A local nonprofit has traced its origin directly back to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

Person to Person says it is the largest food pantry in southern Fairfield County.

The group came from an idea had by Rev. Robert Nelson Back, who was the rector of St. Luke's Parish in Darien at the time, and had actually gone to seminary with Dr. King.

"He gathered a group of St. Luke's parishioners," said Nancy Coughlin, the CEO of Person to Person, "and essentially said, 'How as a community will we respond to this tragedy?'"

The group decided the best thing to do would be to start Person to Person and continue the work that Dr. King had been doing.

"Particularly toward the end of his life, with the Poor Peoples' Campaign, he was really shifting his focus from racial justice, voting rights, segregation, civil rights to economic justice," Coughlin explained.

While the bulk of Person to Person's work is food distribution, they also provide clothing, financial coaching and assistance, and even scholarships to summer camps and colleges.

"[King] understood that if you did not have a job, you essentially did not have justice," said Coughlin.

In the nearly 58 years since being founded, Person to Person has grown from a tiny closet in the back of Saint Luke's to having full-time food pantries in both Darien and Norwalk, as well as a pair of mobile pantries in Stamford. Coughlin says this supplies enough food to make 2.5 million meals every year.

"This holiday gives us an opportunity to reflect back on what was happening back in 1968 in our country, and why it is still relevant today," Coughlin said, "and why some of the ways that Dr. King taught us to respond to community needs are still relevant today."

Coughlin says the group has over 3,000 volunteers every year.

"We know that this need is not going away anytime soon, we know it's going to continue to be relevant and urgent," said Coughlin, "and so the only way we have a chance, a hope, is if we all work together, and we continue to find innovative ways to respond."