Food Pantry Blog – Part 1 of 4 – Wednesdays in the Pantry
Many of the people who come to our pantry receive a moment: a smile, a touch, a recognition that they are important. Our shoppers are positive in the pantry because we offer them love, positive attitude, respect.” – Mary R. Rainey
The pantry line formed on Wednesdays at the side entrance of the Woodstock Reformed Church, beginning a couple of hours before the Good Neighbor Food Pantry opened. We were allowed to enter the building on Wednesdays for food distribution between 3:00 and 7:00 pm. Prasida Kaye, Rich Allen, and I gathered in the rear of the parking lot about 2:30. We couldn’t get into the building but we could open the barn where the frozen food was stored in donated freezers and refrigerators.
As we opened the barn, I signaled to the shoppers to “come on down” and select an item of frozen or refrigerated food. Depending on what we had available, every household chose from a package of frozen meat, an occasional pound of butter, a package of Bella Pasta donated by Maria’s, or a package of frozen macaroni and cheese (from Land O Lakes). Bob Otto and Tony Cannistra stood at the entrance to the barn and offered selections to each shopper coming by.
Barn duty was, in my opinion, feeding the hungry under the worst conditions. Bob and Tony took standing in front of the barn distributing the frozen food to people in all kinds of weather because the pantry always opened…no matter what. In the cold, they would trade off so they could come in the pantry occasionally and get warm – imagine that: getting warm in a building that was warmed only with body heat.
Thanks for reading this blog/book. Tomorrow’s post will focus on the people who came each week to shop.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Refrigerator…and the Storeroom!
I went upstairs to Pastor Bode’s secretary. “We’re sooo happy to be able to store our food in the room at the end of the hall. I’m wondering one other thing, though. Do you think it would be okay to bring the refrigerator in as well. There are several electrical outlets. This would be great because then we could keep eggs in the storeroom.”
“Sure thing, Thurman, bring it in.” she said as she looked at me smiling.
I went downstairs and spoke with two of the volunteers from Hudson Correctional. “Can you guys go out to the barn and bring in the refrigerator? We need the one that is 100% refrigerator – no freezing unit – just the refrigerator.”
“Sure thing Thurman. We’ll be glad to do it.”
In less than 5 minutes, the unit given to us by Barry Motzkin was hauled into the building.
“Put it against this wall” I said, pointing to the one place in the room where the refrigerator would be the least obvious.
So, I got the room. I don’t think I ever got permission to use the room permanently. It was just a squatter’s rights thing. Once I got in there, they weren’t able to move me out.”
Same with the barn. The dirt floor (mud, when it rained) was permanently covered with broken down cardboard boxes. Everything was propped up on pallets. The big freezer was actually on two pallets which were stacked one on the other.
Was I wrong to have been so pushy?
Well, I don’t think so. I DID make one large mistake, though. I didn’t bring all the refrigerators into the storeroom. After all, Meals on Wheels down the hall had five appliances. There were enough outlets.
When Ed Jabbs and his committee members saw that room full of food and the refrigerator in there, hidden on a
back wall, filled with dozens and dozens of eggs, they were one unhappy bunch of hombres.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
There’s Always More…The Refrigerator, Cont’d
“Hunger is not an issue of charity. It’s an issue of justice.” – Jacques Diouf
The refrigerator in the barn worked fine. We brought eggs into the pantry, put them on the shelves and served the food to the shoppers.
Slowly, over the months, other refrigerators and freezers appeared. We finally ended up with four. They came from Barry Motzkin, Barry Greco, Rite Aid, and Ralph Goneau. They were filled to the max with food all the time…except right after a pantry day when they were totally empty.
More and more shoppers came to the pantry. The census kept rising and rising. FINALLY, we reached the point where we had outgrown the small storage closet in the hallway which served as our storeroom. We needed a real storeroom, couldn’t function anymore without one.
I went to Pastor Bode, “I need space Pastor Bode. If you can’t spare a room for the pantry, I’ll just have to ask the caravan guys to bring the next shipment to my home. That’s it. I have no choice. The food is coming in.”
Pastor Bode, God bless him, went to his Consistory, and the building committee. Many meetings followed and I finally got, somehow, permission, maybe, to use the room at the end of the hall for the storeroom. I got provisional permission for this room because a large monthly shipment was coming in. This was our biggest shipment yet: 3,000 pounds.
