Been there. Done that too.

The only thing more impressive than Beth’s competence is her enormous heart. She cares SO MUCH. She’s EVERYONE’s mom.

Fun Facts about Beth:
🦃 She’s spent time as both a turkey and hotdog to support the food bank
🍗 She loves "meetings" with our volunteer crew at pub 67
🌱 She’s an avid gardener who has helped grow and maintain the community garden at the Little Free Pantry on Skokorat as both a mentor and friend
❤️ She loves canning and makes her own sausage
☀️ Her happy place unwinding on the beach and soaking up the sun

Thank you Beth for all the hours and LOVE you’ve poured into this organization. We appreciate you!!!

“Where did all this food come from?”

It’s a questions we’ve heard a bunch 🍌 at POP UP shopping the past few weeks.

The short answer is LOTS OF PLACES.

The longer explanation involves the process of FOOD RECOVERY. Thanks to our partnerships with CT FoodShare and Food Rescue US, every week we pick up donations from local grocers including produce, prepared foods, bakery items, frozen foods, dairy, and sometimes even meat. Some of these items we can freeze and keep for our regular shoppers, however there are lots of items- especially produce- that need to be used within the next few days.

When holidays happen, many food banks aren’t able to pick up their recovery runs because they’re not open or light on volunteers. While we’ve also technically been “closed”, we still picked up because we really LOVE inviting our community in for POP UP shopping.

Given we were one of the only food banks collecting, we received MUCH higher volumes of food than usual. So much, the food bank was completely FILLED with perishable items that were completely edible but wouldn’t be by our next shopping shift. That’s when we asked for YOUR help getting it to tables.

Did you know that roughly 40% of food is wasted? This is not only bad for the environment, but EXPENSIVE because food waste is often wet and heavy.

Did you also know that roughly 40% of families in our state are struggling to feed their families?

FOOD RECOVERY is a way to help our neighbors and our environment where EVERYONE wins. The grocers save money, we supply food at zero cost, and our community receives access food that they might not otherwise.

Not to mention, there’s no party like a produce party. 🎉

Huge thanks again to EVERYONE who has been a part of moving food through through the SOFB. We’re only able to do what we do because of YOU. We appreciate you and are looking forward to another year of making MAGIC✨ together.

What does getting 5,600 lbs of food to tables in a single day look like?

It looks like A LOT of food. The kind of volume that makes you not want to look at any more food after you’re done moving it.

It looks like A LOT of dedicated volunteers, the kind who love their neighbors so fiercely that they show up to move the aforementioned food, day in and out, expecting nothing in return.

It looks like A LOT of community members gathering to collect food for themselves, their families, and their people. They take the abundance and get it to places we can’t reach, spreading kindness to both individuals and organizations.

Above all, it looks like A LOT of behind the scenes logistics and relationships, A LOT of coordination, and A LOT of TEAMWORK. There are SO MANY moving parts and it takes ALL of them to make this kind of MAGIC✨ happen.

Thank YOU for being a part of it. Whether you are a community partner, volunteer, supporter, visitor, or all of the above, you are an important part of our SOFB family. We appreciate you and LOVE spreading food joy with you.

Want to hear something cool?

Lisa Cheney and the Alpaca Gnomes recently teamed up to sell her hand painted ornaments at their December show. Can you believe she sold 42 of 48 ornament and raised $210 to help feed our neighbors?!

Thank you Lisa, The Alpaca Gnomes, and all the Gnomies who supported the cause! We appreciate you! ❤️

Hey Community!

We crunched our numbers, and guess what…

Today we shared over 8,000 lbs of food with our neighbors…

In the span of less than 2 hours…

That’s a RECORD even for us!

YOU are seriously AMAZING. Thanks for helping us make that happen. It was pure MAGIC✨, especially when you consider all that food came at zero cost to us. 💵

We truly hope your New Year🎊 is filled with love, kindness, and endless abundance.

PS. If anyone is available tomorrow between 1-3 pm tomorrow to unload deliveries we would love your help!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! ✨

What better way to start a new year than with a THANKFUL THURSDAY!

