Monday, Feb. 16, 2015, noon, 16 degrees at the Reservoir Food Pantry
I drove up to the parking lot we use on pantry day. It’s not our parking lot, really. It belongs to the old Robert’s Auction building. The snow plow guy had cleaned the space very well so I knew right away that we were going to have a good day. Then, I noticed that the walkway from the parking lot to the shed entrance hadn’t been shoveled.
WOW. The snow was knee deep along the walkway. Oh well. At least we could park our cars.
It didn’t matter anyway. The sun was out. People could park. This was the closest to a decent day we’ve had in 3 weeks. We were going to be busy today.
I slogged through the snow to the shed and found Cheryl. Minutes later Bob and Tony arrived. Things were improving! The pantry day began itself. As volunteers arrived, we tackled our jobs:
Fronting the shelves in the pantry.
Arranging produce in the greenhouse.
Preparing takeout bags.
Checking to see if the greenhouse door would close (it didn’t). We’d had trouble closing it last week and wondered how it would manage today (it didn’t).
Finding pens that work for the sign in book. This is always a challenge when the temperature drops below 30.
Jean, a new volunteer in her 80’s, found a shovel in her car and cleared the walkway the best she could.
When the pantry opened, shoppers made their way through the snow from the parking lot to the shed. A steady stream of people came all afternoon. Those who had cars brought those who did not. They were:
Hungry
Cold
Grateful.
Everything stopped about 4 so we packed up and headed out. Only then did I notice that there was no feeling in my fingers, toes, nose, ears. Cheryl and I had worked in the shed where there was some heat in spite of the door opening repeatedly. (The wall thermometer showed a steady 36 all afternoon.)
Bob and Susanne worked in the greenhouse where, in spite of the heater, there was only cold. The open door made the whole room feel like outside. 17 degrees.
Prasida worked in the greenhouse for awhile as she prepared to go on her takeout run. Sean and Bonnie came by and collected produce for their takeouts as well.
We are, as a pantry, people racing against all odds to feed the hungry. We do much to make sure everyone receives fresh produce every pantry day. Our new van, just yesterday christened “The Beast,” will be offering more and more produce as the shoppers increase.
Most of our volunteers are similar to other pantry volunteers. We’re cotton tops old enough to have our priorities straight. We agree that feeding the hungry is important. We make time in our remaining days to do the job.
What sets us apart at Reservoir Food Pantry is the number of volunteers. We have many and more show up every week.
The bottom line: As a group, we don’t care if the weather is hot, cold, wet, dry. We’re at the pantry to serve the people. So, as long as we can get the food, there are now options for everyone in the area who is hungry:
Elderly poor,
Employed poor,
Food insecure,
Generational poor,
Homeless (sheltered),
Homeless (unsheltered),
Ill poor,
Infant poor,
Malnourished,
Newly poor,
Persistent poor,
Resource poor,
Situational poor,
Struggling poor,
Underemployed poor,
Unemployed poor.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Thanks Jan: An Open Letter to Jan Whitman
Thank you for the wonderful job you did throughout your career at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. Many, many people are escaping hunger because of the direction you offered. This time at the Food Bank really amounts to your entire adult life because the Food Bank was your only employer. You’ve been the face of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley for over 20 years!
Several years ago you invited me to serve on your board. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to do this job, although I’m not really a “board person” anymore. I’m a food pantry coordinator. I accepted the invitation because you asked me to. I never wanted to do anything more than feed a 3-day supply of food to each of the hungry shoppers at the food pantry.
When I met the other board members at meetings, I saw a group of people genuinely devoted to you…devoted to your concept of helping each and every person needing food, one person at a time. Your attitudes strongly influenced the board members. Board members attracted the resources needed to do the job because they were devoted to your dedication and mission.
What a gift!
And, while I’m focused on gifts – donations – money, I cannot overlook the grants. Jan, you are a wonderful grant writer. Grant writers in your category are as scarce as hens’ teeth. Very few can successfully bring in a grant package over $100,000. You have no problem with that at all. In fact, you brought in several in the summer of 2014. And, to top it off, you were very quiet about it. I only found out about them by accident. Then, of course, I spilled the beans far and wide.
Most recently, you introduced the concept of the Farm Stand to our area. What a change you brought: As a result of your leadership and innovation, hungry people have more access to fresh produce. You goal was to have Farm Stands in communities throughout the Hudson Valley where hungry people can shop for fresh produce at an affordable price: free.
I visited 2 of the Farm Stands in Kingston recently. One is located at People’s Place and the other at Community Action. People with no $$$ now shop for the nutritious foods they need.