Everything coming into the pantry up to this point had totaled less than 2000 pounds per shipment.
The monthly shipment arrived and the men put the food in the room at the end of the hall.
While they were bringing the food into the storeroom, I looked around. There was no one else in the building. “The universe is on my side”, I thought.
This event will be concluded in tomorrow’s blog post.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Woodstock B&B on the Green to the Rescue!
Finally, I realized there might be hope at the end of the parking lot. There was a barn down there with a dirt floor, a long, unpainted rattlety trap building that nobody paid attention to. Several times I’d observed that this old, unnoticed structure was filled with treasures. The guys at the Woodstock B & B on the Green stored seasonal decorations they hauled out at appropriate times of the year to dress up their B & B: wreaths, lights, statues, furniture. Occasionally, I’d gotten a peek at what appeared to be antique furniture: chairs, tables, accent pieces. If I could get a corner of that place, I could put a refrigerator on a pallet and we could use it there. Dare I hope?
Dare I hope!
I didn’t know those two guys from Adam, as my grandmother used to say but there just weren’t any other options left. I’ll call them!
“Hello. This is Thurman Greco from the Good Neighbor Food Pantry. How are you and Larry doing today? I’m wondering if we can rent a little corner of your barn for a refrigerator. I’m desperate for a place to store eggs. I’ve asked everywhere and no one in this town has space to spare. You are my absolute last hope.”
“I’ll ask Larry and get back with you. But we can do this. And, there won’t be any charge.”
“Thanks. You guys are going to go to heaven for this.”
I might be able to pull this one off, I thought. When the inspectors come, I just won’t mention the barn. If they see the refrigerator out there sitting in the mud, it’s all over. They won’t have a choice…What the hell.
I took a real chance on this one. However, the inspectors all knew how the town was treating the pantry. The people in Latham were getting tired of the phone calls from the Woodstock pantry deniers. I just had to trust the Food Bank people to look the other way…and not ask about the eggs that I’m buying from the Food Bank.
It worked!
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In the next post, we get a storeroom for the refrigerator!
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
I Ask 3 People to Help me Find a Place to Put the Refrigerator.
I started at the top with Jeff Moran. He was a very nice young man I had strongly supported in the previous election. I’d interviewed him on my local TV show. I was on his election committee along with Sasha Gillman.
“Hi Jeff, I’m calling you because you’re the Town Supervisor and I’m looking for refrigerator space for the pantry. I’m wondering if I can put a refrigerator in the Community Center kitchen. I’ll donate the appliance to the town. Everyone can use it during the week. I just want to have it one day each week for eggs. The rest of the time, it’ll be available for the whole town to use.”
“No.”
So much for getting someone elected.
Next, I went to the pastor of the Woodstock Reformed Church.
“Pastor Bode, I really need a refrigerator for the pantry. We need it to store eggs.”
“The pantry room is too small. Where are you going to put it? I don’t think the building committee will allow it.”
Well, at least he was honest about it. He admitted to me in so many words that he didn’t have the clout to even try for one for the pantry.
My final card was Terrie Rosenblum. She was the one who recruited me for the Woodstock Democratic Committee. She was on the Woodstock Town Board.
“Hi Terrie. I’m calling you because I need a place to put a refrigerator for the pantry. You’re on the Town Board. Do you know of any place in town where I can have a refrigerator?”
“No, I don’t Thurman. Fran and I’ll ask around and see what we can turn up. Maybe Houst has a little space somewhere.”
“How about Town Hall? There’s a large empty room there.”
“That won’t work. We’re getting ready to renovate that building.”
If anybody can find a place for a refrigerator, they can. They’ve lived here in Woodstock over 40 years and they know every nook and cranny of the place.
We’ll find out what happened in the next post.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman
Food Pantry Blog – The Pantry Needs a Refrigerator
I dread talking about politics because I don’t like politics. Never have. Never will. Don’t understand it. Don’t trust it. Politics scares me.” – Kathy Bates>
As I attended classes in Latham, I became more aware of the nutritional needs of the shoppers. One thing I learned: eggs are important.
Eggs offer a lot of nutrition in a small package.
Eggs cook quickly.
