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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Connect – 8 Ways to Help the Homeless
“Homeless is not a category of people. It’s just a situation that happens. It can happen to anyone.” – Salvador Altamirano-Segura
The homeless have problems just like you and me:
employment
health issues
disabilities
domestic violence
veterans
THEY JUST DON’T HAVE A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS.
Homeless people, families enter food pantries very quietly. They’ve lost their voices. The goal is to melt into the background, get food, and disappear.
There is an exception to the voicelessness when the person communicates with beings unknown to the rest of us in tongues we don’t understand. One shopper I know has been in another world since before I began working in the pantry in 2005.
We can all help the homeless in some way. Each of us has talents and skills which can be useful.
1. DONATE. Homeless people carry their kitchens in their pockets so a lot of food which we take for granted and use is just not helpful. Important in the homeless diet is:
peanut butter and crackers
cereal in small packages
fruits and vegetables which can be eaten raw
milk in small containers.
Give throughout the year by regularly donating to a food pantry in your area which is most homeless friendly.
2. VOLUNTEER. Pantries everywhere need an extra set of hands to:
Answer mail
Drive a truck
Serve food
Clean up at closing time
Send press releases
Hold food drives
Straighten shelves
Deliver food to the home bound
3. CLEAN OUT YOUR CLOSETS. Donate clothing, bedding, books, in good condition to places where the homeless will have access to your gently used items.
4. SHARE. Do you or does someone you know have a garden? Donate the excess to a homeless friendly pantry or soup kitchen in your area. When your garden tomatoes get to be too plentiful, there are those in your area who need the food. Donate, don’t dump.
5. PUSH THE ENVELOPE. Contact elected officials about homeless issues in your area. Encourage them to make ending homelessness important in your community.
6. EDUCATE YOURSELF. Returning veterans have special needs. For one thing, they often begin their separation from the military homeless.
7. FIND A JOB. Encourage your church or community to hire a homeless person. Many homeless want to work, have skills, but have trouble finding regular employment.
8. TEACH. Do you have a skill to share? Contact a local shelter and offer to give classes.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
The stories are true. The people are real.
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Artwork for this article was donated by Jennette Nearhood
Thurman Greco
My Story and the 9 Truths I Discovered
I began my life changing journey fighting hunger on a cool autumn Thursday in Woodstock, New York in 2005 where I volunteered for the first time at the local food pantry.
I was assigned a shift with Marie Duane. I drove over to the Woodstock Reformed Church, parked my car behind the buildling and cautiously walked in. I had never been to the pantry before.
I entered the empty hallway and found the pantry on the right. I walked into the room and there it was: a small space, actually, about 12′ by 16′. Each wall supported a set of metal shelving units. Each unit stood about 6′ high and 3′ deep with 4 shelves. Most of the shelves were empty. A few shelves had some food:
cereal
tuna
soup
peanut butter.
There was a little handwritten note in front of each display:
person: 1 item, family: 1 item.
There may have been other items on shelves but I don’t remember them.
A small table stood in the center of the room. A metal folding chair was placed in front of each window.
We sat in the chairs, Marie and I, and chatted as people trickled in. We discussed the usual: weather, gardening, knitting, decorating the alter at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church.
“Hi. How are you? Will you please sign your name here?” Each shopper signed in and noted the number of adults, seniors, and children in the household. After signing in, the person walked around the room selecting from the cereal, peanut butter, tuna, and soup. The selected food was placed on the table and bagged to take home, wherever or whatever that was.
On this morning, not blessed with any psychic knowledge, I was totally unaware of experiences waiting for me in the pantry. Never in my wildest thoughts did I envision the hall filled with hungry people, the tiny room packed with fresh produce and jammed with shoppers.
Nor did I for 1 moment ponder the push back I would experience as the number of hungry seeking food grew. Within a few short years, this 2 dozen single homeless men – mostly Woodstock’s colorful characters – had swelled (due to a tanking economy) to over 300 people weekly. This number finally approached 500 people weekly before it was all over.
Now, in the autumn of 2015, our stock market experiences numerous “corrections”. I realize I learned some things over the years which, for me, are ground truths about the pantry.
Feeding the hungry with dignity is the most important thing.
