The Community Soup Kitchen Announces New Executive Director

Mr. Watkins comes to the Community Soup Kitchen with hands-on, director-level experience in food delivery management for seniors in adult day care centers, senior centers, assisted living facilities, and community soup kitchens in Connecticut and New York. At Tuxis Pond Assisted Living Facility in Madison, he rebuilt senior programming for more than 200 residents and at Carter Burden Luncheon Club and Senior Programs in NYC he managed a senior center that served approximately 140 seniors/day, providing them with free lunch and programs. He created an adult day care center at Doral Medical in NYC and founded the Manhattan Client Service Unit at the Department of Probation, NYC, resulting in 215 jobs for probationers. There, he received the Customer Service Award from the Department of Probation Commissioner Ana M. Bermúdez, for his work with the clients throughout the borough of Manhattan. Due to his success, Mr. Watkins has served on numerous board and commissions.

“We enthusiastically welcome Josh’s experience, expertise and commitment to our mission,” said Burton Alter, Chair of the Board. “He has just the right blend of leadership skills, heart and knowledge of kitchen and food management and human service programming to lead Community Soup Kitchen as it continues to expand capacity and make a difference for the people in our community. Josh served as our interim executive following the end-of-year retirement of our long-term leader, David O’Sullivan, and hit the ground running with energy and many new ideas. It is tough to join an organization in the throes of the COVID pandemic, but Josh did so with enthusiasm and thoughtfulness. We are lucky to have found him.”

“I am truly honored to step into the role of Executive Director,” said Joshua Watkins. “It has always been a dream of mine to work for an organization that serves anyone regardless of their background or current financial situation. I believe that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more. I grew up doing outreach alongside my late father. Service has always been the embodiment of our family because giving back creates a virtuous cycle that makes everyone more successful. I am looking forward to our organization doing all it can to make New Haven a better place. CSK was an operation that started out serving just “soup and bread” but has grown to supply satellite sites and warming centers around the city with varied food. During the pandemic, we were forced to pivot quickly and transitioned from feeding people in our spacious dining hall to a grab-n-go operation. We staggered our staff schedule to accommodate COVID-19 safety protocols and continue to operate with these protocols in place.”

The Community Soup Kitchen retained Eos Transition Partners to conduct the search and hire.

ABOUT: The Community Soup Kitchen

The Community Soup Kitchen (CSK) is an organization that provides meals and groceries out of Christ Church in New Haven with multiple satellite locations in New Haven and Hamden. Regardless of your background or current financial situation, CSK is here for you. Long considered the lunchtime essential for a large portion of New Haven’s low-income residents, they have a reputation as the soup kitchen with a big heart. Their friendly, welcoming, and non-judgmental environment for guests, staff, and volunteers has been providing meals for over 40 years. A multi-course hot lunch as well as take-home groceries (produce, pantry staples, etc.) is provided during the week (except Wednesday’s) and breakfast on Saturday mornings. They provide outreach meals at neighboring churches and packaged hot dinner meals to warming centers in New Haven and Hamden. CSK served approximately 81,000 meals in 2020. CSK’s 2021 goal is providing 160,000 meals or the equivalent of the total number of New Haven residents. Much of its food is donated by grocery stores, the Connecticut Food Bank and other community partners throughout New Haven County. Ancillary services, such as medical screenings, legal services, and veteran services, are provided to the guests in partnership with local agencies.