Meet Woodstock’s Food Pantry in 4 Parts – In Part 1 we Learn About the Economy of Hunger, and the Taboos of Money
GET TO KNOW THE COORDINATOR
“Most of us, I dare say all of us, resent change. Perhaps, at first, we laugh at the stranger in his odd clothes. Then, step two, we begin to fear him. Finally, we hate him.” – Robert Newton Peck
My total job duties took about 2 hours a month as I handed the key to the incoming congregation volunteer each month.
The food pantry system is a huge network of agencies throughout the nation mandated to feed the hungry. In Woodstock, some people felt that the pantry belonged to the congregations. Others, because of my presence in the pantry, felt that it was “mine”. They were both wrong.
The Good Neighbor Food Pantry is an agency member of the Food Bank. To belong to the Food Bank, an agency must be a 501(c)3 organization “serving the ill, needy, or infantile”. Members must either serve free meals or provide free food to the needy, and have proper facilities for storage. The food bank monitors these agencies regularly to make sure the food they handle is both safe and sanitary. Emergency feeding programs (food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters) which are members of the Food Bank provide monthly statistics on the number of people they serve to both the Food Bank and the State of New York through its Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP).
The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley is, itself, an independent 501(c)3 organization. The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley is not a government agency and doesn’t receive government money for daily operations although its staff administers several government food programs providing food for member agencies. The Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) provides the funds for the Food Bank to supply food and operating support to agencies.
As the coordinator, I was trained, supervised, inspected, evaluated by, and report to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. Both the Food Bank and I reported to the HPNAP people.
In the beginning, this position had little or no effect on my personal life other than for me to learn how to get to Latham on a regular basis for training classes. Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on how you saw the situation), I began to take all the pantry classes offered at the Food Bank of Northeastern New York in Latham because the economy tanked and by 2008 I was definitely putting in more than 2 hours each month. I took classes on nutrition, food safety, menu planning, emergency preparedness, fund raising. As I learned things I could use in the pantry, I returned to Woodstock and tried to implement them. After awhile, I felt as if my car could drive itself to the Food Bank.
My new job required that I deal with increasing numbers of shoppers as well the prejudices and traditions of the community congregations. I became intimately involved with the rules surrounding feeding the hungry, the economy of hunger, the biases of people about pantries, and the taboos of money. All these issues revealed themselves incrementally as the numbers escalated in the pantry as people began to need food.
In the pantry I met alcoholics, artists, child abusers, children, crazies, the disabled, druggies, drunks, elderly men and women, hardworking people juggling two and three jobs, homeless, mentally ill, messed-up people, musicians, people battling terminal illness, politicians, schizophrenics, thieves, veterans, Woodstock’s colorful characters, writers, the various ministers, and the church volunteers.
Thank you for joining me on this journey. It was then, and is now, an honor and a pleasure to do this work.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
