There are more than 200,000 students in Connecticut receiving free or reduced lunch, a number that is trending upwards. Many of those children don’t have enough to eat on the weekends, either. This moved New Caanan moms Shawnee Knight, who received free and reduced lunch as a kid, and her friend Tina Kramer, who used food assistance programs as a young, single mom, to try and do something for these students. Tina had read an article about an organization called Blessings in a Backpack, which provided weekend meal bags to children. The friends signed up as program coordinators, but they knew they could do more. So in 2013, they started their own 501(C)3: Filling In The Blanks.
Filling In The Blanks has “exploded” over the last 11 years, says Tina. For $10 per bag, they created kits with name-brand foods for kids to eat Friday night through Monday morning, and demand, unfortunately, is sky-high. “When we started back in 2013, we worked out of a house in New Canaan—we had the local kids from the football teams come and take the food off the trucks hand over hand,” she says. “Fast forward seven years, we moved into a 7,500 square foot warehouse in Norwalk and have 7,000 volunteers that come through our doors every single year to help pack the bags.”
They’ve also launched new initiatives. Last fall, Filling In The Blanks teamed up with Shonda Rhimes’ The Rhimes Foundation to purchase a truck and get the seed money to start a mobile pantry, which has served nearly 6,000 people and 350,000 pounds of fresh food in just one year. The pantry offers fresh, farmer’s-market quality produce and perishables to more than 500 families a month, in Norwalk on the second Saturday each month and Stamford on the third. In addition to food, the Saturday set-ups include community providers with everything from flu shots to information on how to sign up for Husky health and dental insurance. “The other month, I saw this little boy walking and holding his dad's hand, and he said ‘This is the best market I've ever been to,’” recalls Shawnee. That’s their goal— for it to feel like a great experience for all their families—one that just happens to be free.
Five years ago, Filling In The Blanks began another way to support that goal: their Plates With Purpose dinner, held this year on October 5. The dinner is a chance for superstar local chefs— this year’s lineup includes Chefs Luke Venner of Elm, Damon Sawyer of 29 Markle Court, Anthony Kostelis of The Whelk, Jared Falco of Bar Rosina's, Andréa Stevenson of Abigail Kirsch, Hannah Gorman of Revel with DinnerThyme, and Robert VanKeuren of Flour Water Salt Bread—to raise funds for the organization. Luke, who has been involved since the inaugural Plates With Purpose, says the event just made sense. “Being a chef, it’s my nature to feed people when they’re hungry— or happy, or sad, or angry!” he says. “The idea of doing a big dinner with other local chefs involved came together quickly.”
Luke is especially excited for this year’s, which will be held at The Loading Dock in Stamford. “We finally got chefs from all of the different communities where Filling In The Blanks has outreach,” he says. “It's the best lineup we've ever had, in my opinion. They're my peers and friends, and I eat at their restaurants all the time.”
Of course, it’s more than just a fun night of delicious food. “The funds raised from the event will go directly to our weekend meal program, our mobile pantry program, and our in-school pantries,” says Tina. “It all goes right back to the kids.”
Tickets to Plates With Purpose start at $350 and can be purchased at fillingintheblanks.org. Plates With Purpose will be held on October 5, 2024, at The Loading Dock in Stamford, 375 Fairfield Ave.
“The funds raised from the event all go right back to the kids.”