Bards Against
Hunger
Bards Against
Hunger
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What is Bards Against Hunger?
What is Bards Against Hunger?
In 2024, Orenaug Mountain Publishing started Bards Against Hunger Connecticut, an initiative that stocks local food pantries, as a way for writers in the area to give back to their communities. Hosting a Bards Against Hunger event:
Provides stocked shelves ensure that local children, seniors, and low-income households have reliable access to daily meals and balanced nutrition.
Reduces financial stress by allowing families to reallocate limited household budgets toward other critical needs like housing, utilities, and medical care.
Supports health and dignity as many pantries allow visitors to select items that match their dietary needs, cultural preferences, and household sizes.
Provides emergency relief as stocked pantries are a first-response resource during local economic hardships, job losses, or weather-related disasters.
Read the State of Food Insecurity in Connecticut 2025 report from the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity, and Opportunity.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church is our home base for Bards Against Hunger Connecticut poetry events. The church operates a Little Free Pantry in front of its building at 294 Main Street South, Woodbury. It is designed to complement the town both visually and communally. The pantry is stocked regularly with shelf-stable goods and is accessible anytime of the day or night.
St. Paul’s pantry operates in cooperation with the Woodbury Community Services Council Food Bank, sharing donations to make sure everyone can get what they need. Among the items needed, are many of the most popular, including whole grain cereals, sugar-free jam or jelly, instant oatmeal packets, canned tuna, spam, chicken, and other meats, canned vegetables, including low sodium and all kinds of beans, flavored rice and pasta packets, ramen noodles, and juice boxes and bottles.
OMP's featured open mics and In it Together: Poetry for Two Voices events have supplied St. Paul's with more than 100 bags of groceries. Our baseball poetry event in Southbury, in partnership with Vicinanza Studios, received donations to the Southbury Food Bank.
Since we started these events in 2024, local poets laureates around the state have held Bards Against Hunger Connecticut poetry open mics in Bethel, Danbury, and Willimantic.
Our Local
Bards Events
Our Local
Bards Events
From our first event at St. Paul's.
Hosting Your Bards Against Hunger Event
Hosting Your Bards Against Hunger Event
Find a local community group, church, or food bank to partner with. Host the event on location or arrange for a local food bank rep to assist with collection and delivery.
Arrange for two or three featured poets, speaking for 10 minutes apiece, and then host an open mic. Participants should bring a donation in order to read a single poem.
Promote your event through the Connecticut Poetry Calendar, press releases to your local media, and on social media. You can use this press release template as a starter.
Let us know about your event, and we'll help promote it through our social media. Be sure to take photos as a record of your event.
The Bards Initiative, a poetry group on Long Island, New York, established Bards Against Hunger, an initiative that would gather food for the hungry around Thanksgiving as a way for poets to give back to their local community. Several events have been in several states, and on Long Island, where the initiative has provided resources for more than 10,000 meals.
Spin Off of the
Bards Initiative
Spin Off of the
Bards Initiative
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