Hunger Is Not a Disease

Meet Anna Woofenden – You’re Gonna LOVE Her and Her Book!

 

 

INTRODUCTION –

There aren’t many books about there about hunger in America.  Whenever I think of books about food pantries, the first writer I think of Sara Miles.

Well, it turns out that Sara Miles has a special friend, a writer friend.

I found Anna Woofenden’s book, “This is God’s Table” by accident on a table at the Barnes and Noble store in Kingston, New York.  If only I could give copies of Anna Woofenden’s  book to everyone.  And, I mean everyone, including you.

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Anna Woofenden started a Garden Church without walls in a vacant lot on 6th Street in San Pedro, California.

Anna placed a cedar stump table in the center of her worship space and consecrated it when she anointed it with oil.

From that moment, people joined her as they gardened,  worshiped, and ate together weekly.  All were welcome at God’s Table.

Whenever everyone is welcome,  they all come.  This welcoming,  worshiping, and eating together attracts  the old and the young, the housed and unhoused, the rich and the poor, and everyone in between.

I invite you to get a copy of Anna Woofenden’s book,  “This is God’s Table”,  and read it.

You can connect with her at https://www.AnnaWoofenden.com.

Again, thank you for reading this blog post.

If you liked this post, will you please forward it to your favorite social media network?

You can connect with me on Facebook.

Thanks again!

Thurman Greco

 

Hungry and Homeless Now

 

The food pantry is closed for business and  will not open today.

Where will the hungry and homeless go now?

It’s Wednesday, the pantry day in Woodstock.  Weekly, the food pantry attracts several hundred hungry and homeless people to the basement of a local church where they experience community, gratitude, healing, and a three-day-supply of shared food.  The isolation often felt by hungry and homeless people is softened in the pantry.  One thing the soul longs for is connection.

As people travel down their life path to the pantry, they lose things.  One of the most soul-strangling downsides of this new-found simplicity is isolation experienced as people become cut off from their community.  This experiences always changes reality.

When people no longer fit in, their voices become smaller and smaller and smaller until, finally, all is silent.

The rule is this:  As the community for the hungry and homeless diminishes, so diminishes the support system.

All things are connected and intertwined but we have a difficult time remembering this when we are in our most alone circumstances in life.  With assistance, we begin to recall our spiritual connections and know we are not along, not forgotten.

But, with the Coronavirus, this is very challenging.  A few things are in play here.

First, for those needing to shelter in place, the main question is this:   ” Where will I go?”  Sofa surfing won’t happen anymore.  The cemetery will work as long as it doesn’t snow or rain.

Second, a person without food can think of nothing else:  “Where can I get food?”

For the hungry and homeless person in Woodstock, that focus is real because the food pantry closed.

At a time when the people need this food the most, the pantry is closed.

“Where can I get food?”

Thank you for reading this blog post!

Please refer it to your preferred social  media network.

Thurman Greco

Woodstock, New York

Have You Applied for SNAP?

Have you, or has someone you know, applied for SNAP? SNAP is about all that’s left in the way of assistance for people as welfare shrinks and shrinks.

SNAP is important for you and your household because you’ll be able to get more food with your SNAP card and you won’t be hungry anymore. This can translate to better health.

Are there more days in your month than money? Are you a senior who has outlived your pension, savings, or ability to hold down a job. Statistics tell us that one senior in seven doesn’t get enough to eat. SNAP is one successful way to help your situation.

If you have trouble buying food, now is a good time to apply. If you’ve applied in the past and were denied, maybe you need to apply again. You may, after all, have answered a question incompletely or incorrectly and were denied this benefit because of it. Try again. You might do better this time around, especially if you or someone in your house is disabled or is a senior with medical expenses.

You may be reluctant to apply for SNAP because you don’t know if you are eligible. Or, maybe you applied in the past but were denied. Maybe even you don’t know how to apply and are overwhelmed by the application. You might even have never heard of SNAP and think of it as food stamps.

SNAP is a debit card which offers privacy and is easy to use in grocery stores. If you don’t want anyone to know you receive SNAP, they won’t. Once you are approved, your SNAP allotment will be renewed monthly.

One thing: If you work, you need to know how to meet the work requirements. Some information is needed for you to apply successfully for SNAP. This information comes in several categories.

Proof of income is necessary. You can use pay stubs, social security income information.

Are you a senior? You are eligible for SNAP. If you are a senior, please apply for SNAP benefits. You worked all your life, paid your taxes, contributed to the economy. It’s time to benefit from all of the contributions you made throughout your life.

Identification is needed. This might be a state ID, passport, birth certificate.

Bills help. Bring your medical, heating, water, auto, rent bills.

Your social security number and the numbers of everyone in your household are necessary.

Dependent care costs will help. These include day care costs, child support, being an attendant for a disabled adult.

Contact your local Department of Social Services office for application assistance. If this doesn’t work, contact your Office on Aging or Catholic Charities.

SNAP is important for you if you’re having trouble buying groceries. SNAP helps you pay for the food you need to live a healthy life. When you eat healthier food, you will prevent and control some chronic health issues. This will lower your medical bills.

