A Stamford-based social service agency says it plans to expand its services after food insecurity among their clients has skyrocketed during the pandemic.

Schoke Jewish Family Service has been in Connecticut for 45 years. CEO Matt Greenberg says the agency serves round 6,000 clients a year from their food pantry in Stamford.

“We're a full service, social service agency. We provide counseling, in-home services to seniors,” Greenburg says. “While our meals are kosher, the reality is we serve anybody who comes to our doors."

Greenberg says food insecurity has gone up around 500% amid the pandemic, and they've given away around 75,000 meals the past year.

"We have people lining up outside our doors during the entire period of time that we're open,” he says.

Greenberg says the people who come to the pantry are primarily from the Stamford area.

With the number of food insecure families increasing across the state, Schoke Jewish Family Service will expand its outreach. At the end of the month, the group will open another kosher pantry at B'Nai Israel in Bridgeport.

"Their members of their congregation are going to be the volunteers distributing the food, so it's a wonderful opportunity,” Greenberg says. “It gives us the ability to reach the folks we were having a great deal of reaching because we didn't have any kind of a presence up there."

Schoke Jewish Family Service plans to start distributing meals at the new Bridgeport pantry on June 27.