What a concept: Excited, happy shoppers take fruits and vegetables home. The choice includes:
tomatoes
potatoes
onions
squashes
greens
grapes
oranges
apples
Jan, none of us should have been a bit surprised by your idea. After all, you’ve always felt individuals are important. Your Farm Stand concept makes more fresh produce available to the hungry on an ongoing basis. By focusing on feeding the hungry, one person at a time, you touched the lives of thousands in our area.
All this Farm Stand food is donated by grocers and farmers. No merchant is losing a sale by not seeing these shoppers at a supermarket line because these shoppers don’t have the income to buy any of these foods.
To accomplish this, you diverted food on its way to the landfill. The implementation of the Farm Stand concept is moving the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley into the future at breakneck speed.
Thank you for all you did over the years. When I think about this, I realize that you gave your adult life to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
Reluctantly, it’s time for us all to accept your resignation as the Executive Director of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. You are adopting a new lifestyle. The time has come for corporate memory and focus to change.
The building housing the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley offers much opportunity now that Farm Stands are a part of the function in the area. This cavernous space is ready for someone with the energy, budget, and authority to move in the future. You know, more than anyone, that much can be accomplished with the right person at the helm. You set the stage for this to happen.
I served on your board. Now, I offer my resignation. It’s time for the employees and volunteers of the future Food Bank of the Hudson Valley to write their own story.
Peace and food for all.
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Welcome Hunger Buster or Snow White or White Lightening or
Wheels with Meals, or whatever we come up with.
Whatever you’re going to be called…welcome!
We’ve got a contest going here: If you name our shiny new low mileage Chevy Van, you’ll win the prize of a jar of peanut butter.
Our brand new shiny, white Chevy van 2500 has been a long time coming. We outgrew Vanessa months and months ago but nobody really talked about it. Setting up this pantry has been a very expensive venture and we lived with the Caravan as long as we possibly could and then hung on another few months.
We held a fund drive in November which brought in some much needed $$$. Now…thanks to everyone’s generosity Prasida is driving around in our brand new shiny, low mileage Chevy panel truck from Deitz Motors on Route 28.
Now, Prasida and Francine will return from Latham on Mondays with all the food we need. We hope we never run out of produce again…ever.
We’d been looking for months. Finally, last week, Prasida and Bob Overton drove over and saw this gorgeous beauty waiting for us.
I’m not into numerology very much but even I could tell I’d never seen such a gorgeous license plate.
This van might have surfaced weeks sooner but, energetically, we needed to open a space for it in our lives. Plus, (and this is no small deal), Prasida had to get up one day and drink an extra cup of tea before 9:00 a.m.. That threw her into high gear and she really got things done.
This week, our pantry found a snow plow team, arranged for more electricity in our greenhouse, bought a Chevy van, and (whew) I don’t know what else!
All this happened because everyone got together for a lunchtime meeting on Tuesday. To-do lists were passed around. People signed on the dotted line.
The Reservoir Food Pantry took giant steps forward. I offer sincere gratitude and heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in this pantry in any way. We are getting things done this week that I did not think would happen for another year.
It is an honor and a pleasure to be a part of the Reservoir Food Pantry.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
An Open Letter to Tomo Jacobson
Thanks so much for writing to Chuck Klosterman of the New York Times about dumpster diving. I appreciate your stand that dumpster diving is moral. I also like your question about whether it is ethically wrong to dumpster dive. I never thought much about the ethics of dumpster diving before.
As a food pantry coordinator, I interact with people every week who dumpster dive to feed themselves as well as their children, parents, and housemates. We can’t explore the ethics of dumpster diving without exploring the ethics of allowing people in our country to go hungry because they can’t make enough $$$ at their jobs to buy food.
People who come to the Reservoir Food Pantry take a 3-day supply of food home to wherever and whatever that is each week. The other 4 days, they’re on their own.
That means they can buy the food if they have a SNAP card and if they can get to a store selling food. If they don’t have either the $$$ or a SNAP card, then they must get creative. That involves:
Panhandling
Borrowing $$$ from friends, relatives, neighbors
Showing up at someone’s house (friend, relative, neighbor) at mealtime
Sending the children to someone’s house (friend, relative, neighbor) at mealtime
Stealing and (of course),
Dumpster Diving.
In Woodstock, NY, where I live, a beloved neighbor named Cassia Berman routinely went dumpster diving for greens (kale, chard, collards). Cassia was on the library board and taught Qigung at the community center. She never made a fortune, certainly not enough to buy organic produce at the Sunflower Natural Foods Market.
