Michelle Liu Photo
Mastracchio, Stevens and Gainey at the pantry.
When Sharon Stevens lost her job of ten years last fall, she didn’t just move on.
The longtime employee for Village of Power, a program once run by Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, had spent over a decade helping women who struggled with substance abuse or mental health challenges. The program not only provided case management services, but also encouraged the women involved to do community service of their own, Stevens said.
“You see that someone else is looking up to you,” Stevens said. “You may never have had that before. It’s life changing for some people.”
After budget cuts forced the program to end last September, Stevens and the women shifted gears. They renamed themselves Women of the Village. With the help of Diane Brown, branch manager at Dixwell’s Stetson Branch library, they kept the program’s signature sewing group afloat by relocating it to the library.
And with the (purse)strings cut, Women of the Village has had to grow in new directions.
Full shelves in newly-installed cabinets in the Dixwell police substation.
On Friday afternoon, Stevens was seated at the front of the Dixwell police substation on Charles Street. She and two other volunteers had arrayed knotted bags of bagels and pastries, and staples like cereal and soup across two rows of tables. The warm smell of bread permeated the room.
It was the official opening of New Haven’s newest food pantry — one of many projects over which the Women of the Village has taken the reins.
In two hours, some 15 to 20 people had walked out of the substation with groceries, said Andrea Mastracchio, a former graduate of the program-turned volunteer coordinator.
The monthly food pantry, run in conjunction with the city of New Haven and the police department, sources donations from Trader Joe’s, Elm City Market and Panera. Hence the baked goods, the multiple non-dairy milk options, and a variety of organic boxed foods. Women of the Village also now provides fresh fruits, vegetables and sometimes meats from Trader Joe’s on a weekly basis.
A sampling of goods available at the pantry Friday afternoon.
When funding ran dry for the program, Women of the Village’s newfound independence gave program volunteers the chance to redefine the terms of the program.
For example, Stevens can collaborate with other programs, such as donating leftover food that she would have otherwise had to throw away under the health center’s rules.
Although Stevens admits that the transition from Village of Power to Women of the Village has been “a little bit rough” over the last few months, she enjoys the flexibility it has afforded her.
“I have more freedom now,” Stevens said, who now works in a volunteer capacity, even as she searches for work.
“Nobody works for anybody,” Mastracchio said. “We all work hand in hand.”
Margaret Gainey, a Dixwell resident who has been a program participant since 2015, was volunteering at the food pantry on Friday,
“She’s our bodyguard,” Mastracchio joked.
Gainey, who has been sober for four years, said that prior to joining Village of Power, she’d never done community service. “Didn’t want to, wasn’t going to,” she said. “None of the above.”
But over the course of her time in the program, Gainey began to understand what Stevens calls the “life-changing” experience of having someone else look up to you.
“I just felt that it was time for me to give back a little bit,” Gainey said.