Hunger Is Not a Disease

Food Pantry Rules – 2021 – Pandemic

If you read my last post – “Food Pantry Rules” – you may have thought you were in some time warp.  Travel had returned you to about 2010.

Well, not really.

The pandemic changed many details but the bones of a food  pantry event are the same.

The volunteers and the people who shop at the pantry are the same.

Everyone comes together looking for groceries but often, they want and need far more.

Food pantry lines get longer every pantry day because people, families, struggle with change they didn’t ask for.

They are rewriting their destiny stories without a road map or instructions.

A number of people in the food pantry, both shoppers and volunteers, didn’t know about food pantries until circumstances set up a situation where they suddenly looked around and realized they were in a car in a long line waiting for food.

There is a name for this category:  SITUATIONAL POOR.

A person fits into the situational poor category when she lands in a situation created by an event such as a hurricane, fire, flood, pandemic, or other disaster which destroys the home, car, job.

Food pantries offer much – peace, community, spiritual connection, groceries.

A food pantry in the basement of a church is a cross between a church and a busy pizza place.

A food pantry in a line of cars in a pandemic is reminiscent of the mass food distributions we held periodically in New York State after the collapse of the economy in 2008.

A line of cars filled with people needing food wraps around the block, down the road, and even further.

A whistle blows.

The cars begin to move.  A volunteer puts a bag (s) of food in each vehicle.

Everyone wears masks.

There are still food pantries where people show up to a church and receive a bag of groceries.

But, whether the food is distributed to hungry people in cars or to hungry people walking to a building,  a food pantry distribution is not a program.  It is a community made up of those who gather the food and distribute it, and those who receive it.  The  process of distributing the food  to people creates a change in everyone.

The experience does not heal a person.  Nor does it change the story.  It does not offer therapy.  The experience itself is a conduit for each person’s own spiritual growth and change.

Never once when I was involved in a food pantry did I kid myself into thinking that I was winning the war against hunger.  And, I do not kid myself now.

I know this food pantry food distribution experience does not end hunger.  Instead, it offers food for several meals.  And, that is all.

Ending hunger is another matter altogether.

I do feel, though, that the rules are changing.  The pandemic experience is altering the hunger situation dramatically, at least.  The pandemic experience is altering the hunger situation permanently.

“How is that?” you ask.

The pandemic has changed how our food is grown and distributed.  Food pantries are a link in the food distribution chain.  This chain now looks different.  The link connections are different.

“How is that?” you ask.

For one thing, the restaurant industry is different.

Food production and distribution is different.

I do not think we know yet just what the fallout is.  We have yet to live out the end of this story.   We’re living and experiencing the future.  For some, it is hard to see the big picture because the changes have not yet come around  for each of us to see and experience in our daily lives.

In any event,  the Pandemic is not us what we think.  Our opinions and preferences don’t count for much here.

One thing is certain, our future is destined to be different from a future without a Pandemic.  Another thing is certain for me:  We can never return to our past.

We are all destined to experience a new Pandemic future.

Whatever the future brings, we need to keep on feeding the hungry in whatever way that works.

Thank you for reading this blog post.  Please forward this article to your preferred social media network.

Share it with your friends.

Thurman Greco

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Please forward this article to your preferred social media network.

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