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.
Food Pantry Rules
A food pantry is what it is because of three things:
the economic situation at the moment
the volunteers
the people who shop there.
The people come together looking for groceries but often, they want and need far more.
While the coronavirus pandemic rages, the food pantry lines get longer every pantry day because people, families, deal with change they didn’t ask for.
In short, they are rewriting their destiny stories without a road map or instructions.
A number of the people in the pantry, both shoppers and volunteers, didn’t know about food pantries until circumstances set up a situation where they suddenly looked around a room and realized where they were.
There is a name for their category – SITUATIONAL POOR.
A person fits into the situational poor category when s/he lands in a situation created by an event such as a hurricane, fire, floor, pandemic, or other disaster which destroys the home, car, job.
Pantries offer much – peace, community, spiritual connection, groceries. I always think of a food pantry in the basement of a church as a cross between a church service and a busy pizza place.
A food pantry, and those connected with it, are not a program. They are a community. As volunteers, all we really do is open the door. As all the hungry people walk through the door, they undergo a change somehow.
Each person in a pantry, in whatever capacity, has experienced rejection in some way – too young, too old, too crazy, too sick, too poor, not poor enough.
The food pantry experience does not heal a person, nor does it change the story.
The food pantry experience does not offer therapy.
The food pantry is, instead, a conduit for each person’s own healing.
FOOD PANTRY RULES
Sign your name in the register as you enter the pantry.
Find a place in line.
Do not crowd or block the door to the pantry room.
No more than 2 shoppers are allowed in the pantry at one time.
No more than one new shopper is allowed in the pantry at one time.
Shop for a three-day supply of food for everyone in your household.
Place your selections on the table as you shop.
Respect the restrictions on certain foods.
Finish your shopping in 10 minutes.
Once you begin to bag your groceries, do not continue to shop.
Because the food availability is different each time you shop, it is best to visit the food pantry weekly.
Thank you.
Thurman Greco
P.S. The rules may be different at the pantry where you shop. Each food pantry is different. The space is different. The times the pantry is open is different. The management is different.
These specific rules were used in the food pantry I managed where the people were many, the space small, and the hours few.
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This Thanksgiving – A Blessing of Opportunity
This Thanksgiving I’m grateful for the clothes on my back.
This Thanksgiving I’m grateful for my health.
This Thanksgiving I’m grateful for food which is available to me and to those who rely on the resources and generosity of others for the basic necessities we need to continue our lives.
The available food reminds me that we all live in the abundance of this time and place.
Thanksgiving, for me, is an opportunity to welcome the coming new year: hope and new beginnings arrive in January. The energy of this Thanksgiving gives me strength to gather energy for that prayer.
I’m holding on to the healing, wellness, and regeneration we will all experience as the Pandemic finally moves on.
I’m waiting for the blessings which will come my way as the Pandemic exits and leaves space for the new reality we will experience in its place.
And, I have to admit, I’m excited to experience our new reality. In my heart of hearts, I feel we’re never going back. We’re going forward, instead, to something new and different and better.
I’m grateful to be here, to be connected to all the efforts of the many people working for those who need food and housing. I appreciate the support I continue to receive from people I’ve come to know in this world.
This Thanksgiving I’m grateful for you. I feel a kinship in your readership so that, in my search to spread the word about hunger in our country, I know that I am never alone.
Thank You.
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Thurman Greco
Prayer for the Hungry – Number 3
I stand before you humbly, O Holy One, the One God of Israel as I offer a prayer for the hungry .
I offer thanksgiving, praises, blessings in this prayer for the hungry.
I ask for your forgiveness and mercy, O God. All life is in Your hands.
I come to you humbly, asking for protection – not for myself but for those hungry individuals and families who shop in food pantries everywhere. This hunger weaves the souls of these shoppers together for all time.
Grant them hope and strength to travel through their days courageously.
O Holy One, give them grace, mercy, harmony, peace.
Teach those of us working in pantries to have patience as we support the hungry in their struggle to carry on day after day after day against all odds.
Please let us remember that, through religious teaching everywhere, we know You feed all of us – not only physically but spiritually. Let this awareness give the hungry confidence that their needs are being met. Let this knowledge inspire us to make sure that everyone shopping at pantries everywhere receives the food and support necessary to carry on in the never relenting struggle. Remind us continually that we are doing Your work.