Single homeless men are now far outnumbered by members of the Struggling Class, households of working people holding down 2 and 3 jobs just to pay the rent and buy the gas to get to work.
The 3 most hot button words in the English language are food, sex, and money. These 3 words are concerned with a person’s core beliefs, emotions, and spiritual attitudes. Food and money, or the lack thereof, loom large in pantries.
The sidewalks in our communities and cities have become wards of untreated mentally ill people. In our great nation we don’t hospitalize or otherwise treat many of our mentally ill. Instead, they they are incarcerated.
Some of these untreated mentally ill happen to be homeless. Homeless is not a category of people. It’s just a situation that happens. It can happen to anyone.
The 50+ senior population has many who lack enough $$$ for food and are largely a silent group. The bottom line is this: When our grandparents don’t get enough to eat, they often get sick.
I’m seeing a whole generation of children who have never been inside a grocery store.
Shoppers at our pantry can get a 3-day supply of food weekly. Their job is to make it last 7 days. Many share this food with a pet. Often, the only thing a person has left from a prosperous past is the dog.
The most difficult thing I see in the pantry is a Korean War vet getting food. Something I just can’t understand is how a person who served in a very brutal war, and subsequently spent an adult life working and paying taxes should have to be in a food pantry line in his old age.
Much of the food available to the hungry in food pantries is diverted from its trip to the landfill.
There is absolutely no excuse for anyone in our great nation to go hungry.
Thank you for reading this blog. The story is true. The people are real.
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network. Share this story with friends or relatives who might be interested.
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Thurman Greco
Writers’ Boot Camp Inspiration
I’ve been inspired by the Writers’ Boot Camp experience to knuckle down and finish the reflexology book…AT LAST!
So, I’ll be posting on the hunger/food pantry blog every other week for the next few weeks. I hope you are not inconvenienced by this.
Thank you for your patience and your support.
Thank you for reading this blog.
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.
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Thurman
http://www.reflexologyforthespirit.com
http://www.goodmorningwoodstock.com
If Only….
Janet Poppendieck wrote a book entitled “Sweet Charity” about hunger in America. I found a quote of hers on the internet which inspired this post.
There’s all this food out there. Most people who know about hunger agree that there’s enough food for everyone. If we can stop the push back on this concept, and just feed the people, our lives (everyone’s lives in the whole country) will be very different. Imagine a world without hungry children and grandmothers.
Just for a moment, let’s think of all the ways we can benefit our many people and institutions by using this food.
For starters, think of pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, halfway houses as our tax dollars at work. Much of the emergency food effort is manned by volunteers diverting food headed for the landfill. For my $$$, this recycling effort works primarily to keep people from starving in the streets.
Now, consider the United States Department of Agriculture. As our country accumulates agricultural surpluses, instead of being embarrassed by the food, life will be better when the USDA proudly distributes the surplus to those in need. After all, surplus food is an uptown problem. It’s almost impossible to produce only exactly what we need. Farms just don’t work that way. Weather doesn’t always cooperate. Droughts don’t come by request. Floods have minds of their own. It’s better to produce too much than too little.
Businesses can and should ship excess food to pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, halfway houses. This is a responsible way to dispose of unwanted excess food products. When businesses donate to food banks, they avoid excessive dump fees and accrue tax savings. They reduce dumpster diving.
Universities, hospitals, caterers, restaurants, bakers, schools, can use the food banks to absorb leftovers. In metropolitan areas, the surplus food can go directly to soup kitchens, pantries. This is both a civic responsibility and community outreach.
Community colleges and Universities can recognize that there are impoverished students in their ranks. Pantries and soup kitchens on campus will make it easier for these students to stay in school.
Elementary, Middle, and High Schools will do well to recognize the poverty among the students and staff. Food pantries have a definite place in schools. Backpack programs belong in every school to ensure that students have enough food to eat over the weekends and holidays.
Churches, synagogues, and other religious institutions have opportunities to express concern for their fellow man as they include the poor at the table. Congregations refer to their feeding efforts as outreach. These necessary hunger prevention programs help feed people who otherwise would not have enough to eat and they give the congregations a local outlet for their charity and outreach programs.
Courts and penal institutions can use this concept by having people work service hours at pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, etc. to avoid or lessen incarceration.