Eggs can be prepared in many ways so they’re adaptable to many kinds of cooking environments.
Eggs are acceptable to many different palettes, dietary needs, and food preferences.
Eggs are easy to store.
Eggs don’t take a lot of space.
Eggs are not heavy to carry.
Eggs can be taken right home (whatever and wherever that is) and cooked, safely eaten even if there is no refrigerator.
The one drawback to eggs is that they need to be refrigerated in a pantry. That was a real obstacle in our pantry because we had no refrigerator.
Solution? Get a refrigerator.
Several people offered refrigerators and freezers to the pantry. For the first couple of years I was the coordinator, I declined these offers because there was no space in the building. We had no storeroom and the room itself was just too small.
So…I sought a storage place for our new refrigerator. I planned to store the eggs in the refrigerator and then bring them over to the pantry right before opening time.
I began to contact people I knew in town who might help. After all, I was an officer in the Woodstock Democratic Committee. I had helped several of these people get elected. Maybe I could get help from a local politician:
“Hello Angela. How are you doing? Can you put me through to Jeff Moran? Thanks.”
Please follow this story on the next several posts.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog: Guidelines for a Successful Pantry Visit
“But the most careful lives can be derailed – by cancer, a huge medical bill, a freak slap of weather, a massive failure of the potato crop. Virtue cannot prevent a “bad hand” from being dealt. And making the poor out to be lazy, or dependent, or stupid, does not make them less poor. It only makes the person saying such a thing feel superior.” – Timothy Egan
Try to arrive an hour or so before the pantry opens. This makes for a long wait but there’s a better selection right when the pantry opens. Also, while you’re waiting in line, you have an opportunity to make new friends and learn a few new survival skills if you’re new to the pantry experience.
Bring your own shopping bags. Some pantries don’t have enough of these necessary items.
Bring some ID. Some pantries require a lot: picture ID, proof of address, proof that other family members exist. This can be a bit of a challenge if you’re homeless. Two things you need to know: No one can ask to see your social security number. Some pantries require no identification.
Be prepared to wait in a line. Use this time to meet your line neighbors. They can be helpful if you’re trying to navigate your way through Department of Social Services, if you’re being foreclosed on, need your car repaired.
As you wait in line, try to learn how the pantry works from those around you in the line. You’ll want to know how long you’ll be in the shopping room, what foods are usually found on the shelves, what other pantries the people shop at, etc.
Don’t be afraid to let people know you’ve never been to a pantry before.
Once you find a pantry you can use, go every time you’re allowed. With luck, you’ll have a pantry in your area allowing weekly visits. Because pantry shopping takes so much time, shoppers sometimes just don’t go if they still have SNAP card money or if they have a few bucks remaining from a paycheck. Your best bet is to visit a pantry as often as you’re allowed. Most pantries have different food every week and you may miss out on some real savings by not shopping regularly.
Pantry shopping requires a totally new approach to cooking. So does cooking with only an electric skillet or microwave. Some pantries have periodic visits from nutritionists. Don’t be shy about asking him/her for any tips you might be able to use to help this adjustment easier for you. The nutritionist knows a lot about the food you are trying to cook with and s/he can answer any questions you have.
You may see fresh fruits and vegetables you don’t recognize. Be open to new taste experiences. Take the food home, find a cookbook at the library or go on the net and learn how to prepare the food. If you take one new food home each week, your kitchen skills will be vastly different in a year from what they are now.
Be open minded about this experience.
You’re going to be interacting with people you never thought in your wildest dreams that you would be around.
Know that most people in pantries, both volunteers and shoppers, are in a reconstructing and healing mode. We may not know it yet, but life is finally getting better for all of us.
Try to volunteer at your pantry. Volunteering at a pantry or soup kitchen offers you an opportunity to give of yourself. Giving away food and sharing smiles with those around you opens up opportunities you never thought possible. Your life is changing, healing. Give yourself the opportunity to go with this journey.
Sometimes people cry in the pantry. Well, it’s okay. Everyone cries at one time or another in the pantry, including me. This tells us all that the pantry is a safe place to be.
