Center for Food Equity & Economic Development at the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport

The Center for Food Equity & Economic Development is an initiative of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport in Bridgeport, CT. We operate innovative, revenue-generating programming within the food industry with the purpose of building community wealth in Bridgeport. Historically, The Council’s work in food primarily supported food pantries and community meal programs in the Greater Bridgeport area. With the launch of the Center for Food Equity & Economic Development, we made the commitment to design programming that addresses and mitigates the underlying causes of food insecurity in Bridgeport. We now operate three successful programs, with more in the planning stages:

FEED: Transitioning food pantries and soup kitchens into hybrid retail and donation environments with a commitment to community input

CREATE: Culinary and food business courses for low-income Bridgeport residents designed to teach skills geared for food industry employment and entrepreneurial opportunities

SEEK: A shared-use commercial kitchen initiative that offers low-cost commercial kitchen space to local food businesses that removes the main barrier to startup food businesses