Cooking to build a community of love! It’s wonderful to see some of our younger helpers making the world a better place. Our most heartfelt thanks to the Levin and Kuhr families of Fairfield for making 48 gift bags of baked treats and 28 chocolate puddings to sweeten the day for some of our neighbors in need. Even the smallest of actions can make a big difference in someone’s day.

We treasure our littlest volunteers! On an almost monthly basis, the Horne family of Fairfield makes bagged lunches for our clients to grab on the way to work. In January, the family made 25 lunches with turkey and cheese sandwiches, apples, granola bars and flavored seltzer. Plus, the kids included kindness notes in each bag. Thank you for ensuring our neighbors in need have something healthy and filling to eat for lunch, Horne family! And if you’d like to provide bagged lunches, send Volunteer Program Manager Donna Schmidt an email at dschmidt@operationhopect.org. Thank you!

We love seeing holiday decorations still sparkling in January! And we hope that the festive wooden cutouts created by Fairfield Country Day School​ alum Alex Staikos '19 back in December are still up! 15 year old Alex entered the Fairfield Parks and Recreation​ 2019 Christmas House Decorating Contest and WON! He started over the summer by hand-making all of the wooden cutouts and creating the entire display. What drive and creativity! And with his big heart, he donated the proceeds from those who visited the display to Operation Hope to help our neighbors in need. This is Alex's second year doing the display for Operation Hope. It began as a project to bring cheer to the younger kids on his family's street and has now grown into a larger sharing of Christmas cheer for all ages. Alex, thank you, and we can’t wait to see what you add to your amazing display next year!

Fairfield teens Grace Kenney and Vicky Sgaglione created "Birdhouses for the Homeless" to spread awareness and help solve one of the problems Fairfield County faces, homelessness. Recently, the girls, and little sister Maeve Kenney, donated $250 to Operation Hope, from proceeds raised by selling birdhouses at a Christmas bazaar. Any amount helps us end hunger and end homelessness, and we are deeply grateful for the time, talent and treasure Grace, Vicky and Maeve share to help our neighbors in need.

Hello from the holiday cookie fairies! A huge thank you to the Fairfield Ludlowe High School 9th grade Girl Scout troop (30151) for organizing a cookie collection for our Food Pantry clients! Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, The Great Gingerbread House Project, families from Holland Hill, Sherman Elementary, Fairfield Woods, Fairfield Ludlowe High School & Fairfield Warde High School donated and assembled 120 dozen cookies on Saturday. Your kindness means so much to those receiving these special holiday packages, thank you for sweetening their holidays!

Who's in for a good, old fashioned football rivalry on Thanksgiving AND helping feed our neighbors in need? Come on by the annual Fairfield Warde High School vs Fairfield Ludlowe High School Thanksgiving Day football game, 10:30am at Warde. Please consider bringing non perishables (cash donations & gift cards accepted!) to help stock our Food Pantry shelves. Thank you to sponsors Ludlowe and Warde Football, Warde Gridiron, Mustangs CARE and SASO. Give THANKS and HOPE!

Fairfield teens Grace Kenney and Vicky Sgaglione created "Birdhouses for the Homeless" to spread awareness and help solve one of the problems Fairfield County faces, homelessness. They sell decorated birdhouses, with the proceeds donated to Operation Hope. We are deeply grateful for the time, talent and treasure Grace and Vicky share to help our neighbors in need.

Maddie, a student at Hart Magnet Elementary School in Stamford, chose for her final kindergarten project of the 2018-19 school year to collect 100 cans of non-perishable foods for our Food Pantry so that no child goes hungry over the summer. Maddie, you are a star, thank you for your big heart to care for our littlest clients!

Who doesn't love to celebrate the small and big wins in life? That can be challenging when you might not have the means to do so. The 5th grade class of Osborn Hill Elementary School created 40 "Celebration Kits" to be distributed in our Food Pantry to clients who would like to celebrate any special occasion...birthday, graduation, new home, good report card, or any moment that calls for celebration!

For 13 years now, Fairfield teen Molly Meehan and with the help of her mother, Michele Meehan, when she was much younger, has been raising money to bring Easter "hoppiness" to the littlest clients of Operation Hope.