Help us choose the right words as we communicate with the hungry so that a chance remark won’t make things worse.
Make us always aware of the hungry who are homeless and suffering with mental illness. May you grant them complete healing – of body, mind, and spirit.
O God to Whom we all Pray, I offer you my most sincere gratitude for all you have don, are doing, and will do for those of us who suffer with hunger and homelessness.
And, now I say Amen.
Prayer for the Hungry – Number 2
O Heavenly Father
I offer You gratitude for all Your blessings and love which You continually share with parents struggling with underemployment, poor health, insufficient food, transportation challenges.
I ask You, the source of all living things, to protect and guard parents who shop at the pantry.
Help them listen to their children’s needs as they struggle to live a life with insufficient resources… time, money, housing, health care.
Offer the peace which can only come when they know that You are a part of their lives every day.
O Heavenly Father, help them overcome their greatest fear – hunger.
Guide their lives so that no one in their household is hungry.
Encourage them to see the positive aspects of their lives.
Teach them to co-create abundance
Give them the courage to reach out when their needs are overwhelming.
Let them know that they can be secure in their paths.
Teach them to travel through their lives with grace.
Offer them the wisdom they need to hear Your guidance.
When, if…they question the struggle, please let them know You are with them always.
Please, gently touch their lives with your healing hands when health issues become almost too much to bear.
I ask these things in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Thank you for reading this blog dedicated to food pantries.
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Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
Art Work donated by Jennette Nearhood
Take $1 – Leave $1
The young musician’s sign said it all:
TAKE $1
LEAVE $1
She sat on the sidewalk in front of Houst the other day, with her guitar box open. True to Woodstock tradition, she was singing for tips. Her sign, her posture, her music really resonated with me. I really feel that we are now fast approaching the point in our country where our residents are divided into two groups:
those who use pantries, soup kitchens
those who do not use pantries, soup kitchens
So, that puts us in the Take $1 – Leave $1 lifestyle.
Food pantries and soup kitchens, through the food distribution process work relentlessly to end hunger. Most people working in pantries or soup kitchens are volunteers who understand they offer hope and sustenance to a community of people living with and affected by hunger and, in some cases, homelessness.
Any amount you can spare will help make the pantry or soup kitchen you support a better place. Please send a donation today. Your gift will make a difference in the lives of people who have little and need a lot. Take $1 – Leave $1
Thank you in advance for your generosity.
Thurman Greco
Thank you for reading this blog. The story is true. The people are real.
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Tara Sanders Teaches Trauma Sensitive Yoga
Many people coming to a pantry or soup kitchen have given up on their stories. They’ve lost their voices. With trauma-sensitive yoga classes, they have an opportunity to change the stories themselves. They can add new chapters.
Tara Sanders, a Woodstock based yoga instructor, is the program director in the nonprofit Exhale to Inhale.
Exhale to Inhale yoga works to empower survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to heal through yoga. Exhale to Inhale yoga guides women through postures, breathing, and meditation. Taught in trauma-sensitive style, practitioners are enabled to ground themselves in
their bodies
their strength
their stillness.
As this happens, they connect to themselves and work toward empowerment and worthiness. This practice can be transformational for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence when they shed the cloak of victimhood.
This is extremely important for people working and shopping in pantries because many survivors of domestic and sexual violence are found in these communities. The influence of this trauma is great. Add to this trauma another layer of
hunger,
unemployment,
underemployment,
homelessness,
serious illnesses to include mental illness
and you have a person who is finally voiceless.
Finally, the classes are free. Many attending these classes have absolutely no money at all.
Healers and body workers have long known that when the body is traumatized, the event is stored in the muscles.
Tara teaches the classes without music. She does not touch the students to correct a posture. Lights remain on throughout the class. These sessions offer survivors an opportunity to reclaim their lives through the healing and grounding of yoga.
Tara uses the yoga classes to help her students feel safe, strong, and in the present moment. As she teaches, she is a conduit for healing, and healthful programs in our community.
Exhale to Inhale is a New York-based nonprofit offering free weekly yoga classes to survivors of domestic and sexual assault. As an introduction to our area, Tara will teach free public yoga classes on Saturdays from 11 am to noon at the Center for Creative Education, 15 Railroad Ave, in Kingston.