SNAP is important for your community, too, because when you are able to get food with SNAP, you’ll have cash available to use to pay your rent or buy gas to get back and forth to work.

SNAP is also good for your community because the allotment on your SNAP card brings outside money to your community. The money you bring into your local economy helps farmers, grocers, and local businesses.

When you buy groceries with SNAP, you are not taking money away from someone else who might need it more. There are enough SNAP dollars for everyone.

You can still shop at a food pantry if you are eligible for SNAP.

Get SNAP today!

Be well.

Thurman Greco

Thank you for reading this article.  Please refer it to your favorite social media network.

New Beginnings – Part 2 as I Explore the Spirituality of Hunger in America

 

 

 

 

Like many first-time pantry volunteers everywhere, I showed up that morning because someone from the church asked me to come.  A slot needed to be filled and I stepped up to the plate when I was asked.  I was a foot soldier in the army of the outreach.  I tried to live up to my status in the church as a new member.  I showed up at whatever activity needed help and did my share.  Nothing more.

I had no desire to move up any ladder in the congregation.

On that morning of new beginnings, I had no premonition I would ever return to this pantry room.

I had no plans for this place in my future.  I had a profession teaching reflexology, Reiki, and canine massage therapy in a healing space in my home on Tannery Brook.

This was a case of fools rushing.  Knowing what I know now, I should have run out the door and never looked back.  Mary could have handled the crowd that day without me.  In the whole two hours, no more than a couple dozen people visited the pantry.

I wasn’t blessed with any psychic knowledge…certainly not the feeling of danger I felt when I saw the head of the building committee in the hallway outside the pantry months later.

There were no lines in the hallway at the new beginnings of my time there.  People wandered into the pantry in groups of one and two to choose from cereal, soup, tuna, and peanut butter.

Never in my wildest thoughts on that day did I envision the pantry hallway filled with hungry people, the tiny room packed with fresh produce and jammed with shoppers.

By 2008, the tanked economy was well underway and waits in the hallway were an hour or more.

The Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) passed down feeding guidelines which included whole-grain bread, 1% milk, fresh produce.  By 2011, the building committee had rules dictating where people could stand, what bathroom they could use, and what parts of the hallway were off-bounds.

Never did I foresee monthly food deliveries averaging over 12,000 pounds.

Never did I imagine, on that day, building committee members angry over hungry people receiving food according to guidelines set down by the State of New York, the Department of Health, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

I never thought I would spend months grappling with the unworthy hungry, a concept introduced to me by a local religious leader.  The concept wasn’t explained.  Only the two words – unworthy hungry – were used in a sentence:  “You are feeding the unworthy hungry.”  This was something I never heard of before.  What did she mean?  Who were the unworthy hungry?

After that first morning in the food pantry, I drove home, pulled out a little notebook from a drawer and wrote what people said, like real writers do.  When I wrote these things down, I felt my grandmother’s presence.

Her spirit was with me in the room.  I looked around the dining area to see if someone had entered the room without my realizing it.  But, no, I didn’t find a soul.  I walked over to a cabinet and began my dialogue journal on that afternoon.

A shopper:  “They cut my food stamps again.  I don’t know how I’m going to make it.  I have no money this month.  My car died and I don’t know where I’m going to get money to fix it.  If I can’t fix it, I can’t buy a new one either.”

Lillie Dale Cox Thurman spoke to me clearly that morning with emphatic, strong, direct instructions.  She went straight to my head:  “Write this down!  Write this down too!  Now…write this down.”

My grandmother, Lillie Dale Cox Thurman, stepped into my life on the first morning in the food pantry and never left.  Not even when my mother, Uralee Thurman Lawrence, roared in with prayers and fast, furious, aggressive instructions which I resisted to the bitter end.  Under their directions, I joined the crowd in the basement and was soon volunteering regularly.

So, now, I’ve got the second volume, “The Ketchup Sandwich Chronicles,”  coming out on this blog.

 

Thank you for reading this blogged book!  Please refer it to your preferred social media network and stay tuned for future chapters!

Thurman Greco

It’s Vacation Time!

Your vacation time is here!  It’s your last chance to get a break this summer.  That means it’s time to go to the beach – to the mountains – to the city – ANYWHERE!

What do you have to do to get away?  Well, first, find a place to go.  Second, pack your bags.

FINALLY,  drop off loads of food to your neighborhood food pantry before you take off on your vacation..

August is the most challenging month of the year for food pantries because it’s the month with the least amount of food available at the food bank.  Food pantries get most of their food from donations and very few people donate in August.  And, sadly, this carries right through to September.  September brings school openings with parents getting ready for school lunches.  Food pantries are often empty.

It’s my opinion that people don’t donate food to food pantries in August because they’re focused on their own activities:  vacation, getting kids ready for school.

But, your neighborhood food pantry doesn’t have to be empty.  There are things you can do.  You can organize a food drive in your neighborhood and take the food to the food pantry.  You can keep the food flowing right through to October.

Thank you in advance for thinking of things you can do for your food pantry during the leanest months of the year.

Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.

Thurman Greco