Hunger Is Not a Disease

Politicians – the Season Begins Again!

The political season begins again.  In Woodstock, the politicians come calling.  They knock on the door – their smiles open, their outfits perfect.

And,  they don’t want to hear any questions – not from me, anyway.

I answer the door and listen to their message.  I’m waiting to pounce, really.  Because, I know they don’t know anything about hunger in our area.

And, I do know about hunger in our area.

The minute I open my mouth, they start to run for it.

Well, not so fast politician.  Not so fast.  You can’t leave my front door without taking a copy of one of my books with you.

I really know more about the economics of this area than they know. I know about children who go to school hungry.  I know about families who routinely choose between food and transportation, food and housing, food and healthcare.

The politicians know their dance is up for today.  Because I know about homelessness.  I know the difference between shelter and housing.

Woodstock is a community where people working here come from somewhere else.

Each year, I figure that some kind of message will go out and no  politicians will knock on my door.  I’m wrong every year.

So, I sit – waiting to pounce.

Lord, I apologize.  I simply can’t help myself.  Someday, I’m going to apologize and know its the last time because I won’t act this way next time.  I’d be lying to you now, Lord, if I even pretended that I won’t do it again.

I love pouncing on these people who knock on the door.  I love to tell everyone how hard it is for the elderly to get food when their shoulders and knees don’t work anymore.  I love to talk about friends I have who don’t drive anymore and who live in a food desert.

Lord, as seniors, we routinely pay more, get less, and do without.  The without part comes because we’re outliving our savings.

I feel like everyone needs to know these things.  How are the politicians going to know about them if I don’t tell them?  I’ve convinced myself that its part of my job as a food pantry volunteer.

Food pantries are mostly hidden services.  People shopping at one certainly don’t tell anyone where they get their groceries.  And, the volunteers don’t talk either.

In the beginning, I was bothered about this but I’ve come to realize that food pantries are places where miracles happen.  And, miracles are much easier if no one knows about them.

Lord, on behalf of everyone who shops or volunteers at a food pantry, I offer gratitude for the many miracles You perform on our pantry day.

And, Lord, thanks for sending these politicians over to my house every voting season.  I love to pounce and then send them away with my books.

Thank you again Lord.  I offer gratitude on behalf of everyone who shops or volunteers at a food pantry.

Amen

Thanks for reading this article!  If you enjoyed it, check out some of the older articles.  Hunger is not a Disease is an fascinating story about hunger in a small town food pantry.  This blog has been relating stories and events for ten years!

I’m amazed when I read this.  I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would be writing about hunger and homelessness for over 10 years.  And yet, here I am, plugging away!

What a journey this blog has been – and continues to be.

What was I thinking?

Please share this article with your friends and family.  Forward it to your preferred social media network and post it on Facebook even.

Check out my books on www.thurmangreco.com.  The website is being repaired so contact me at thurmangro@gmail.com to purchase one or more of the books.

 

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 subjects.

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.

Please contact me at thurmangreco@gmail with comments or questions.

No Fixed Address

“No Fixed Address” is dedicated to those in our country with no roof over their heads.  See your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, in new ways as they describe their daily lives in their own words.

The people in this new book reveal themselves to be both brave and fearless as they go about their activities:  work, laundry, children’s homework, appointments.  Mostly they live like the rest of us.  They just have no roof over their heads.

“No Fixed Address” is my newest book in the Unworthy Hungry series.  It’s easy to read and understand.  You won’t be bored, not even for a minute.

I hope you’ll order it today.  Get an extra copy for a friend!

This book has an extra surprise.  When you get a copy, you’ll be making a donation to a good cause.  You’ll be fighting hunger and homelessness.

It doesn’t get much better than that!

Thank you for reading this article!

Please forward it to your preferred social media network.

Thurman Greco

Preventing Senior Hunger

For years, I’ve been blogging and writing books about hunger in America in general and senior hunger specifically.

Senior hunger is not going away anytime soon.