Cassia felt good nutrition was her best defense against illness. I was always grateful for Cassia’s attitude. She brought class to the whole hunger scene.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
There is no excuse for anyone in our country to be hungry.
“Thanks for dropping by this afternoon. We’re going to open the pantry in just a few minutes. Please bear with us while I get this shelf stocked.” It was only 1:00 and the place was already crowded. What’re we going to do when there’s a freezing rain, I thought.
“Okay. Come on in. We’re ready.”
I HONESTLY DON’T KNOW WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT WHEN THEY FIRST OPENED PANTRIES AND SOUP KITCHENS. I’ve read that the idea was to offer emergency food.
Ever since the ’80s, volunteers at food pantries and soup kitchens have been working to feed people so they won’t be hungry for the coming few days. What was once considered to be a crisis is now a way of life for many people unable to extricate themselves from poverty and destitution. It’s also a way of life for the many volunteers working at soup kitchens and pantries throughout our country.
HUNGER IN AMERICA IS A SHAMEFUL SITUATION FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. There is no excuse for anyone in our country to be hungry.
A fairly common complaint I hear is: “We shouldn’t be feeding these people. This is not solving the problem. There shouldn’t even be pantries.”
I submit to you that we’re facing 2 separate problems. When a person shops at a pantry for a 3-day supply of food, an effort is being made to rescue this person and his/her household from the grip of food insecurity.
OFFERING FOOD IN A PANTRY KEEPS THE PERSON/HOUSEHOLD FROM GOING HUNGRY FOR THE FOLLOWING 3 DAYS. THAT’S 9 MEALS. THAT’S ALL.
Food pantries do not address poverty and destitution in our country. Food pantries cannot address the urgent and ongoing need for:
shelter
job training
job referral
daycare
clothing
transportation
medical attention
adequate wages.
Many people shopping at pantries can get themselves out of the ongoing rut of poverty with help. There’s a huge difference between feeding people a 3-day-supply of food weekly and lifting them out of poverty.
Food pantries are stop-gap measures used to keep hungry people from starving until our leaders in Washington reach viable solutions to the problems created by poverty.
Food pantries assist poor and destitute people use their minimum wage funds to get back and forth to work.
FOOD PANTRIES MAKE SURE OUR POOR AND DESTITUTE SENIOR CITIZENS WILL HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT SO THEY WON’T BE A BURDEN TO THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.
Food pantry volunteers are on the front lines of the war against food insecurity. Our concern is making sure there is enough food in our pantry to feed the people coming for help every week. It’s all about food security.
Getting people out of poverty is not an issue for pantry workers at all. We cannot even begin to address this issue at the food pantry level.
As food providers, our situation is labor-intensive, unpredictable, and filled with crisis management situations. We routinely deal with boxes weighing over 40 pounds each, loading docks, and parking lot accidents.
Politicians continually work to remove the safety net offered by SNAP cards, unemployment payments, health care.
One program which doesn’t get as much attention is the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is billed as a program designed to reward the low wage worker. In reality, this subsidizes the employer, who can then pay lower wages without causing the worker so much pain that s/he can no longer afford to work. This program benefits many large corporations. It is a great tool for all big box employers.
Until there is a secure community safety net for the poor and destitute in our country, we will continue to feed a 3-day-supply of food weekly to families/households who don’t make enough $$$ to buy food after they pay for rent and transportation. Their minimum wage paychecks simply don’t last a week.
Every time I serve a 3-day-supply of food to a working person, I am reminded that in our country working people no longer have any value to their corporate employers. They are nothing more than commodities to be exploited.
THE EVER INCREASING NUMBERS OF POOR AND HOMELESS LEADS ME TO BELIEVE THAT WITHOUT FOOD PANTRIES, MANY PEOPLE WILL STARVE.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
What About our Hungry Neighbors, Anyway?
“WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE COMING TO YOUR PANTRY WHO DON’T NEED THE FOOD? YOU DON’T FEED THEM, DO YOU?”
I hear variations on this theme from people who’ve never been near a pantry. They fantasize that food pantries are visited mostly by people with expensive cars, designer clothing, beautiful jewelry, fancy jobs; freeloaders who aren’t hungry and don’t need the food.
IF ONLY THEY KNEW…HUNGER IS A POTENTIAL FOR ALL OF US.
So, now, I offer you a chance to glimpse at what hunger really means.
Imagine what life would be like if you lived without enough $$$ to buy the food you need to feed yourself and your family.
