‘Plate It Forward’ in Southington gives free meals to food insecure

Months ago, Southington Realtor Gary Brummett was visiting family in Wetumpka, Alabama. In a sandwich shop, he saw a board put up by a local church group: Take one of these sandwiches, they’re already paid for. The board had paper tickets on it. Any hungry person who had no money was welcome to take one of the tickets and exchange it for a sandwich.

Brummett has brought that charitable initiative to Southington. Two restaurants — Paul Gregory’s Bistro at 168 Center St. and Fancy Bagels at 405 Queen St. — have teamed up with him in a program he has dubbed “Plate It Forward.”

Paying customers at those eateries also can buy a meal for a food-insecure person. A ticket for that meal is pinned on a board, then anyone who wants one of those meals can take a ticket and redeem it at the counter for the already paid-for meal.

Those two restaurants — which started collecting paid tickets last week and started giving out the free meals this week — are just the beginning, Brummett said. He is hoping to get four or five more restaurants in town to join in.

“As soon as we get more funding, we’re going to fill it out,” Brummett said. “We’re going to geographically spread the opportunities out to all four corners and in the center of Southington.”

Brummett created “Plate It Forward” with friends in a business network group, which meets twice a month for breakfast. Each puts $100 into the kitty every three months to buy the breakfasts. At the end of each three-month period, there always is some money left over. They’ve donated the excess to local worthy causes.

“The third time we ended up with $500 left over. So I said, listen guys, we can really do something substantial, meaningful, impactful with this money,” Brummett remembers. He told them about what he saw in Wetumpka. They ran with it.

Brummett approached Bread for Life Southington, a soup kitchen, to help them find people who would want to take advantage of the meals. Then he approached Community Foundation of Greater New Britain, which funds philanthropic projects in New Britain, Southington, Berlin and Plainville. David J. Obedzinski president and CEO of CFGNB, loved the idea.

“There is a gap with people who have food-security issues. The more visible we can make it in the community, to help us solve some of this problem, the better it is for everybody,” Obedzinski said.

CFGNB created the Plate It Forward Southington Charitable Fund to accept donations for the project’s operating expenses.

Then the breakfast networking group visited Paul Gregory’s and Fancy Bagels and both jumped on board immediately.

Theresa Malloy, who has owned Paul Gregory’s with her daughter Ashley since 2017, collaborates often with Bread for Life.

“We’ve donated food to them. We did soup night at Southington High School. When we have an overabundance of food we provide meals to them,” she said. “We will do whatever we can for the Southington community.”

Jackie Gualtieri, whose son Dominick owns Fancy Bagels, said the “pay it forward” concept is common there.

“We have a lot of people who pay it forward when they come in, especially when the National Guard guys and women come in The armory is just up the street,” Gualtieri said. “We liked this because people are in need. Everybody needs help.”

Brummett said bringing in the organizations and the restaurants was just the first half of the equation. “The second half is getting food-insecure folks to feel comfortable going in, grabbing a ticket and being served a meal,” he said.

That was an important consideration, said Bread for Life director of operations Missy Cipriano.

“There is not just a stigma, but there is the embarrassment. Are they going to look at me when I am taking that ticket? Are they watching me? It is a little bit of a hurdle,” Cipriano said. “But no one is watching you. It’s OK.”

Cipriano told her usual clientele — 20 or 25 people who eat lunch daily — about Plate It Forward. She asked them to spread the word. “I reached out to families this morning. I told them, take the kids, take the tickets,” she said.

Obedzinski said food insecurity is increasing among the population.

“We are still feeling the effects of the food-insecurity problem that existed before COVID but was exacerbated by COVID. It has created so many stresses in the community,” he said. “It’s an issue that sometimes isn’t very visible to the community at large.”

Cipriano is excited about the potential of Plate It Forward. “Grass-roots movements are things that make long-lasting change. It comes from compassion, from meeting the need that is right there.”

To donate to the operating costs of Plate It Forward, visit cfgnb.org/donate-now and find the fund in the drop-down menu to find Plate It Forward Southington Charitable Fund. To buy meals for the program, visit the restaurants.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.