A Production Partnership Where Everyone Wins
(October 26, 2009) New Britain's CW Resources has grown by leaps and bounds since the nonprofit received a $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation in 1990 to renovate its Myrtle Street headquarters. Friends of the Community Foundation recently got the opportunity to tour another CW Resources location - their River Valley Products dry food packaging facility in the New Britain industrial park - for a firsthand view of how the organization provides meaningful employment for people with disabilities and those who are socioeconomically challenged.
More than 30 such employees are currently busy 24 hours a day at the 3-A Dairy Certified plant, packaging 1,000-lb super sacks of instant nonfat dried milk. They are helping fulfill a contract with the USDA to convert 1.3 million pounds of instant dry milk per month into consumer size packets of milk for the National School Lunch Program and other programs for low-income families.
The fascinating tour inside the plant was sponsored by the Community Foundation as part of its ongoing Community Conversation initiative, which takes donors into the community to see the fruits of their grantmaking.
"Last year, we helped train and find jobs for more than 900 people with disabilities at numerous sites in Connecticut and the northeast," explained Alix Capsalors, vice-president of CW Resources, which is a private, not-for-profit vocational rehabilitation agency founded in 1964. The organization - which pays out more than $7.4 million in wages to clients with disabilities- also has the distinction of having been the first nonprofit to create an endowment fund at the Community Foundation for its employee activity fund.
"We have formed partnerships with the government and corporations that truly are a win-win for everyone," explained Ron Buccilli, CW Resources President, who then gave several examples. "Through a contract with Kraft, we have packaged 1.5 million pounds of Maxwell House coffee in less than a year. We provide janitorial services for the U.S Coast Guard Academy and Naval Submarine Base where our clients have high security clearances and are very proud to walk alongside the cadets. We cook and deliver 7,000 meals a day right here in New Britain as part of an Elderly Nutrition Program."
CW Resources also provides assembly and packaging services for manufacturers and small businesses, often tackling jobs by hand that machines just can't do. Marty, a group home resident who works for CW Resources, told the group that he enjoys his job removing the sound chips from greeting cards that are going to be destroyed for one reason or another. He and his co-worker clients have participated in a wide array of interesting jobs, from hotstamping to re-labeling to coiling to making special boxes.
The chance to get this behind the scenes glimpse of CW Resources' packaging operation was of great interest to Ada Seaman, of New Britain. "I was very impressed with the whole atmosphere and the people with disabilities who were working there," she said. A donor and past recipient of the Community Foundation's Celebrate! award, Ms. Seaman has attended a number of Community Conversations and finds them a "wonderful" experience adding: "I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about what's being done in the community."
For more information about CW Resources, visit their website at www.cwresources.org. For more information about Community Conversations, contact Cheryl Farmer at 860-229-6018, ext. 305, or cfarmer@cfgnb.org.