Working at a pantry, soup kitchen or shelter provides service opportunities for people of all ages. The more people donate time, the less isolated these facilities become.
Diverting food from landfills offers communities an opportunity to improve our environment. Besides, why throw away good food?
Thank you for reading this blog.
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Thurman Greco
Libraries – and the Hungry
“Hunger and income inequality is probably the single biggest issue facing this country.” – Susan Zimet
LIBRARIES ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO A TOWN, TO A COUNTRY.
Libraries are equal opportunity events offering information, learning, culture for any and all who enter. They also offer an opportunity to get in out of the rain, snow, heat. As far as I can tell, it’s easier to get into a library than it is to get into a lot of pantries.
For one thing, I don’t think you have to prove where you live to get into a library. There may be libraries out there that require proof of address, and other identification but I don’t know about them. (If you know of a library requiring identification or proof of residency to enter, please let me know. I don’t want to be wrong about that.)
Libraries are important to a community. The most important thing I carry in my wallet is my Woodstock Free Library Card. I never have to show it to anyone to use the library. I just walk in the door and all this wonder, this knowledge, this information is available to me…for nothing. But, for some reason, I feel that it’s important to carry it.
At the Woodstock Free Library, a person can even take his/her dog if it’s on a leash.
As soon as I walk in the door, I see the computers. And, of course, they are available to everyone. These computers are sooo important to those of us who are in a situation where there are only funds for rent and gas. For those in the “broke” category, a computer is out of the question.
For those in the homeless category, library computers are even more important because they are a homeless person’s ticket to communication with the outside world…especially offices such as Department of Social Services, Office of the Aging. For a homeless person seeking shelter, they are invaluable. For a housed person seeking a larger or less expensive apartment, they are necessary. A job seeker cannot get hired these days without access to a computer.
We can all get an email address quickly and cheaply at Gmail.
I’ve been connecting with area libraries recently to book a series of speeches I’ll be giving this year. Libraries in communities all around Woodstock are in such wonderful condition. They are right in town in beautiful buildings. Ample parking is available. The libraries are open for extended hours.
They have bathrooms – a luxury that we all need.
I mention these things in a blog about hunger and food pantries because, in a perfect world, I would have a library and a pantry in the same building. It only makes sense really. After all, all the people I see in the pantry are also all the people I see in the library.
Thanks for reading this blog.
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Thurman Greco
Let’s Celebrate National Farmer’s Week – August 2 to 9
National Farmers Market Week begins Sunday. If you can, please take a moment this week to thank local farmers for the great food they provide our communities. Thank them also for the support we see at food pantries everywhere.
They do this as a project of the recently begun Farm Stand concept, the brainchild of Jan Whitman and Ron VanWarmer. Jan, Ron, and Carrie Jones Ross worked together to create farm stands in pantries throughout the Hudson Valley where the hungry shop for fresh produce at a price they can afford: free.
I visited 2 Farm Stands in Kingston, New York, recently. One is located at People’s Place and the other at Community Action. What an event Jan, Ron, and Carrie put together! Excited, happy shoppers choose from:
tomatoes
potatoes
onions
squashes
greens
grapes
oranges
apples.
By focusing on feeding the struggling class, one person at a time, the hungry are being fed and the lives of thousands are touched. All Farm Stand food is donated by farmers. No local merchant is losing a sale by not seeing customers in a supermarket line because these people don’t have the income to buy any of the food.
The growing Farm Stand concept offers an opportunity to move the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley into the future at breakneck speed.
In addition to the Farm Stand donations, food pantries throughout our area receive hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh, nutritious, delicious food each year from local farms. Much of it is organic.
On the individual pantry front, Migliorelli Farm donates fresh produce weekly to our pantry year round. Greenleaf Farm Stand donates produce to volunteers who drop by before the pantry opens every Monday.
Prasida and Francine drive the pantry van to the Regional Food Bank in Latham weekly to pick up fresh produce donated from Hudson Valley Farms.
The Regional Food Bank owns the Patroon Farm which grows organic vegetables. Their crops all go to the food pantries and soup kitchens throughout our area.