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – The Weekly Trip With Prasida, Roseann, Gene, and Earl the Pearl
When you’re feeding the people, you’re feeding God.” – Desmond Tutu
Every Wednesday morning at exactly 11:30, two vans, each filled with about 1000 pounds of fresh produce pulled up to the pantry door. In order to get enough produce to feed the 500 or so shoppers coming to the pantry, one vehicle was driven North to the Food Bank of Northeastern New York in Latham. The other van was driven south to Cornwall-on-Hudson to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
Each Wednesday, I waited outside the Woodstock Reformed Church building with three utility hand trucks to get a head start loading so we could get the food in the pantry room in the time allowed.
We loaded the carts with onions, potatoes, corn, peppers, salad greens, apples, lemons, baked breads and pastries, and, occasionally mushrooms, goat cheese, yogurt and vegetables donated by a farm, restaurant or grocery store. Much of the produce was organic. The Food Banks owned a farm which produced only organic foods and Hudson Valley farmers donated all they could.
Sunflower Natural Foods Market also donated boxes of produce and bread which was brought into the pantry at this time.
Smells of the fresh food immediately filled the pantry, turning the tiny space into a very inviting environment for the shoppers.
As we all worked furiously to get the food placed in the pantry within the time allowed, there were always the same sounds: Gene, a volunteer shouted “Wait! Wait!” to everyone as the carts were rolled into the building too quickly.
Prasida repeatedly yelled out “HaYAH” as she lifted bags or boxes weighing over 100 pounds.
While this happened, Roseann Castaldo reminded us of the time with “Tick Tock – 23 minutes remaining”.
One quiet person in this whole chaotic hour was Earl the Pearl, a homeless man who managed to hitch hike to the building every Wednesday morning about 10:00. Rain, shine, sleet, snow, 100 degree weather, whatever. Earl the Pearl would be propped up on the little bridge rail outside the building waiting for us to get to the pantry at 11:30.
Earl was a very slight man who, until we found a coat for him, didn’t have enough clothes to keep warm in the cold Upstate New York winters. But, no matter. Earl the Pearl was on hand to help get the food into the pantry. He had a positive attitude and loved being useful if even for a few minutes each week.
After being a pantry volunteer for several months, we noticed that his back was straighter, his voice stronger, and his smile bigger. On our way out of the door at 12:29 p.m., we always made sure he had something to eat for lunch as he sat on the bridge until the pantry opened at 3:00.
One of the regular shoppers got to know Earl and they became friendly. The other guy had a shed and Earl moved in!
The pantry room, a small 12′ x 16′ space lined with industrial shelving, was kept as cold as we could make it to keep the produce and pastries as fresh as possible. From April to November, the air conditioner was set at 60 degrees. After that, the room was cold all on its own because there was no heat. Some of the more outspoken volunteers wore two hats in the winter.
I was always cold to my bones with all my fingers frozen in the winter. Never once did I complain for fear one of the shivery volunteers would quit.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Leaving the Past Behind – Karen
Sometimes, leaving the past behind meant leaving the pantry. Karen was a regular volunteer in the pantry.
“Hi. Welcome to the pantry. How’re you doing today? Can you please sign your name here?”
She was always punctual, She was courteous, professional, friendly.
“The line is going fast this afternoon. Also, we’ve got a lot of green beans and organic spinach salad.”
She remembered peoples’ names. In short, Karen was pretty close to being a perfect volunteer. She was a strong supporter of the pantry.
Then, in the fall, I taught a series of Reiki therapy classes to the pantry volunteers. I tried to do this yearly because I felt the Reiki therapy helped the pantry, the volunteers, and me. Besides, I loved teaching Reiki therapy and I loved being with the volunteers as they learned it.
I knew 15 minutes after the Reiki 1 class started that things were going to be dramatically different for her forever.
Everyone who takes a Reiki therapy class experiences a life change. For most Reiki practitioners the change is slow, subtle, gentle. Some aren’t even aware of what’s happening. Karen took the Reiki 1 class. She took the Reiki 2 class. She took the Reiki 3 class. Several months went by and she took one of my advanced classes. Well, Karen could have taught that class hands down. Every subject that I brought up was one that she had experienced.
One afternoon Karen came to say good-bye to the pantry. Her life had been changed by both the pantry and the Reiki therapy. What more could we ask for?
We still occasionally see her. She drops by to volunteer in the pantry when she has a lull in her Reiki therapy sessions with clients.
Thank you Karen for all you give to those around you.
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
