For leading 25 years of growth and success at Community Dining Room (CDR), the non-profit has named the heart of CDR, its dining room, in honor of Patricia B. Kral.

Pat Kral will retire at the end of this year, her 25th as CDR Executive Director. Kral was featured as The Sound’s Person of the Week in June, but hadn’t given notice of her decision to retire at the time.

But Kral said it’s been something she’s been considering, carefully, for a few years now.

“A big part was getting everything in place and getting the agency in good condition. I think it’s in very good condition to go forward, and we have a new Executive Director who’s going to be great,” said Kral of incoming director Judy Barron, officially hired by CDR’s Board of Directors last week.

Barron leaves a Town of North Branford post, where, as Senior Center Program Supervisor, she became familiar with CDR’s programs and services.

Instituted in Branford 30 years ago, CDR got its start serving lunch to a handful of residents in need. Known at the time as the Soup Cellar, the agency was located in the basement of the First Baptist Church on the Branford green. Kral began to volunteer with the effort and was then hired as CDR’s first Executive Director.

“Back then, I was in a stairway, in the little cubby under where the stairs come down in the Baptist church. That’s how we started the agency,” Kral recalled. “It was a nice social service agency, with volunters serving lunch a handful of days a week to 15 people. Now, we’re doing one thousand meals a week.”

Today, with its dining room, kitchen and offices in the Patricia C. Andriole Volunteer Services Building on Harrison Avenue, CDR’s services reach residents in multiple shoreline towns. Doors are open seven days a week for free lunch; other free offerings include weekly family dinners (Tuesdays) take-out dinners (Tuesdays and Wednesdays), home-delivery programs, holiday meals, and Saturday breakfasts.

From writing CDR’s first grant (for a computer) to leading the non-profit’s effort to build programming, volunteers and funding, Kral became the face of CDR.

“You have to be people person,” she said. “What’s vitally important about this agency, being a part of the social services fabric of the shoreline, is people knowing we’re here and what we’re doing. So that’s why you need to be out there, getting the message out. Clearly, we’re vitally important. We’re providing food for people that are shut in and unwell and with chronic illnesses; and we’re providing a social environment for food for people that can come from all different levels. We’re that little kernel in the community that takes care of that.”

Looking back at CDR’s growth in the past quarter-century, Kral said it’s been such a part of her life; she hadn’t really stopped to recognize she was there, every step of the way.

“This whole agency has grown up while I’ve been here. It’s like my baby. I have a 25 year-old, and I didn’t even know it,” she said, laughing.

On a serious note, Kral added, “I didn’t do it alone -- there’s no question about it -- but I was there making it happen; and I never really thought about it. So that’s why naming the dining room for me is an especially touching sentiment.”

The CDR board feted Kral with a retirement celebration in November which included news of naming the Pat Kral Dining Room.

“It’s really an amazing thing to have something named after you,” Kral said. “The dinner was so wonderful, with all the tributes and testimonies and hoopla, that it didn’t really hit until we had a volunteer party (in early December) and they showed me what the plaque would be. I couldn’t believe it. The whole magnitude of the 25 years, it all flashed in front of my eyes! All the work that had been done to create the Community Dining Room.”

Kral remains on the job as CDR Executive Director through Dec. 31, 2015.

“There are so many wonderful people I’ll miss seeing, so many people that mark my life,” she said. “For the past 25 years, I’ve been moving about in an active environment that’s not just my work environment, it provides a lot of social connections, and I’m going to miss a lot of people I won’t see in a day-to-day way. But the common thread is everybody is working for this wonderful cause. We all have the same focus.”

Kral hopes the shoreline will continue supporting CDR’s important work so it can evolve and always respond to residents’ needs.

“I’m going to be watching to see how the agency grows and continues to reach out and help people; because there’s a lot of need and still a lot more that could be done,” Kral said. “I hope people remember that the Community Dining Room is its own small agency; and to remember to support us. There’s lots of need in lots of different areas; so support us and support the cause.”

To learn more about CDR, visit www.communitydiningroom.org