On a recent mid-June evening, a half-dozen servers, spiffily attired in starched white shirts and bowties, threaded through picnic tables covered in white tablecloths, and Lillian Reid was asking Louis Chiarella if he’d like another soda. “Sure,” said Chiarella, amid lively music in the te mperate late-spring air outside West Haven’s Surfside Apartments. Someone set a plate of baked ziti before him. “I could get used to this.” He grinned. An Army veteran who served two years in Korea, Chiarella was among the 65 residents at the 254-unit public housing complex enjoying the inaugural “Pop-Up Pasta Dinner in Our Parks.” Newhallville Fresh Starts, of which Reid is a team member, hosted the event.   For the past year, Fresh Starts — which delivers food to homeless shelters and warming centers from the excess dining hall meals of area universities, and donations of food pantries and restaurants — has been serving upwards of 60 meals to Surfside veterans and residents each Monday and Friday. To hear Fresh Starts founder Marcus Harvin tell it, the pop-up dinner initiative, which seeks to bring people at public parks together throughout the summer for “delicious pasta, warm service, and stronger community connections,” broadens the nonprofit’s principal aim of ensuring no one goes hungry. “We came out here today to serve those who have been of service to us,” Harvin told the residents, as he gestured to members of his team; because of logistical challenges in New Haven, the first iteration of the initiative landed at Surfside. “Far too often those who deserve to be honored go without honor, and are left to struggle.” To properly honor them, “you have to serve them literally,” he said later, referring to the nonprofit’s “Dinner and a Movie” nights where’s he’s watched the residents at a women’s shelter being served dinner. “Their posture just straightened up,” he said. “It was like you could see the dignity being infused, and that’s part of Fresh Starts’ mission, to make people feel like people and not like charity, to make them feel like they’re getting a hand up, not a handout.” Harvin said he scheduled the inaugural picnic dinner to coincide with his maternal grandmother’s birthday. Sally Mae Harvin, who died in 2021, served as a social worker for the Department of Social Service for 23 years, connecting vulnerable individuals with food assistance, housing, and healthcare.  “Everything that I do—we do—is an extension of the role she occupied and of the advice and instruction she gave me as I was growing up,” Harvin said. Under a white tent, Gwen Burke was spooning baked ziti onto a plate, adding a piece of garlic bread, and handing it off to team member Cass Cardoba; the ziti, as well as salad and bread, came from La Cucina in North Branford. Da Legna at Nolo donated several trays of penne. “That’s a meat one,” she said, as he hurried out. She filled another plate with a helping of baked ziti. Another server took it. “There’s so many people in need and this shows them we’re here.” Seated by himself at a picnic table, Jimmy Buccilli was sampling the penne. “This is nice,” he said, as a few residents got up to sway to Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature.” “Normally I just take something out of the freezer.”   “Look,” said a man who identified himself as WB at the next table, displaying that he had cleaned his plate. “This is outrageous, but in a good way. This is restoring my faith in humanity.” By then, the volunteers were clearing the plates and distributing cupcakes. “Turn it up Marcus,” a woman called out as she and two other residents boogied to the Electric Slide, referring to DJ Marc Mecca, a.k.a. Marcus Carpenter, the good vibes crescendoing. “We gotta do this again,” she said, a bit breathless, to one of the servers. “You gonna come back soon?” Gwen Burke plating La Cucina’s baked ziti. Talia Cardoba of Fresh Starts. Credit: Diamond Harvin photo Adam Rawlings and Howard straightening Marcus Harvin’s bowtie before the event. Feeling the joy. The post Pop-Up Pasta Dinner Is “Outrageous, But In A Good Way” appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less