Because…these people are neighbors. You may not recognize those around you who suffer with hunger and who miss meals. Open your eyes a little and you’ll see them all. You’ll know the names of some, the addresses of others. You’ll even find a relative or 3. These individuals represent millions more because hunger in our country is an epidemic.
AND, LIKE OTHER EPIDEMIC DISEASES, HUNGER DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE. It’s found in all races, all religions, all communities, all categories, and every educational background.
Enlisted men and women in every branch of service are counted among the hungry. They stand tall in our front lines and in our food pantry lines.
Retail workers ring up the sales at cash registers in the check out lines of big box stores and sell us high end merchandise in upscale boutiques in communities from shore to shore in our great nation. When they are not ringing up our purchases they can often be found working a 2nd or even 3rd job.
The hungry also serve us food, clean our houses, grow the food we eat, tend our lawns, launder our clothes, and otherwise do the necessary grunt work. They care for our children in our homes and daycare centers.
Try going through your day without them. Their poverty subsidizes our wealthy lifestyle.
People don’t usually grow up aspiring to spend their adult lives working at 2-3 seemingly meaningless dead end jobs.
There just aren’t that many options for many people these days.
The kitchens of the struggling class where the hungry live usually feature 1 or 2 appliances:
crock pot
electric skillet
microwave.
Often a working refrigerator is not part of the furnishings.
The kitchen cupboards have a few items:
a small bag of flour,
mayonnaise
salt.
A couple of onions and a few potatoes may be in a bowl on the counter.
Unless the person we’re visiting has found a pantry offering fresh vegetables, there is no fresh food. If the person has found a pantry, these things will be available in small quantities.
SOME HUNGRY PEOPLE YOU SEE/KNOW MAKE UP A NEW BREED OF THIEF – FOOD THIEF. They rob grocery store shelves, not cash registers, to get the food to feed their families.
A food pantry is a final destination on a journey down a path to the bottom. Along the path, people shed personal items and personal beliefs. They come to a food pantry, admitting to themselves that they’ve gone about as far down as they can get. They’re unable to provide the most basic need life has to offer…food.
Omitted from this equation is that our whole system has failed. When a person shops at a food pantry, s/he experiences individual hunger and also wholesale, widespread hunger – and looks our nation’s political failure straight in the eye.
Hunger in America is a silent and devastating disease, hidden as much as possible from our population at large. But, there’s a question here:
HOW MUCH LONGER CAN WE KEEP THIS SECRET HIDDEN AWAY WHEN 1 SENIOR IN 7 DOESN’T GET ENOUGH TO EAT AND 1 SCHOOL CHILD IN 5 ONLY EATS IN SCHOOL?
NATIONWIDE, 1 PERSON IN 6 DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH FOOD TO EAT.
WELCOME TO THE STRUGGLING CLASS.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
This Winter in the Pantry
January, 2015, is turning out to be such a marvelous time in the pantry! I just couldn’t let it go by without thanking you for all the support and contributions you made as we began our project.
On September 9, 2013, as we began work to make the Reservoir Food Pantry a reality, none of us (Bonnie, Sean, Prasida, and I) had a clue about the real needs of people in the area. Working in the pantry this month I’m coming to realize existentially what is really happening there.
Take our monthly delivery day for example. January 12th was dismal. Nobody in his/her right mind would venture out of either house or home if it weren’t absolutely necessary. Both volunteers and shoppers who could get out of their homes proved how valuable this little pantry in a shed has become.
Volunteers who could get out of their houses drove on icy roads to Kingston to pick up our monthly food shipment. We loaded the food onto 4 vehicles, drove it to the pantry, unloaded it and shelved it.
Meanwhile, Prasida and Francine drove to Latham and returned with 1300 pounds of beautiful produce.
All this work was done during an icy rain, in unheated buildings, and on snow covered ground.
That was one level of motivation. And, why not? After all, we’re the volunteers…that’s what we’re expected to do.
Shoppers came to the pantry as if the sun were out, the grounds were dry, and the breezes warm. They stood in line outside the pantry and patiently, cheerfully waited for their turn to shop in the tiny little shed to get badly needed food for their households/families.
Oh me of little faith. Shame on me. Until delivery day I really didn’t know how the people in the reservoir area really felt about our pantry.
Well…as people tell me all the time “Now I know”.
I walk more confidently now.
Hunger as we know it in our country is both infuriating and shameful. To fight this scourge…
We need schools that work.
We need communities that work.
We need support systems which offer people caught in poverty a fair chance to succeed.
Although safety nets in our society are almost gone, food pantries are flourishing in communities all over America. Food pantries cannot fight poverty. They can only alleviate hunger…a vitally important task in our community.
