"Ah ye of Little Faith"

 

During the winter of 1989, the First Baptist Church in Essex, led by Pastor Erica Wimber, had a “vision” day. People in the church were asked to “dream” and share their “dreams” about all the things they would like to see a church doing in their community. One of the things discussed was that they would like to do more for local missions. Several of the members had heard stories of people in the area that were in need, and believed there was a hidden problem. One church member knew of an elderly couple who were picking discarded food out of a dumpster. Many phone calls were made, but the response was always the same, “There is no poverty here”. The church members disagreed and looked at soup kitchen programs in other towns.

They decided to serve one meal as an experiment to find out for themselves if anyone would come. They put signs up on dumpsters, in stores, and publicized on the radio and in the newspapers. They put the first $5.00 donation, made by the late John Pullen, in a little purse carried by Ruth Adams. On March 25, 1989 the Saturday before Easter, they opened their Fellowship Hall for this experimental offering. People were invited to donate food, and volunteers prepared a hot meal from food the committee collected. Residents were welcome to eat – whether they were in need or just lonely and in need of fellowship. They waited with deep anticipation. A woman walked in and handed them a $50.00 gift certificate for a local grocery store and began to leave. They said, “Wait, we don’t know if this will really work, we don’t know if anyone will come.” The woman turned and said, “Ah, ye of little faith” which became the volunteers favorite saying whenever spirits or that little purse ran low.

Eleven people came that first day and touched their hearts. The group knew they were following the right mission when they served three children whose mother was too embarrassed to attend. They opened the following week for a second trial. The second meal brought 14 people. On that basis they decided to serve meals every week.

One of their primary goals was to reach local residents before they were forced to move to cities. Pastor Erica felt strongly that communities should take care of their own people. She believed that people in rural areas who found themselves in need, should not have to move away from their homes, extended family, communities, and support systems at a time of crisis in their lives. She said that once these people arrive in the city where they are in a foreign environment, statistics show that they are at a very high risk for becoming chronically homeless. She believed that the solution was to keep neighbors from entirely bottoming out, and the groceries and hot meals would give people some help, some sense of dignity, and hope while they tried to solve their own problems.

That first year certainly had its’ ups and downs. While waiting for the word to get out, there were days when 2 or 3 or even no people came to the soup kitchen. Volunteers quit, saying it wasn’t worth their time. There were days when they questioned the "loaves and fishes" principle. They had shown the need, but would the food continue to appear? They remember their little purse getting so low one time that Ruth left a note for a guest preacher at the Baptist church saying how finances were desperate. By afternoon of that day the purse was full. They never closed; they kept saying “Ye of little faith” and hung in there.

But it wasn’t easy. Much of the community did not like what they were doing. The group was told that they were encouraging indigents to move into the area, and that they were attracting the wrong element.

In the fall of 1989, a neighbor who struggled with alcohol addiction and homelessness was encouraged by someone in the community to leave the area and go to New Haven where there were more services to help him. The local police knew this man and would seek him out on cold nights and let him sleep in a cell over night. In the morning they would release him, but his struggle with addiction went untreated. He took the advice to relocate to New Haven, and on a cold winter night he went to a city shelter. Because he was intoxicated, the shelter did not permit him to stay. He died on the streets of New Haven that night. He had frozen to death. Everyone at the soup kitchen felt in their hearts that he would not have died if he was living in a place where people knew him. Pastor Erica said in the local paper, “His blood is on our hands”. This was the turning point for the soup kitchen. The intense controversy ended, and many people realized the soup kitchen was needed.

They named the meal site the Shoreline Soup Cellar, An Interfaith Community Service. They started collecting funny, sad, and sometimes inspiring stories: like the day a young teen, sent to volunteer as a community service “punishment”, turned to one of the adult volunteers and said, “What did you do?”; or like when a young girl walked in with her big bag of Halloween candy, donating it all and keeping none for herself. They formalized their purpose, organized job assignments, had meetings every six weeks, and set the ground work that still forms the SSKP today. Chip Adams, Ruth and Dick's son, designed the logo. Ruth Adams went to church after church, talking at Sunday Services, knocking on doors. She was relentless. She spread the word, gathering volunteers and donations, and enlightening the public. Eventually a very strong majority of local faith communities were on board and involved. Donations began pouring in.

