Maya McFadden Photo
Rasheed at the Hill substation.
At 10 years old, Jamilah Rasheed had one used pair of shoes for school. Passed down from her cousin, the shoes were a size too small. Her family couldn’t afford anything else. A hole eventually formed in the back of those used shoes until Rasheed couldn’t wear them anymore.
She thinks back on that time as she enlists New Haveners to help a new generation of young people stay warm this the winter.
Rasheed is the director of the New Haven Inner City Enrichment Center (NICE) in the Hill, which hosts a monthly food pantry and annual winter clothing drive. This week Rasheed is looking for donors to help pay for shoes and coats for families whose kids might otherwise go without.
This year’s NICE clothing drive will be more intimate to prevent the spread of Covid, so the usual large indoor coat-collecting gathering won’t take place.
In its stead NICE is running a “Sponsor a Family” drive.
At a grab-and-go pantry event last month, 25 families submitted applications for sponsors under the program. The applications covered 77 total family members in line for a winter care package filled with a pair of shoes, socks, coat, hat, and gloves.
NICE is accepting donations in advance based on family size. (See more details about how to donate in the form pictured at left.) The board members have applied for funding from Yale’s Community Fund to provide mostly new items to residents. Children’s coats are needed the most.
Next week the team has an appointment to pick up gently used coats from Button Up Connecticut.
Slightly used or new clothing and footwear can also be donated for the program to keep stored at the center available on a needed basis.
The team will spend the holiday season assembling the care packages to then distribute to the families on Jan. 9. Families will be asked to schedule a time to pick the packages up from the substation.
“Food is only one struggle these families face. Even without Covid families can’t always meet the seasonal clothing demand,” Rasheed said.
The NICE Center’s first-ever program was a clothing drive in 2015 for Hill residents. The team then decided to create the monthly food pantry to aid Hill neighbors on a consistent basis.
The center and its programs are based out the Hill South Police Substation at 410 Howard Ave.
Retired Lt. Jason Minardi worked with the NICE board members to give the center a home and support in the substation’s unused community room. Minardi would travel from his home in Cromwell to the Hill substation on the last Saturday of each month to help with the monthly food pantry.
The city provided deep storage cabinets.
The NICE board makes two monthly trips to the CT Food Bank. The first trip is earlier in the month to pick up non-perishables, the second to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables.
During the pandemic the board has also been shopping at discount stores for kid-friendly food to help parents who now have hungry kids at home all the time.
Since its start NICE has been keeping the pantry stocked with the help of donations from community groups and local grocery stores.
Rasheed has lived in the Hill for more than 40 years. She started up NICE with the board after growing tired of seeing Hill residents go without basics like food and clothes. The neighborhood is predominantly made up of Blacks, Hispanics, and immigrants/refugees.
Past clothing drive
The goal is to uplift the Hill but is limited to her neighbors. During the Covid pandemic residents from all of New Haven and out of town have picked up food, Rasheed said. The food pantry serves about 60 individuals each month. During New Haven’s Covid peak in April, the pantry began to see an increase its service numbers.
At the end of each month the pantry aims to fill the gap for families that run out of government food stamps at the end of the month.
This month’s food pantry will be on Dec. 19 from 11 a.m to 1 p.m.
In the future Rasheed hopes to get a NICE mobile unit to transfer food as well as a dedicated NICE building.