10 Things You Can Do For Hungry People Now
DONATE FOOD TO A FOOD PANTRY
When you purchase groceries, buy a few extra jars or cans of food and take them to your neighborhood food pantry.
Peanut butter is my favorite choice. It’s shelf stable so needs no refrigeration. That makes it good for homeless people. It doesn’t spoil quickly so it can be used by a household with one or ten people. It doesn’t require a lot of chewing so it’s good for a person with no teeth. In short, peanut butter is a perfect food choice for a food pantry.
However, if you would rather choose another item, go with whatever you want to give. Whatever you choose, it will be selected by someone shopping in the pantry.
CLEAN OUT YOUR KITCHEN CABINETS
Give the unused items to your local food pantry.
HOST A FOOD DRIVE
Invite your friends and neighbors to help you collect food for your local food pantry.
DONATE CLEAN EGG CARTONS AND REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS TO YOUR FOOD PANTRY.
Food pantries are always in need of shopping bags and egg cartons. Eggs coming to a food pantry usually come in cases – without the cartons.
Shopping bags are not usually found on food pantry shopping lists.
CLEAN OUT THAT CLOSET!
Take your gently used clothing and bedding to a pantry or soup kitchen for distribution. I recently learned that the clothing item most needed in shelters is socks.
I also learned that women’s shelters are always in need of bras.
In the Albany, New York, area, you can send gently used or new women’s bras to:
YWCA – Greater Capitol Region
Brava
21 First Street
Troy, New York 12180
CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY.
Invite people to a party and ask them to give donations to a food pantry instead of a gift.
GIVE A LITTLE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
Make a regular donation to a food pantry. This translates to sending a check or gas card every month or quarter.
CONTACT ELECTED OFFICIALS AND PERSONS OF INFLUENCE.
Motivate them to make ending hunger and homelessness a priority. Encourage them to support fair wages and benefits for workers.
READ A BOOK.
“Take This Bread” by Sara Miles, “Under the Overpass” by Mike Yankoski, “I am Your Neighbor” by David R. Brown and Roger Wright, and “I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore” by Thurman Greco are four books which tell revealing stories about hungry people in America.
START A SCHOOL BACKPACK PROGRAM.
Backpack programs send food home on Friday afternoons to households where children would not otherwise eat over the weekend without the donated foods.
Thanks for reading this article! Please refer it to your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
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Summer Came and Went. And a book signing…
Please join me.
You are invited to attend my Author’s Reading and book signing on Saturday morning, September 22nd at 10:00 am on the grounds of the Mower’s Meadow Flea Market.
Refreshments will be served.
School is starting. And, once again, the focus of my life has adjusted itself. Hunger takes us all to new places that we never thought we would go.
For me, I spent the past two years writing my hunger book. I felt as if I’d gone into a cave…a writer’s cave. And, of course, with all this time in the cave, the inevitable finally happened: a book signing.
I finished the book! Not only that, I’m working on the follow-on volume. But, that’s getting off message.
A book signing is always appropriate in September.
Where? I’m selling the book at the Mower’s Meadow Flea Market in Woodstock. Somehow, I feel this was the logical direction I was headed from the first day: a book signing.
I sell the book….and a lot more. While selling the book, people purchase other used books and gently used items to raise money for the hungry.
I’m selling items and collecting donations to buy peanut butter for a pantry which doesn’t have any on the shelves on the day I call the pantry. Why peanut butter?
Peanut butter doesn’t need refrigeration.
It can be eaten by people who no longer have teeth.
Peanut butter has a generous shelf life.
For homeless people, peanut butter is a staple.
But, getting back to the basics, people are dropping gently used items off at my home. I wash them, or dust them off, and otherwise freshen them up and then take them to Mower’s Meadow on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays.
The prices are reasonable. The items are really nice. People fighting hunger are being really generous.
Lucy and Erin made a wonderful banner for my booth so people know what’s happening in the booth.
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please refer it to your preferred social media network.
I look forward to seeing you at the Book Signing at 10:00 on the 22nd!
Thurman Greco
Ramen Noodles Should be a Choice.
Ramen Noodles should be a choice.
Ramen Noodles should be a choice.
On a recent New York Subway ride, I stood in a crowded car bound for Flatbush, thinking about hungry people having only Ramen Noodles to eat because they had no money. Just then, an older black man near me spoke to everyone in the crowded car.
With a well modulated, practiced, articulate voice, this cotton top knew what he was doing. He talked about veterans and their needs. He obviously either wrote the speech because he was an excellent and experienced speech writer or he found himself such a person to do the job.
He ended his short presentation with a plea for money. And, wrapped up in this short talk was the realization that he was as much interested in consciousness raising as he was in collecting dimes and dollars. What he wanted, really, was for captive audience members in the metro car to hear his message, digest it, understand it, and act on it in some beneficial way.
