Hands & Hearts Together: Creating Connections, Changing Lives

Hands & Hearts Together, an in-person celebration to support Hands On Hartford’s work to create connections and change lives, is a unique opportunity to bring together friends, partners, and supporters to connect folks with the assistance they seek, and connect communities with each other, strengthening and enriching us all. Featuring a program that will engage, educate and entertain, along with an auction and call for action, this celebration offers the opportunity to have fun and do good. Reception and sit-down dinner, live entertainment by the Bap Pack, Silent and Live Auctions. To buy tickets and/or register for the online auction, please click HERE.

Memorial Day Community Meal

Join us for a free Memorial Day Holiday Meal here at Hands On Hartford’s Center for Community. The meal will be served at 11:00 am Monday, May 29, but you are welcome to come in for a cup of coffee at 10:00am. Bring your family and celebrate the season with your Hartford neighbors – all are welcome! No registration is required. Sponsored by Talcott Resolution.

Walk Against Hunger 2023

Join us in this year’s CT Foodshare Walk Against Hunger!

We’ll be at our table at Dunkin Park starting at 8:00am – unless we sneak away to visit the baby goats.

Featuring:

Fun for the whole family.
A huge impact on hunger and food insecurity in our community.
An opportunity to reach out a helping hand.
The power of many working together toward one goal.
And baby goats!

For everyone who is already registered or who has already donated, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And for everyone else, we hope you’ll sign up or sponsor our Hands and Hartford Friends and Family Team HERE.

We have ambitious goals for this year’s CT Foodshare Walk Against Hunger – to raise $50,000 for our MANNA food programs. This support will help provide groceries for families struggling to get by. And for the kids in our backpack nutrition program, this support means they will have breakfast, lunch and healthy snacks all weekend long.

We sure can use your help! Please join us! Click HERE to donate to our Hands On Hartford Friends and Family Team or to register as a walker. And if you’re planning to walk with us, don’t forget to choose Hands On Hartford as your benefiting agency.

Birdies for Charity 2023

Hands On Hartford is participating in this year’s Travelers Championship Birdies for Charity! This great opportunity means that any donations received via this initiative before Sunday June 25, 2023 will receive a 15% match – making your gift go that much farther. You can make an online donation here: HANDS ON HARTFORD BIRDIES FOR CHARITY DONATIONS.

Why donate to Hands On Hartford this summer?

Over 800 families a month visit our pantry for groceries
Food costs remain high because of inflation
Special COVID era SNAP (food stamp) benefit increases have ended
With kids home for the summer, parents must often provide the breakfast and lunch their children enjoyed at no cost through the Hartford Schools.

Each person who walks through our doors is a valued member of our community – each with their own hopes, dreams and challenges. And none of them deserve the stress and anxiety that come with food insecurity.

Please make your donation today to help keep healthy, nutritious food on the tables of folks struggling to get by. And thank you!

Christmas Day Holiday Meal

Join us for a free Christmas Day Holiday Meal here at Hands On Hartford’s Center for Community. The meal will be served at 11:30 am on Sunday, December 25, but you are welcome to come in for a cup of coffee and snacks at 10:00am. Bring your family and celebrate the season with your Hartford neighbors – all are welcome! No registration is required. Sponsored by an anonymous donor, with toys for kids under 12, and Blessing Bags provided by our friends at Gengras Center.

Thanksgiving Day Holiday Meal

Join us for a free Thanksgiving Day Holiday Meal here at Hands On Hartford’s Center for Community. The meal will be served at 11:30 am on Thursday, November 24, but you are welcome to come in for a cup of coffee and snacks at 10:00am. Bring your family and celebrate the season with your Hartford neighbors – all are welcome! No registration is required. Sponsored by an anonymous donor, with gifts of warmth provided by CGI Technologies and Solutions, and the meal will be provided by the amazing Chef Xavier Santiago of The Place 2 Be!

Gather55 Changes Coming Soon

To all our present and future Gather55 customers: What an exciting time this has been with the opening of Gather55 at HOH. The restaurant has become oh-so-popular – in fact so popular that it’s been difficult to even get a seat at a table on most days. And although our staff and volunteers have worked hard to keep up with the crowds, we realize that our current structure simply isn’t sustainable in the long term. The team has been working hard to address the issues to reduce the crowds, create a more restaurant-like environment, and make sure that we are able to welcome the diverse communities we had hoped for.

Gather55 will be closed 9/26 – 10/3 for the team to revamp all of the operations, install new tables and equipment, and do deep cleaning. There will be a free meal provided by a volunteer group the evening of Monday 9/26 from 5:30 – 6:30pm. During this closed period, Day Program services will be available Monday through Thursday 9/26-9/29 starting at 9am, although no accompanying meals will be provided since Gather55 will be closed.

Starting Tuesday, 10/4, Gather55 will re-open with an adjusted model based on full community participation. Customers will pay what they can with a minimum payment of $2.00, and if they’re unable to pay they’ll have the option to volunteer at Hands On Hartford. Services staff at HOH and partnering agencies will have “on the house” meal vouchers to help support those who are working hard on their goals and are not able to pay or volunteer.

We are also adjusting the hours and menu such that the doors will open at 9am for coffee and complimentary fruit, with a number of full meal options (both breakfast and lunch type items) being available from 10am- 2pm. There will be a limited (for now) ‘full pay’ menu as well available beginning at 9am.

Change is never easy, but often vitally important. We remain committed to providing restaurant quality meals to folks of all income levels in a peaceful, welcoming space such that connections can be made and services can be accessed through our adjacent day program. We also believe that increased feelings of dignity and confidence can come to folks by participating through financial contributions and volunteering. A nice bonus for sure! We are all looking forward to a new start as a warm, welcoming, calm, friendly and delicious restaurant where everyone in our community can join us in our vision of nourishing, connecting and giving.

With thanks from the Hands On Hartford/Gather55 Team

Labor Day Community Meal

Join us for a free Labor Day Holiday Meal here at Hands On Hartford’s Center for Community. The meal will be served at 11:30 am Monday, September 5, but you are welcome to come in for a cup of coffee at 10:30am. Bring your family and celebrate the season with your Hartford neighbors – all are welcome! No registration is required. Sponsored by Talcott Resolution.

Virtual Open House

Join us for a virtual open house on Thursday, August 18 at noon. Hear about the latest updates – Gather55 (our new pay-what-you-can restaurant), the Powerhouse building project, and anything else you’d like to know. RSVP HERE and we’ll send you the Zoom link to join.