After June 20, Exhale to Inhale yoga will be offered free of charge to women in area shelters.
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Thurman Greco
Tom Pacheco
“Don’t Be Scared. Do Not Yield.” – Tom Pacheco
We stalked him for five whole days, Harriet Kazanski and I, in the weeks before the first music festival. We wanted the legendary Tom Pacheco to play for the crowd at the festival.
We went over to Maria’s at different times during the day because we knew he hung out there when in town. And, every time we went we heard pretty much the same thing: “He didn’t come in yet today. Try back around 5:00.”
Or, we’d hear: “You just missed him. He left a little while ago.”
Maria always had the most comforting smile. I felt like a teenager chasing a movie star. Tom Pacheco is a legend throughout the world and we were really hoping against hope.
When we finally tracked him down one afternoon about 4:00, he was wonderful. He turned us down on the music festival but he offered one better. “I’ll give you a concert. Here’s my phone number. Call me in the fall and we’ll schedule something in February. I want to give this concert for you. I’m writing a song about hunger.”
I shyly thanked him, got back in Harriet’s car and we drove away. Our hearts were singing!
And, give a concert he did! He gathered some of his friends: Brian Hollander, the Cupcakes, (Lyn Hardy, Elly Wininger, and Janice Hardgrove), Dave Kearney, Dan Wininger, and Norm Wennert.
Lucy Swensen of the Turning Mill designed the posters advertising the evening and they were posted all over town.
On a cold evening the following February we all gathered at the Community Center at 7:00 p.m. That was, of course, a really early time for Tom and the musicians but pantry people have their own time clock and this was the hour they chose.
Volunteers made cookies. Laura and Peggy brought coffee pots. Somebody else brought a tea pot. Coffee was made. Tea was brewed. The energy gathered.
People arrived. The event charge was all by donation. Some people dropped coins in the jar. Others brought bags of food for the pantry. Yet others wrote extremely generous checks.
The event managed itself. It was an evening right out of the old “Union Hall” days. Different performers got up, played their music, and then turned the mike over to the next person on the list.
Someone suggested that I get up and be the M.C. I didn’t dare. If I did, I would begin to talk about hunger and ruin everyone’s fun time. Tom knew exactly what to do. And it was a perfect evening. Tom is the consummate professional.
When Tom played his song about hunger, I cried.
Tom asked his triends to join him on the stage that night. At one point, he had the local newspaperman, Brian Hollander, play with him. I loved it. Tom would be playing and singing along and then tap his foot loudly and say “Hit it Brian!”
And, Brian would play his heart out.
Every person in that room had a wonderful evening. Tom did that for the pantry. We are eternally grateful.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
What, Exactly, Can I Get With a Food Stamp Card (SNAP)?
Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice.” – Jacques Diouf
This post is dedicated to anyone whose money is just not going as far as
it used to go.
This post is dedicated to anyone who has more month than money.
Are you getting food stamps?
If the answer to this question is “no”, please read further to figure out how to get a SNAP card.
Please don’t be embarrassed or shocked by this. People just like you and me are receiving and using SNAP everyday. They use SNAP to help make ends meet while buying nutritious food. This is the new way we live in the 21st century.
Many people over 60 years of age are having trouble finding money for food…every month. When seniors don’t get enough to eat, they eventually get sick. When this happens, a burden is placed on children and grand children.
I, for one, don’t want this to happen to me and I’m sure you feel the same way.
We’ve all worked for many years and paid our taxes dutifully. Now that we’re retired, our incomes are fixed but our expenses are not. Now is our chance to receive some benefits.
Here is what will happen if you apply for food stamps (SNAP). If you hit the jackpot, you’ll get enough funds each month loaded onto a debit card which you can use to purchase all the food you and your household members need.
If you win less and don’t really get the jackpot, you’ll get something. Either way, you’ll get more food than you had before you applied.
And, when you use SNAP you may save enough money to have a little cash in your wallet that you didn’t have before.
If you apply for benefits and are denied, please find out why. You may have mistakenly answered a question incorrectly.
Food Stamp funds come in a debit card which can be used at a grocery store, gas station convenience store, farmers market or other food outlet. With this little card you can purchase fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, dairy products, bread, cereal. You can purchase food that is fresh, frozen, or canned.
