Wheat Community Connections

Did you know that twice per month The Joseph and Leslie Carr Foundation provides meals to 65 + people through Wheat Community Connections?

Well, what is Wheat exactly and what do they do?  

WHEAT Community Connections has served residents of the Greater Clinton area since 1982 and in 2012 became a direct service program of the United Way of Tri-County. WHEAT continues to be a local organization supporting local residents through care, compassion and quality programs and services.

WHEAT Community Café provides homemade lunches for pick up Monday through Friday from 12:30–1:30. The Cafe also provides lunches for delivery to local housing authorities and pick up at our main location Monday through Friday from 12:30pm - 1:30pm. Homemade dinners are served Monday through Friday from 5:00 - 6:00 pm.

Wheat also provides a free food pantry, outdoor market place, case management services and a thrift store. They are an amazing asset to our local community and we are proud to be able to help out.

Once per month we sponsor a meal, providing the necessary funds to assist in feeding 65 + people. For our second meal of the month, a group of friends/family get together to prepare and cook a full meal. Our meatball subs and fries have become a local favorite! Served along with a salad and a tasty cookie, the meals are always very well received.

This month, our friends and longtime contributors, the Miot and Ligon family stepped up to help at WHEAT, pumping out our world renowned meatball subs for those in need. We are thankful for our friends!

Would you like to help us to help others?

Helping us to help others

Through the generosity of those around us, we have been able to help out so many. We frequently fill pantries and diaper banks. We have helped with local drives to provide children with backpacks and school supplies for the new school year. We have helped stock Veteran’s shelters with socks, underwear and other much needed items. We have supplied women’s and children’s shelters with personal products including shampoo, deodorant, feminine hygiene supplies and much more.

We have also been able to purchase larger ticket items that have drastically altered the lives of many. We were able to purchase a mini fridge and restaurant quality meat cutter for Abby’s House in Worcester. We were able to provide Sharing is Caring a restaurant quality refrigerator enabling them to continue to provide for the community. For the Butler school in Lowell, we were able to purchase a washer and dryer along with a year’s worth of detergent. We were stunned to hear students were missing school due to having dirty clothes, or coming to school in wet clothes in the dead of winter because their parent had washed their clothing in the tub and it didn’t dry in time.

We have been working with local school nurses and guidance counselors to supply their offices with snacks and drinks for kids in need. We also helped Monty Tech to stock their new free ‘shop’ where anyone in need can pick up needed items without a question.

One of our largest giving events occurred this past December when we were able to ‘adopt’ 100 children in the state foster system. In an unbelievable show of generosity people bought gifts…and more gifts…and more gifts. Makeup, dolls, bikes, games ..the list goes on and on!

It all began with an idea….

It all began with an idea. After a few post Thanksgiving beverages Dave floated an idea to start a food basket program locally. Beth, having worked her 300th over night shift in a row, said “sure, sounds great, we will start on it next year.” Dave (being Dave) said “no, this year…”

The plan was to feed 10 families for Christmas in 2019. In 10 days we raised $8K and fed 100 families. The rest is history….or rather the rest has been an insane amount of blood, sweat and tears laying the ground work for what has become a well oiled machine. But none of this could happen without the support of family, friends, loved ones and community. We mean this sincerely, we are so so grateful to you all!

On this blog I will attempt to update you on all the amazing things we are doing. I will also try to post some of the amazing things we have already done! Please be patient, I am certainly not a whiz at this!