This man’s message went right to my brain and my heart. What this old cotton top didn’t know was that we are on the same path. I, too, am on a mission of consciousness raising and fundraising. And, like him, I’m not doing this just for the fun of it. I’m on a mission to spread the word about a truly tragic and hidden horror in our country: hunger in America.
I want people in this country to have enough food in their lives so that Ramen Noodles should be a choice.
I sell books and T-shirts to raise money, give talks in libraries and church meeting halls. Finally, I work daily to interest you in the plight of hungry people of every age in our great nation who simply don’t have the money to buy food. Ramen Noodles should be a choice.
When you purchase my book, you help me feed the hungry. All the proceeds of “I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore” go to buy food for hungry people who need it. Ramen noodles should be a choice.
Right now, because of the summer months, I’m donating peanut butter to hungry people. At other times in the year, the focus will be on different foods.
Peanut butter has many qualities which bring it to the top of my go-to list.
Peanut butter…
is nutritious.
has a long shelf life.
doesn’t need refrigeration.
is a staple in a household with children.
can be eaten by people who have no teeth.
can be easily carried in the pocket or backpack of a homeless person.
In short, Ramen noodles should be a choice.
Thank you for reading this post. Please forward this article to your favorite social media network.
Ramen Noodles should be a choice. Feed the hungry!
Thurman Greco
Help the Homeless
The world of people who are homeless may seem very foreign – But, it’s actually very near. We meet people every day who are just like us, only they don’t have a roof over their heads.
We can all find ourselves without a roof when we lose a job. Or, maybe a spouse dies. Possibly an accident which leaves physical disabilities is the cause. In short, all it takes is a personal tragedy.
There are many things we can do to help end homelessness. There are many, many things we can do to help those who are struggling with homelessness.
One easy way we can help is to take a little extra food along when we go out of our home to work or on errands. A few extra sandwiches will help. When a person asks for change, offer him or her a sandwich.
A couple of times each year, gather the clothes you are no longer going to wear and donate them to shelters and pantries providing services to help those who are homeless.
While you gather clothes for the homeless, look at your family’s toys, books, and games and select those that are no longer being used. Children living in shelters have few possessions and will enjoy them.
Can you spare an hour or two? Tutors can make all the difference. Volunteer to tutor children in shelters.
Celebrate your birthday or anniversary and ask the people you invite to bring items for the homeless.
Carry fast food certificates with you when you are going out. Hand them out to people who are homeless.
Hold a food drive and take the food to a shelter or a pantry in your area.
Donate your collectable recyclable cans and bottles to people who are homeless. Donate a bag of groceries to a soup kitchen, shelter, or food pantry.
Volunteer at a food pantry or shelter.
Volunteer your professional services. Lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, counselors, and dentists can all use your skills when you volunteer at a pantry or shelter.
Ask your company, church, school to host a fund-raising event for a pantry or homeless shelter. Items of dignity are really needed by the homeless.
Thank you for reading this article!
Please refer this article to your favorite social media network.
Thurman Greco
PS: The hunger book is really moving along. Things just never get finished as quickly as we all wish. Writing a book requires years and years of research and writing. In writing the hunger book, I have gone through thousands and thousands of sheets of paper and three computers. I have spent years and years getting this story moved from an event in my life to a book which will attract you or not in less than two minutes.
Whew!
Books! Books! Books! – For a Food Pantry?
One thing no one ever discusses in the pantry is the past. They speak about things that happened last week or so but never beyond. Whatever happened before they find the pantry is just not on the agenda. As holidays approach, no one ever speaks about the Thanksgivings, Christmases, Hanukkahs, Passovers they had before their lives spun out of control. No one ever mentions that there isn’t enough money to get Passover food. No one ever asks a child what Santa is going to bring.
“Hi Thurman. How’re you doing? I know we haven’t spoken in awhile but I’m wondering if your pantry can use some books?”
“Of course! We offer food for the body and now we’ll have books for the soul. ” What could be better?
So, within a very short time, my car was parked outside the door of Lisa Library in Kingston getting stuffed with boxes of beautiful, educational, fun, adorable, new books for children. While I was still pinching myself to be sure it was really happening, we headed out for the pantry and stacked them for distribution on Monday.
This is a real gift…a prayer answered. This time of year I’m always searching for things people can use as holiday gifts. It goes without saying that gifts are just not in anyone’s budget right now. (Not in the pantry world, anyway.)
We have families with children coming to our pantry. They’ll go home (wherever and whatever that is) with a special treat this week.
We also have grandparents with not one penny for a holiday gift for grandchildren. Well, now, thanks to Elisa Gee and Lisa Library, these grandchildren have a chance to get a gift from a grandparent.
Thank you Lisa Library!
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