If you read my blog posts, then you are probably interested in senior hunger.  Recently I came across a guide which you will want to read.

To learn more about senior hunger,  access it here:  https://onlinegrad.baylor.edu/resources/seniors-food-insecurity-hunger/

Thanks for reading this article and thanks for your interest and action.

I hope you’ll not only read this article but will also share it wherever you feel it might be appropriate.

This new resource may be of interest to readers everywhere.  The goal is to help open a dialogue in our country about senior hunger.

Thank you for your time and thank you for your concern about seniors and hunger.

Thurman Greco

Please share this post with your preferred social media network.

 

Hunger: An Introduction

The first time I ever saw a child begging for food was in Mexico.  I was on a car trip going through Monterrey on the way to visit my future in-laws in Mexico City.  When we parked the car in front of a restaurant,  children immediately surrounded the vehicle.  Small children held their hands out, asking for money for food.  Each held up little brown palms.  Their pleading faces looked into my eyes.

At that time, I didn’t yet speak any Spanish, but I didn’t need a vocabulary beyond English to understand the situation.  Their body language spoke of expectations, hope and hunger.

“Don’t worry yourself about this Coit.  They’re just after a few pesos.”  My soon-to-be husband tried to comfort me.  In my heart I knew different.  The child we discussed was about the size of a thin eight-year-old.  Teeth don’t lie though.  He had a mouth full of adult teeth.  That put his age at about twelve years.

In Mexico, children dig through trash for food.  And, nine years after this road trip, in Mexico City, a beautiful young Indian woman standing on a corner tried to sell her infant.  She approached my church friends first, an American couple in Mexico City on a study visa.  Bob and Sue felt they couldn’t get the baby over the border when they returned to the U.S. at the end of their class.  I wasn’t a good candidate because, at the time we discussed the baby, I was still married, had no visa or citizenship papers, and didn’t feel I was ever going to cross back over the river heading North.

Whatever happened to that beautiful baby?  Whatever happened to her desperate mother?  I’ll never know.

You want to talk hunger, then let’s discuss Venezuela and Mexico for a while.  Even now, years later, I remember each encounter with a hungry person or household as if it happened only yesterday.  I’ll never forget those people, the look of hunger in their eyes.

When people wanted to talk to me about hunger in America, it was a nonissue.  Hunger in America?  Whoever heard of such a thing?

Hunger has been with us in this country since the beginning.  Famous American history stories include Pilgrims starving over the first winter in their new home.  The stories of Mormons starving when they headed west are just two.  These stories are different from segments of our population going to bed hungry because there isn’t enough money for food.

Even though I’m the loudest mouth in the crowd when I talk about hungry people in America, I’ve never seen hungry children begging for food when I park my car outside a store or restaurant.

Somehow, in this country, hungry people keep themselves hidden unless they are in the food pantry or soup kitchen line.

I lived in both of those places.  I could talk hunger with you “until the cows come home,” as my grandmother said.  But America?  “Fuggedaboutit,” as I heard someone say once on a Brooklyn bus tour.

 

Thank you for reading this blog post.  It is an excerpt from “The Ketchup Sandwich Chronicles”.  I’ll be posting more stories from this book in the coming days.

I hope you enjoy them.  If so, please refer the posts to your favorite social media network.

But, whether you refer them or not, I thank you for reading this story.

Thurman Greco

Seniors and Those Who Care for Them

What does this photo have to do with hungry seniors and those who care for them?  A lot, actually.  This photo is a group of seniors  getting food from the Reservoir Food Pantry in Boiceville, New York.

Carolina Gerard, an outreach intern from the National Council for Aging Care forwarded an article to me this week.  It addresses some of the causes, complications, and cures for senior food insecurity.  Can you take a moment to go to http://www.aginginplace.org/the-facts-behind-senior-hunger

I’m sure you will find it interesting and engaging.

Thanks again for reading  this article.  Please share it with your favorite social media network.