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05/30/2018 08:30 AMLou Cinque has lived in East Haven for most of his adult life. He moved into his wife’s family home when they got married, a home where his wife Rosann was born and raised, and he and Rosann raised their family there as well. The couple has now been married for more than 50 years.
When his three sons were young, they were involved in Boy Scouts and Little League, which meant that Lou, in turn, was also involved. Despite working two jobs, Lou still volunteered his time with the activities his sons were involved in as well as participating in the PTA and other school functions.
Because he was always so busy working, he and Rosann didn’t get to spend too much time together when they were raising their children, but now that Lou is retired, the couple is taking advantage of that time.
“Now we are getting to spend all that time together,” says Lou, who was raised in New Haven. “I’m not a person who wants to go to a club and play cards. I’m not a person to hang around. I need something to do. We tried to get everything done on our house before we retired so we can enjoy this time.”
One of the activities that keeps Lou busy is volunteering with the East Haven Food Pantry. The couple had seen an ad that the East Haven-based Connecticut Food Bank, which distributes food to local pantries, was looking for volunteers and tried that.
“It wasn’t quite what we were looking for and they suggested we go to the [East Haven] Food Pantry,” says Lou. “I enjoy it because you’re helping people that need help to offset what they can’t afford. Plus you’re helping people you’re volunteering with because the more volunteers you have, the more flexibility you have.”
For the past few years, Lou and Rosann have been deeply involved with the food pantry. They go in while the pantry is closed to stock and organize the shelves, they take extra bread and pastries to homeless shelters in New Haven, and when the food pantry receives baby food and diapers, they bring it them the diaper bank.
“They are some of the most dedicated volunteers we have at the pantry,” says Diann Romans, president of the East Haven Food Pantry. “They organize the food so when we are serving our clients its much easier to grab off the shelves. They both have taken on the task of buying eggs and butter each week for the pantry. By going to the local grocery every week and purchasing the eggs and butter, they have saved the pantry a lot of money.”
Before retirement, one of Lou’s jobs was at Stop & Shop and he remembers part of his job was comparing the store’s weekly flyer to the PathMark that used to be in town. Now Lou is still comparing flyers, looking for deals on items like eggs and butter.
“This week and last week, Aldi was up to $1.97 for eggs and Ferraro’s had them for $1.37—we’re getting 45 to 60 dozen eggs and 24 cases of margarine a week so it makes a big difference,” says Lou. “It started when we were low on canned goods and our vice president, Christine Sanford, had gone to one of the dollar stores. We started looking for things at different places to get the best deals.”
In addition to being able to help those in need, Lou has also enjoyed getting to know more people in the community. He enjoys working with the other volunteers and is thankful to several of the local firefighters who volunteer their time to unload deliveries from the Connecticut Food Bank.
In addition to volunteering with the Food Pantry, Lou and Rosann also enjoy spending time at Hammonasset Beach State Park and visiting with their children and grandchildren. Just after Lou retired, his son who lives in Putnam had bought a house and the couple spent a lot of time there helping his family with updates.
They also spent several years taking care of one of their grandchildren. All three of their sons are married and the couple has three granddaughters and a grandson, ranging in age from 4 to 15.
“We get to spend time with them and our grandkids now,” says Lou. “We had three sons, so seeing the little girls grow up is different—the boys want to be on the go. It can be a lot of work, but it’s fun.”
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