A Homeless Care Connection Event is set for Thursday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Torrington Elks Club on Litchfield Street, across from Coe Memorial Park. Friendly Hands Food Bank, the Elks and other groups are holding the event.

A Homeless Care Connection Event is set for Thursday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Torrington Elks Club on Litchfield Street, across from Coe Memorial Park. The event is organized by Friendly Hands Food Bank, the Elks and other organizations. Pictured is Friendly Hands executive director Karen Thomas.

TORRINGTON — Friendly Hands Food Bank serves hundreds of families weekly, providing groceries to help those in need. This year the organization says it is helping more than 800 families.

Recently, the food bank has seen a new type of client — homeless people who are sleeping in their cars or outside — who are coming to Friendly Hands for food.

“Over the last six weeks, we’ve been seeing a huge surge of homeless people coming to the food bank, saying ‘We’re homeless, we need food,” said executive director Karen Thomas. “We’ve been keeping track, and I’d say we’re seeing at least 25 new people. And the stories they’re sharing with us, the problems they’re having finding shelter and food — it’s just heartbreaking.”

Thomas contacted members of the Friendly Hands board and local service clubs. “I told them, ‘We have to do something to help’ and so we came up with this idea, the Homeless Care Connection.”

A Homeless Care Connection Event is set for Thursday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Torrington Elks Club on Litchfield Street, across from Coe Memorial Park.

Friendly Hands and other organizations will provide basic necessities such as laundry cards, blankets, socks and food to those who attend.

The Homeless Care Connection is being co-sponsored by the Elks Lodge, Torrington Womens Club and the Be Ready Project. The Community Soup Kitchen of Torrington is also passing the word, and feeding people daily at its Maiden Lane/Prospect Street location at Trinity Church.

“We called the Elks, and they said ‘We’re in, whatever you need.’ We came together, and so far the outpouring has been amazing of people wanting to help. Dunkin is donating hot chocolate and coffee for that day,” Thomas said. “We’re receiving care kits with masks and sanitizer, ready-to-eat meals, boots, coats, blankets ... We have laundry passes so people can wash their clothes. We’ve got this planned and ready to roll.”

The biggest challenge for Thursday is getting the word out to the people who need help, Thomas said.

“How are they getting their information? If they have a phone, maybe they’ll see it on Facebook, or something online? It’s hard to know how to reach them,” Thomas said. “I talked to a young woman this morning who said she’s sleeping in her car, and she said she would pass the word along.”

The idea of people sleeping in their cars or outdoors in the freezing cold was difficult for Thomas to hear.

“Even though we are the food bank, and we don’t offer shelter here, we decided something has to be done to help these people,” she said. “To at least help them survive the conditions they’re forced to live in, we had to do something immediately.

“This may be one of several events like this that we’ll do,” she said. “It’s a colalborative effort. The women’s club sent us a donation to buy whatever we needed, and anonymous donors are sending things in. This has all happened since Monday night.”

Any organization, business or service club wanting to join the Homeless Care Connection on Thursday can contact Karen Thomas, executive director at FHFB, at 860-482-3338.

Emily M. Olson is the community editor for the Torrington Register Citizen, the New Haven Register and the Middletown Press.

She is a 1997 graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.

She started her career at the Patent Trader newspaper in Westchester County, NY in 1998. After a brief period as a reporter with the Register Citizen in Torrington in 1999, she joined the former Housatonic Publications group as a reporter. She was managing editor of the former Litchfield Enquirer and helped run the weekly newspapers at Housatonic and the Litchfield County Times. She returned to the Register Citizen in 2009.