What you cannot purchase is inedible products such as toilet paper, soaps, tooth paste. You are also prohibited from purchasing restaurant food. You cannot purchase foods or meals prepared for in store dining. Beer, liquor, wine, and tobacco are prohibited.
It does take some effort to get this card. You need to apply for it. A form needs to be filled out.
You’ll be asked to give your name, address, date of birth, social security number, the names and ages of people who live with you, your total household income and your monthly expenses.
If you are asked to provide any documents, please only use copies. You keep the original documents in your own files.
SNAP uses your income, shelter costs and medical expenses to determine your benefit amount.
You can apply for SNAP benefits by mail, fax, or in person at your local Department of Social Services office.
If you live in New York State, call 1-800-342-3009 for the address of the office nearest you.
If you want, you can have another person apply for you. An interview is required, but you can have a telephone interview if you cannot go to the office.
You may qualify for SNAP even if you work, receive Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and/or retirement benefits.
You can apply for SNAP even if you own a house or car, have money in the bank, or live with other people.
If you know someone who might be able to benefit from having a SNAP card, please share this information with them. Statistics tell us that one senior in seven doesn’t have enough to eat.
There is no excuse for anyone in our beautiful nation to go hungry.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – Peggy’s Take Outs- Meet some of the homebound shoppers at the Good Neighbor Food Pantry
The people who received the food were all in a situation of need.
With homebound people, the longer a person is uninsured, the worse the health becomes. Some people simply can’t get to a pantry. They lack the health and/or resources to leave their homes.
Most, but not all, of the homebound were elderly. Good nutrition is critical to the health and life quality of seniors. Because of issues related to age, including decreased mobility, limited outside assistance and fixed incomes, the elderly can be especially vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition.
The elderly poor desperately need to use a pantry. This group desperately resists visiting a pantry as long as possible. The tragedy here is that food pantries are our tax dollars at work. we seniors have paid our taxes all our lives and now we have an opportunity to get a return on the investment.
When a senior citizen doesn’t get enough to eat, the children and grandchildren suffer because the older person ends up ill due to lack of nutrients. It’s estimated that one senior in four doesn’t get enough food to eat. Only 13% of the persons receiving food from HPNAP supported pantries are elderly.
Joyce is a perky 96-year-old who’s lived in Woodstock for years. She has a caregiver every day now but she really can’t go anywhere anymore so the food she receives is important. Whenever we get to her place, the caregiver has her all dressed up to see us. Her feet don’t work anymore but the brain does and she needs the few minutes of socialization as much as the food.
We have one delivery, a Native American woman experiencing mobility problems. Like Joyce she has a walker but life is still difficult. When she sees us coming, she gets behind her walker and struggles out to meet us.
One day she was coming out to meet us as we drove up and I could tell she wasn’t feeling well. Her usual smile was missing. We looked for something to cheer her up. We found it in the meat box. We found a package of ground bison meat. I honestly don’t know where it came from. Nobody had ever seen this item before. Nor have we seen one since. No matter. When Young Hawk saw the bison meat, she smiled. Her struggle became lighter for the moment.
William had a motorized scooter to get around and a walker also. He had lost a leg to cancer and had a prosthesis. William really needed the food delivery…not only for the food but also because of the social aspects of the delivery. We could always tell when he hadn’t had a good week.
Ann, a 90+ year old woman lived alone in her home in the country. She couldn’t drive anymore, so she really depended on the food. Ann’s favorite pastime in the mornings was chopping and arranging her firewood.
Our board voted that we could not deliver food more than 10 miles out from Woodstock. Clearly, we couldn’t serve everyone.
One couple hitch hiked in whenever they could. They were a darling couple, too. She was Elizabeth Taylor beautiful. He had coal black hair, bright black eyes, and Sylvester Stallone features.
He mostly wore a full length coat in the winter over campers clothes. She wore campers clothes as well. Both outfits included practical hiking boots. His jewelry included a knife with a 7″ blade tied to the thigh of one leg.
They lived five or six miles in from Route 28 in the Big Indian area. So…they hiked the five miles on pantry day to Route 28 and then hitched to the pantry.
When we considered that he was terminally ill and she absolutely never opened her mouth, I don’t know how they made it in week after week after week. But they did. They shopped, got what they could carry and headed back out to Route 28 hoping for a ride home.
Thanks for reading this blog/book. We continue with this series for another post.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman
