A $3,000 grant from Friends of Nathaniel Witherell is supporting an expansion of spiritual care at the town-owned nursing home on Parsonage Road, including the addition of Rev. Jennifer Eckart to the chaplaincy team.

The grant supported an expansion of the Greenwich Chaplaincy Services team, a nonprofit interfaith ministry that provides pastoral care, worship services and spiritual guidance to seniors, veterans and others at The Nathaniel Witherell, according to a Greenwich Sentinel report published Tuesday, Aug. 18. Eckart, a Yale Divinity School graduate and board-certified chaplain, is part of the expanded team.

Eckart joined Greenwich Chaplaincy Services in winter 2026 after working for several years as a hospice chaplain in Fairfield County, according to the organization's website. She specializes in trauma-informed care, non-religious spiritual care and suicide prevention for first responders.

"In my work as a hospice chaplain, it became clear to me that the need for spiritual care doesn't begin only at the end of life," Eckart said.

Her Greenwich ties go back decades. During seminary, she interned at Trinity Church, where she developed pastoral care programs for people coping with divorce, illness and loss. In the 1990s, she volunteered in Greenwich with residents living with AIDS, accompanying individuals through their final months.

Eckart is also a professional musician who incorporates singing and guitar into her chaplaincy work. She lives in Fairfield.

She joins a team that includes Lead Chaplain Jennifer Tobenstein, an ordained rabbi who received her Doctor of Divinity from the Jewish Theological Seminary in March 2026, along with chaplains Jenny Byxbee, Elizabeth Craddock and Sue Neumann. Byxbee authored the "Chaplain's Corner" column in The Nathaniel Witherell's August 2026 newsletter, reflecting on books and the human spirit.

The chaplaincy team serves people of all faith traditions, as well as those without religious affiliation, at the skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility at 70 Parsonage Road. Friends of Nathaniel Witherell, which funded the grant, can be reached at (203) 618-4227 or friendsofnathanielwitherell.org.

The expansion comes as town officials continue to weigh the facility's long-term governance. First Selectman Fred Camillo said in an Aug. 17 Patch report that a new request for proposals is coming as the town explores a nonprofit model that could reduce its annual subsidy to The Nathaniel Witherell, with a preferred path potentially emerging within 12 months.