Harvest House IV Building More Than Communities

My name is Patricia Tarasovic and I am the Director of ’s Volunteer Center and Corporate Volunteer Council. I am writing to tell you about the community’s involvement with a project called Harvest House, which will take place on September 24, 2011, on Shelton’s River Walk.

Harvest House is a bi-annual effort to construct a unique 400 square-foot house complete with shelving units as walls, and fill it with more than 100,000 nonperishable food items. The collected food is later distributed to Valley-based food banks in the towns of Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, Shelton and Oxford. Harvest House is in its fourth year and continues to help local Valley-based families in need.

Student teams from Emmett O’Brien Vocational Technical School’s Computer –Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) and Carpentry Departments began by developing blueprints of a 20x20 square-foot house, under the supervision of a structural engineer from Fletcher-Thompson, a Shelton-based architectural firm. The Valley United Way’s Harvest House program has been so successful that the Emmett O’Brien School has adopted this specific blueprint planning and design as part of their curriculum.

Volunteers around the Valley community are helping by raising money for the cost of building materials to assemble the Harvest House, in addition to hosting food drives at their places of employment. The money raised will also go towards purchasing nonperishables to fill the walls of the Harvest House. We are aiming to earn enough to show our appreciation to the students who help make this possible by providing them with scholarships and gift cards so they can further pursue their academic and professional development.

On September 24th, 2011, the day of the event, volunteers and community members will assemble the Harvest House on Shelton’s River Walk and stock the shelves with food as donations are dropped off. Soft drinks, food and live musical entertainment are provided and makes for a wonderful family atmosphere. The Harvest House is later disassembled and the food is distributed among the food banks in the area. Although hunger is an ever-increasing and constant need, nonperishables are especially appreciated closer towards Thanksgiving.

You can help us by sharing our story, hosting a food drive at the place of your employment, donating whatever you are able to afford to help make this event possible, contributing gift cards or by offering suggestions that may help make this event an even bigger success.

For more information or to offer any ideas, please contact me, Patricia Tarasovic, directly at (203) 926-9478 or email me at patrcia.tarasovic@valleyunitedway.org. You can also find more details on our website www.valleyunitedway.org.

I’m sure that together we can all help build a better tomorrow.