City Shelters Win

Soup Kitchens, Places For Homeless Benefit From Charity At Polls

BRISTOL — The 20,781 residents who went to the polls in Bristol Tuesday did more than vote: They dropped off cash, checks and food to benefit the city's poor.

Bristol's Stock Our Shelters experiment on Election Day succeeded beyond anyone's dreams, said Kimberly Carmelich, a coordinator with the local United Way.

“All day, volunteers were driving back with boxes,” Carmelich said as she looked over a United Way conference room where every surface was covered by crates of canned soup, bottled tomato sauce, cereal and other nonperishable foods.

“So much came in, this should be a statewide thing,” said local United Way President Donna Osuch. “The Bristol community is unbelievable — I'm blown away.”

Volunteers described Stock Our Shelters as a bipartisan Election Day win.

The idea came out of worry at City Hall about homeless and hungry people during the winter ahead. One of the city's three soup kitchens shut down this year, and the St. Vincent DePaul Homeless Shelter warned its financial strains could hurt its ability to provide emergency shelter on cold winter nights.

Sarah Larson of the parks department and Lindsey Rivers from the public works office proposed soliciting food and cash donations from voters at the polls. Local Girl Scout troops already sell cookies in the lobbies of many polling locations, and PTOs have bake sales there.

Larson, Rivers and Mayor Ellen ZoppoSassu concluded they could set up food donation boxes at each polling place, and smaller containers for cash contributions.

They ran the idea by Republican and Democratic registrars, who checked with Secretary of the State Denise Merrill's office to be sure it complied with election law. So long as candidates weren't involved and the operation stayed entirely free of politics, the registrars gave it their blessing.

Larson and Rivers worked with the United Way to collect, sort and distribute donations. Girl Scout Troops, PTOs and other volunteer groups agreed to keep informal watch on the donation bins.

Throughout the 14 hours of voting, United Way volunteers emptied full donation bins — as frequently as every couple of hours — at each polling place. They shuttled the food and cash back to the agency's North Main Street headquarters.

On Wednesday, United Way staff sorted the food between a dozen or so local charities and nonprofit social service organization. Volunteers Terry Hoganson, Dayle Galligan and Kyra Pham separated cash and loose change, and came up with a total of $4,813.01. That included several checks as well as stacks of $20s, $10s, $5s and dollar bills along with four $50s.

There is no way to know how many voters participated — voting officials were adamant that Stock Our Shelters couldn't interfere with balloting or voters' privacy. But Zoppo-Sassu called it a huge win for nonprofits aiding the poor.

“The Stock Our Shelters initiative on Election Day was a resounding success and a real testament to a great public partnership,” she said.