We looked everywhere along Route 28 for a home for the Reservoir Food Pantry. We finally created a jewel behind Robert’s Auction.
So, to everyone in the area…thank you. With your support, the Reservoir Food Pantry is a success today. We could never have done it without you.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Round 2 in the Food Pantry World – Food, Sex, and Money
ARE YOU OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER HOW WE ACTED IN HIGH SCHOOL? Everyone in class knew the which students were acting right, following the rules, and those who were not. There was no privacy, really, and no secrets.
WELL, GUESS WHAT. The same mentality exists in food pantries. Everyone knows which pantries play by the rules and which ones don’t. There are no secrets.
FOR ONE THING, THE SHOPPERS CAN TELL BY WHAT KIND OF FOOD THEY’RE GETTING. Is the food on pantry day composed of bent cans, stale bread trimmed in green, and frozen food which has obviously been refrozen more than twice? If the answer to that question is “yes”, then it’s pretty obvious someone besides the shoppers is getting the fabulous produce, the wonderfully fresh Bread Alone Bread, and the quick frozen meats and veggies. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the volunteers are taking it all for themselves and their neighbors.
PANTRIES COME EQUIPPED WITH GUIDELINES, AND RULES SIGNED OFF BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS AND COORDINATORS. The rules are clear.
PANTRIES COME EQUIPPED WITH COORDINATORS WHO ARE TAUGHT THE RULES . These coordinators are trained by, supervised by, and evaluated by the Food Bank. Boards,
Church Committees, and volunteers are often surprised to learn that Food Bank supervisors do expect certain levels of performance from coordinators.
Until now, the Food Bank was quiet about what was happening. Well, that attitude has changed.
IF YOU WORK IN A PANTRY THAT FORGOT THE RULES, or if you know about about a pantry with volunteers who forgot the rules, be prepared to expect a surprise or two in the coming months.
THE FOOD BANK HAS RULES. The rules have teeth. The Food Bank is no longer interested in keeping secrets. After all, our court system is pretty open. Misdemeanors and felonies are part of the public record.
Over the past few months, the Food Bank has terminated a few agency memberships. Why?
Volunteers:
sold Food Bank products for their own profit.
kept food for themselves or gave it to family and friends or other volunteers.
used products for unapproved activities.
forgot there are health standards and that pantries and pantry storerooms should be kept clean.
THANK YOU FOOD BANK. Those of us working in honest pantries have hoped this would happen. Personally, I feel that there are very few pantries operated by people who make up their rules as they go along and have no respect for the Food Bank. These people are, however, ruining the whole scene for all of us.
If you shop at or volunteer at a pantry where the rules are not followed, please call 1-518-786-3691 and report the issue.
On behalf of honest pantry volunteers and hungry shoppers everywhere, thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Everybody Needs a Reality Check.
The Kingston, NY Walmart is our reality check. We sit outside the store every month asking for food to feed the hungry (except December when the Salvation Army gets the sidewalk). Three solid days of speaking with the people entering and leaving the Walmart tells us more about the economy, the state of the American people than any fancy reports, economic reviews, sophisticated papers, magazines.
“Just asking for a donation to help us feed the hungry at the Reservoir Food Pantry.”
“What do you need?”
“Peanut butter, soup, canned beans. Actually, anything you select will be given out on Monday.”
This month was no exception. The weather was bitterly cold. We all wore all the clothes we had and brought blankets. No amount of extra gloves, sweaters, long johns, blankets worked against the cold.
We covered the 2 doors…just barely. We had 1 person at each door from 10 ’til 4 all three days. And, we could never have done it without the help of the customers who kept us all energized by opening their wallets as they ran past on their way to the building.
Prasida sat at one entrance all day every day. The rest of us spelled each other at the other door.
There was the usual miracle:
This month we had no food for takeouts because the door to the takeout room was frozen shut. So, people donated exactly the amount and kind of canned/boxed foods needed for the takeouts. We didn’t specifically ask for this food. It just happened that way.
Our hearts were warmed repeatedly by the generosity of the shoppers.
Even though the place was cold beyond description, we feasted on the view of the mountains.
In spite of all the stories on TV and in the papers about jobs, jobs, jobs…we saw a completely different story. We saw people:
with no coats.
counting their $$$ to be able to get just the items they need.
whose shoes were not warm enough.
who had no hats or gloves.
whose transportation situation was desperate.
whose positive mental attitude resisted all efforts to beat a person down into the ground.
The energy of those customers will sustain us all on an even keel until our return visit in February.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
