Naugatuck student helps shape partnership to reduce hunger

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Naugatuck’s Anna Ciacciarella, a junior at Quinnipiac University, speaks at a Dec. 3 press conference announcing a new partnership aimed at reducing hunger in Hamden. -PHOTO COURTESY OF QUINNIPIAC

HAMDEN — Quinnipiac University junior Anna Ciacciarella, a Naugatuck resident, worked with the university and a nonprofit organization on a new partnership to help reduce hunger.

The university partnered with Haven’s Harvest, a nonprofit organization that provides food to those facing food insecurity throughout Greater New Haven. Quinnipiac Dining, which oversees food services at Quinnipiac, is donating its excess food directly to Hamden residents through Haven’s Harvest. Starting this month, Quinnipiac students will work with the nonprofit to deliver the food throughout Hamden each weekday during the academic year.

Ciacciarella is the food security intern at the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac, and was among those who worked with Quinnipiac Dining and Haven’s Harvest to expand student involvement in the food-delivery process.

“This program allows Quinnipiac to make a true and measurable difference in the Hamden community by working to reduce food insecurity,” Ciacciarella said in a news release. “The program also promotes sustainability on our campuses as food is being sent elsewhere rather than being wasted.”

A 2019 study commissioned by United Way of Greater New Haven found that nearly one in eight adults and one in six children in Hamden experience food insecurity, the news release stated.