Harvest House IV feeds Valley hungry

    SHELTON - Valley United Way’s Corporate Volunteer Council completed its 16th annual Week of Caring project over the weekend by building a 400-square foot house made of nonperishable food items for area food banks.
    Pitney Bowes was the “Marquis Sponsor” for Harvest House IV. Also underwriting the event were: Platinum, PerkinElmer; Gold,  BIC Corp. and First Niagara and Newtown Savings Bank; Silver, Iroquois Gas Transmission, HealthNet and Valley Community Foundation.
    These companies and more than 50 other Valley businesses on the CVC and in the Valley ran food drives at their facilities and provided hundreds of volunteers to help with the build.
    Student teams from Emmett O’Brien Technical High School’s Computer Aided Drafting and Design and Carpentry Departments began by developing blueprints of a 20x20 square - foot house under the supervision of Matthew Holst, a structural engineer from Fletcher-Thompson, a Shelton-based architecture firm.
    Harvest House was assembled last week on the Shelton Riverwalk by students from O’Brien, and people from all over the Valley came to the Shelton Riverwalk all weekendtlo bring food and help with the build. Some of the Volunteers were from the United Way Youth Leadership program, the Valley United Way High School Volunteer Council, Ansonia Prendergast School, Elizabeth Shelton, Perry Hill School, Ansonia Middle and Derby Middle Schools.
    On Monday, area food banks and their volunteers picked up the large quantity of food and transported it back to their agencies. Organizations that participated include Spooner House, The Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul Helping Hands of the Valley, Birmingham Group Health Services, Inc. and the Parent-Child Resource Center.