Rentschler Field Turns Into Food Drive Site

EAST HARTFORD, CT — Long lines of cars lined up Monday for Foodshare’s food drive at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. The new site was chosen after demand outgrew the space at the Hartford Regional Market, said President and CEO Jason Jakubowski.

“We quickly outgrew that, the amount of traffic was just too much for down there,” he said in a Facebook video post.

Cars lined up shortly after 6 a.m. and the drive was scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. Jakubowski predicted that thousands of people would turn up by the end of the day for the drive.

Those picking up food don’t have to leave their cars. Cars pass through a number of different stations for items, which are placed in the trunk.

Foodshare spent more than $225,000 over the past four weeks on food, which is as much as it spent during all of 2019, Jakubowski said. More than 90,000 pounds of food was distributed over the past few weeks in Hartford and New Britain.

Connecticut like many states has been hit hard economically by the new coronavirus pandemic. There were more than 350,000 unemployment applications made between March 13 and April 15, which is the equivalent of two average years of claims.

The drive was made possible by donations from the Dalio Foundation, 4-CT, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Bank of America and Stop & Shop. Gov. Ned Lamont’s office helped to coordinate the use of Rentschler Field. Pepperidge Farms, Bakery on Main, Stonybrook and others also donated items for the drive.

The site will run every day this week from 8:30 a.m. to noon. More details here.