A Prayer to the Most Powerful Woman in the World
Somehow, when I’m in a food pantry, I feel the presence of Mother Mary. She greets us and invites us to know her better. She is also ready to sit with us on our spiritual and physical journeys.
People go to Mary with issues related to children and with healing of all kinds. They go to Mary for forgiveness, compassion, and mercy. That puts her square in the middle of the food pantry line.
Mary has no doctrine. Nor does she have a dogma. Mary’s story shows us she knows intimately about hunger, suffering, sorrow, and death.
Mary’s prayers count.
Mary waits for us to reach out to her. Mary has been waiting for us long before we became aware of her.
Mary accepts us, whatever our beliefs. She doesn’t care whether we follow an established religion or even no religion. She accepts us as we come to her. Mary belongs to all faiths, all religions, all paths, and all people.
She protects, heals, and guides us all. She is there with us in the pantry line. She offers comfort in troubled times. Mary teaches that we all have value.
Sensing her presence, I feel she is showing us how to turn our pain into life lessons to help us cope with and enjoy life.
If we listen, Mary protects us when danger lies ahead.
I write these things because I somehow know that they are real. I know this to my bones. I’m not sure how this knowing came about. And, truthfully, I quit asking HOW a long time ago.
Working in a food pantry brought up questions that were dormant throughout my life. I pondered, worried, and searched for answers for years. I’ve finally decided that there are some things I don’t have the answers for yet.
And, so what. Do I have to know the answers to everything? After all, I’m only human. And, an old human at that.
All I can do is say “thank you” to Mary for being here for us.
Thank you Mary for holding me up in the food pantry when the numbers were too high and getting higher every week.
Thank you for being there with us all in that line.
Amen.
Thanks for reading this article. I am not here to challenge or change your beliefs about feeding the hungry or about any other thing, as far as that goes. I am not here to change your story. Instead, I am here as a conduit for your own healing.
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Let’s Live with Thurman Greco is a program aired weekly on Woodstock’s own educational TV channel 23. This show is an informative, upbeat hour with no rehearsals. Some segments support the blog information and highlight Reiki Therapy, Hand and Food Reflexology, and other wellness subjets.
Guests are various people whose lives have brought them to Woodstock for a day, a week, an hour, a decade or more. I can truthfully boast that guests report they enjoy the experience.
Let’s Live has been running for over 15 years with an occasional intermission, now and then.
Enjoy interesting and fun programs while getting a peek into Woodstockers being themselves. Search “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco” on YouTube and check out the ever growing list of videos.
Finally: THIS BLOG IS CELEBRATING ITS 10TH YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do These 3 Things After Your Food Drive.
Congratulations! You had a food drive!
Your work isn’t done yet. Now is a good time to think about your next food drive. It will be easier and more fun than the last one because you know more about your tasks!
When you organize for the next food drive, you’ll get to see how your last one worked.
Step 1
Celebrate your goal. Did you have anyone helping you?
This is a good time to go out for a pizza or ice cream. Enjoy what you did and discuss how you helped your community as well as yourselves!
Pat yourself on your back.
Step 2
A few weeks after your food drive, check in with the food pantry or other group who received all your collections.
Were the foods you collected useful?
Were you able to get enough of one item for the group to have a surplus?
What foods would have been appreciated which were not collected?
How can you improve your future food drives?
Step 3
Now is a good time to plan your next food drive!
design a fact sheet that lists some foods that are needed. (The agency you
donated the food to may already have one you can use).
Write and send out a press release about your food drive and plans for the next one.
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Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
https://hungerisnotadisease.com
Author’s Note – “Ketchup Sandwich Chronicle”
“Ketchup Sandwich Chronicles” is about the spiritual journeys of pantry shoppers and volunteers experiencing hunger and incredible change as they traveled toward renewal and reclaimed lives. This story is, as yet, unknown to many people because hunger as it exists in food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, is still a taboo subject in our country.
Events and conversations in this book took place over a period of several years when I coordinated the Good Neighbor Food Pantry in Woodstock, New York.
Whenever possible/practical I reviewed material with people who helped reconstruct events, chronology, and dialogue. Based on these reviews and my own notes, some of these incidents were compressed, consolidated or reordered to accommodate memories of everyone consulted. This memoir was edited and rearranged over many drafts in an effort to be as accurate as possible.
All dialogue is based on my memory and the notes I took. The names of most of the characters (mainly, the shoppers) were changed. The names of some were omitted. Even so, there are no composite characters in this memoir.
If you read a sentence, page, paragraph or even a chapter that you feel is outrageous or untrue, it is nonetheless very real. Everything written in this book actually happened. It’s my story.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
Thank you for reading this article. And, thank you in advance for reading this new book. I’ll be sharing it with you in the coming months. I hope you enjoy it. Please share it with your favorite social media network.
An Open Letter to Susan Zimet
Dear Ms. Zimet:
Thank you for speaking at the Hunger Conference in Latham on April 11th. You, as well as the other speakers, know the subject well and obviously care about the hunger struggle that many of your constituents face every day.
Thank you for accepting the position of Executive Director of Hunger Action Network New York State. Your energy, intelligence, and savvy attitude will boost the ripple effect of this organization to a new level…something New York State needs.
Finally, thank you for your openness at the conference. When you spoke about young graduates moving in with their parents because they can’t get jobs to pay off their student loans, you were speaking openly about a situation which many are trying to keep quiet.
New found poverty is sometimes a subject which people don’t shout about because they’re embarrassed. The symptoms of this newly found situation are often covered up because the people experiencing it are asking themselves “Where did I go wrong? What did I not do that I should have done?”
I have a name for those in this situation, Ms. Zimet. I call them the Struggling Poor.
We’re experiencing the same phenomena in our part of Ulster County also. Over here in Boiceville, it’s manifesting itself in different ways:
Seniors who never, ever thought about food pantries are now finding themselves in the food pantry line on Monday afternoons at 2:00.
Working people are struggling to buy groceries. They, too, are meeting at the pantry on Mondays at 2:00 if a family members is off work at that time.
Food pantries in the past focused on shoppers in a specific geographic location. We now serve the people who can get to us. Some pantries in cities are open until midnight to serve those who get off work at 11:00 p.m.
And, pantries have our own struggle for food. At Reservoir Food Pantry, fresh vegetables are important. We scrounged $$$ and bought a long line van which volunteers drive weekly to Latham for as much produce as we can bring back. We routinely run out of this fresh food at the end of every pantry shift.
Our situation is precarious, Ms. Zimet. We joke that we’re teetering on homelessness ourselves because we’re in a shed on a food plain. The shed part is fine. We’re desperately trying to find a place to move it where we’re out of a flood plain. So far, we’ve had no luck. The Olive Flood Advisory Committee, Woight Engineering, and the Town Board are doing the best they can with what we all have. But, the writing is on the wall. So far, we’ve had no luck.
But, enough of our woes Ms. Zimet. Thank you for attending the conference. Thank you for speaking. Thank you, very much, for sharing your energy which seems to know no bounds.
If ever you’re in the Ashokan Reservoir area on a Monday afternoon, please visit our pantry. We’ll be honored and pleased give you a tour of our 12’x16’shed. If ever you need a human interest story, I have many to share. I’ve been working in a food pantry for almost 10 years.
Peace and food for all.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Thurman Greco
www.hungeractionnys.org