This week we’re extra grateful for the CT Hurricanes who not only are incredible performers, but also AMAZING humans.

They delivered a mind blowing 9,000 lbs of food yesterday with joy and kindness. We SO APPRECIATE their muscle and hearts.

Please join us in thanking them for all the ways they uplift our community. 💙💛💚

At the Food Bank there’s lots of things we’re REALLY GOOD at. Being closed isn’t one of them. 🤣

Today was our first day of “winter break” ❄️. We celebrated with a POP UP pantry full of Trader Joe’s goodies. All our neighbors were invited to shop- no questions asked. Can you believe we shared close to 2,000 lbs of food in 2 hours!!! 🍌🍊🥖 Then we took everything left over and filled an entire SUV for the Thomas Merton Family Center in Bridgeport (who volunteered to make sure nothing went to waste).

We also distributed a couple dozen holiday meals to families who missed their appointments, unloaded our shipment from CT FoodShare, and took care of a few food emergencies in addition to administrative work.

What can we say? We really LOVE our community!

Huge thanks to EVERYONE who showed up to volunteer and shop today. We appreciate you.

AND NOW- we’re actually taking time off.

We’ll be back Monday 12/29.

Wishing you all a happy and restful holiday seasoning. ❤️

The SOFB Team

Princess Anna had SO MUCH fun at our Holiday Meal Distribution 🎄❤️ that she decided to join us on a recovery run to Trader Joe’s!

She couldn’t believe how much food we were able to stuff in the van. Apparently it’s WAY roomier than a sleigh. She was also impressed the variety of items we received.

Although Anna won’t be joining us today, we WILL have pop up shopping hours to share all the food she helped us collect between 9-11 am. We can’t wait to see you there!

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This year the SOFB has served:

3494 Families 5002 Adults 3346 Children 2159 Seniors

328,000 lbs of food

COMMUNITY IMPACT

DONATE

REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT

BUSINESS HOURS

Monday - Saturday

8:30 am - 11:00 am

SHOPPING HOURS

Tuesday & Thursday

9:00 am - 11:00 am

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Saturday

9:00 am - 11:00 am

Monday

4:00 pm- 6:00 PM

*By Appointment

Meet Our Staff

Executive Director

Kristina Walton

Kristina became executive director of the food bank in 2024 and has worked alongside dedicated staff and volunteers to expand the hours and offerings available. Her passion is making sure all our neighbors have their needs met, including feeling seen, heard, and loved. When she is not at the food bank or in the community advocating for her neighbors, Kristina enjoys spending time with her husband Ty and 5 children who she steward's the Oxford Neighbor to Neighbor Pantry with out of their home.

Her super power is: Creating MAGIC

Joslyn smiles in food bank shirt at information table

Operations Manager

Joslynn Hernandez

Joslynn joined our team as Operations Manager in 2025 after volunteering countless hours. She has a deep passion for helping others and brings valuable experience from TEAM Inc, Bridgeport Rescue Mission, and the Seymour Pumpkin Festival. Her favorite part about the Food Bank is meeting "wonderful people in our community", including all our awesome volunteers.

Her super power is: Not just remaining calm during the storm, but friendly and helpful.

Featured
Volunteer

Volunteer Beth smiling while wearing turkey costume

Meet Beth!

Beyond providing an unbelievable amount of Turkey Day cheer, Beth has been going above and beyond to deliver top notch service at the Food Bank for years. Whatever the need, Beth is always prepared to step in with her wisdom, experience, and huge heart to help.

Do you have a volunteer or staff member you'd like to give a special shout out?

Let Us Know!

Contact

"I cannot gather the words to thank you enough because they wouldn't be close to how appreciate I am for your service provided to me and my family. "

"They are extremely generous. They give you what you need when needed. I'm very grateful to all the volunteers. They are amazing."

"I cried when I brought all the groceries in of just joy and thankfulness. It was an over abundance of gratitude. Thank you ever so much."