They also planted the seeds for the philosophy and guidelines that SSKP follows today. For example, Pastor Erica had a rule, “When you eat, everybody eats, so there is no difference between who’s giving and who’s taking. You’re not taking the food away from the people. Just the opposite, you’re taking the pride away from the people when you don’t sit and eat with them." The original founders also had plans to expand the times, days, and locations of the soup kitchen, and develop work on providing affordable housing and a shelter.

The Shoreline Soup Cellar grew as the word got out. By 1991, the second year of operation, they were feeding an average of 70 people, and giving out 60 boxes of groceries per week. They had really expanded and had outgrown their first home. The Shoreline Soup Cellar moved to Saint John's Church in Old Saybrook where the facilities were much larger. The meals were served at St. John’s on Saturdays in an unused school building.

At this time there were approximately 60 volunteers that staffed the meal site on a rotating basis. They were funded by donations from churches, synagogues, community groups, individuals and businesses. October 1991 another meal site was opened at Grace Episcopal Church in Old Saybrook on Wednesdays.

In 1992 Pastor Erica was leaving the area. She knew she needed to hire a staff person to replace her work and continue providing the management and general running of the Shoreline Soup Cellar, but finances were slim. She called a half dozen people that had once told her if she ever had a special need to call them. In one afternoon, she had enough money to cover the salary. She hired Denise Learned as the first full-time Director, and Denise led SSKP for the next 7 years. Patty Dowling served as Executive Director for 15 years, from 2002 to 2017, leading SSKP through many phases of growth and building a professional organization to ensure long-term stability. Ellen Rabin was our Executive Director from 2017 to 2019. Our current Executive Director Amy Hollis first began as an SSKP volunteer in 2001 and brings decades of faith-based leadership experience as well as a deep commitment to our mission of sharing food and fellowship.

In 2007, The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries had increased to 8 meal sites, 2 Heat & Eat programs and 4 pantries in an 11 town area. In 2009, SSKP added a fifth pantry in Niantic.  In 2017, SSKP added a meal site in Westbrook. In 2025 we added a community meal in Madison, and in 2026 we opened a sixth pantry in Madison.

 

Currently we operate 6 pantries, 9 community meals, and a Backpack Support Program which supplements local school backpack programs with additional food items for students.

SSKP is governed by a Board of Directors which sets the goals and policies and, through the Executive Director, directs and supports the affairs of the organization. The Board of Directors may consist of up to fifteen members, up to five of whom may be clergy from among the local faith communities.

At our inception a committed group of local faith community members formed Shoreline Soup Kitchens to provide food and fellowship for those hungry in body and spirit as a Connecticut voluntary religious society and was granted Federal 501c3 nonprofit status.

In 2012, our Board of Directors, as part of their regular review of our bylaws and due diligence responsibility, and under advice of our pro bono attorney, voted to change our Connecticut formation status.

Our current CT corporate status as a nonstock nonprofit corporation provides additional safeguards and the full benefits of the CT Nonprofit Corporate Act for our organization and mission. This is particularly critical as we have become an essential service in our community that many people rely on every day for food and fellowship.

In relation to our CT corporate status being amended, and due to the IRS regulations governing 501c3 organizations, in January 2016 we adopted a new name and EIN#. All other aspects of SSKP, including our interfaith culture, mission, vision, scope, contact information, mailing address, physical address, and focus remain the same.

SSKP is staffed by a small staff including an Executive Director, a Development & Communications Director, an Administrative Assistant, Pantry Managers, a Volunteer Coordinator, a Registrar, a Meal Site Coordinator, a Bookkeeper, and several Truck Drivers. As always, the majority of our work is done by volunteers.

The urgency for help on the shoreline has grown tremendously, but food and funds always seem to keep up with the need. As the need is revealed and grows, the resources always appear to meet the demand.

Shoreline Soup Kitchen & Pantries, Inc. is looking toward a better future. We are sharing food each day with our neighbors and educating the community about hunger and poverty. For the right reasons, we would love to put ourselves out of business. Can you dream about a day when there is no need for SSKP anymore? You can’t?

Ah, ye of little faith.

​

Some of our Founding Members

Pastor Erica Wimber Avena

Ruth & Dick Adams

Dot Burgon

Merna & Ted Colton

Holly Goff

Eleanor (Susie) La Place

Midge & Walt Lynn

Carol Ann Newman

Irma & Bob Nuhn

Edith & Hat Roberts

Mary Samburg

Jane Steinke

​

​