Marine’s Memory Benefits Enfield’s Loaves and Fishes

Since 2006, friends and family of CPL Stephen R. Bixler have organized a picnic in honor of the fallen Marine to raise funds for local projects, including the group’s most recent donation to Enfield’s Loaves and Fishes.

Bixler, a Suffield native, was killed in action on May 4, 2006 in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province during his second tour of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The recent donation from Richard and Linda Bixler and the CPL Stephen R. Bixler Memorial Fund came in the amount of $1,500, and will help the local soup kitchen replace an 83-year-old stove hood, bringing it up to current code requirements.

According to the Memorial Fund’s representatives, local electrician Mike Rossi of Rossi Electric, LLC will donate his time to install Loaves and Fishes’ new hood.

Loaves and Fishes, which is located in St. Andrew's Church Hall on Prospect Street, serves tens of thousands of meals to locals in need on an annual basis, free of charge.

Loaves and Fishes also provides snacks for children in an after school program.

Dinners are served each day of the week.