The generosity offered by farmers and local pantry volunteers makes pantry distribution a reality. Those who selflessly share their time make our mission a success. Without the dedication and generosity of our farmers, where would be be?
http://www.foodbankofhudsonvalley.org
http://www.regionalfoodbank.new/farm/overview
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Thurman greco
3 Important Things We Can Do To End 50+ Hunger
“Hunger and income inequality is probably the single biggest issue facing this country”. – Susan Zimet
Ending hunger is a huge task…so big it’s scary, even. But, it’s okay to be scary. It’s doable. And, besides that, anything that’s really important is probably a little scary. Right?
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?
Hunger in general and 50+ Hunger in particular are buried issues. In other words, unless you’re the one shopping at the pantry, you haven’t got much of a clue. If you’re standing in a grocery line with 5 cotton tops, statistics tell us that 1 of them is struggling for $$$ to get the food s/he needs.
Food insecurity happens with 50+ citizens when the retirement income is insufficient to meet day-to-day needs.
Not all 50+ people are retired. It’s not unheard of to see people visiting the pantry, men mostly, who have been fired from jobs they’ve held for many years. After a worker crosses the line to being 50+, getting another job is pretty impossible. So, the challenges are great. What I saw most of them do is desperately figure out how to get some sort of aid: SSI, disability, that will last until the social security kicks in.
I’VE SEEN MY SHARE OF MEN IN THIS STRUGGLE. Some were successful. Others just finally got seriously ill and died. This seems tragic, I know. But, think about it for a moment. What else are they going to do when the $$$ is gone and there is no chance of any more $$$ coming in?
One such pantry shoppers came into the basement of the Woodstock Reformed Church angry. He was one of the angriest men I saw in the pantry the whole time I worked there. Frightened reality covered his face.
“I’m finished” he said. “They fired me today! I’ll never be able to get another job again. I’m too old!”
I didn’t say a word. He didn’t look or act as if he was going to hurt anyone and I felt he needed to release some of his anger. He didn’t try to punch the walls or the other shoppers or the volunteers. And, since the wait was over an hour, I felt he would quiet down before he finished shopping.
HE WAS CORRECT ABOUT 1 THING. He was probably not ever going to get a real job again. I just hoped his unemployment was going to hold out until he could figure out how to get something more permanent:
SSI
Disability
SNAP
It took him a year to calm down. Every time he came to the pantry, I saw the anger. We all just left him alone. It was all we could do for him.
Time passed.
Now, in 2015, I saw him again – calm, maybe at peace with his situation. He lives in his truck, sort of semi homeless, I suppose. He has places to bathe, etc.
He’s a talented musician, this man. He has found places to play and he is looking okay. What more can we all ask for anyway?
Anyone with income that doesn’t include $$$ for food is, in my book, in crisis..
50+ seniors routinely decide between food and transportation, food and medicine, food and clothing.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
One thing we need to do is understand, really understand, what keeps seniors from getting enough healthy food. The 50+ population is growing, not shrinking. we have a continually increasing number of seniors facing
food insecurity
rising food costs
availability of healthy food
shrinking Government funding.
FOOD PANTRY WORKERS DO WHAT THEY CAN. Volunteers in many cases keep people from dying of hunger on the streets. But pantries are, with 50+ hunger, a small effort. Can people seek more important ways to address the problem? Can we develop some long-term and short-term solutions?
WE NEED TO DO 3 THINGS:
UNDERSTAND WHAT STANDS BETWEEN THE 50+ HUNGRY AND FOOD
EDUCATE THE PUBLIC
HELP THE 50+ POPULATION GET THE FOOD
Educating the public has its own challenges. Food is such a hot button issue in our country. People immediately go into denial. They want to believe that the shoppers in the pantry lines are all wealthy and drive Maseratis and Corvettes.
Of course, this will never be true. I’ve been working in the food pantry industry for 10 years and I’ve seen very few free loaders. And, honestly, the free loaders I met all had mental issues.
The number of people shopping in in food pantries who don’t belong is very small.
The number of people who need to shop in food pantries is large.
The number of 50+ people who need to shop in food pantries but don’t is way too large.
WE NEED TO KEEP THE EDUCATIONAL EFFORT GOING. That’s why I work in a food pantry, write this blog, and speak about hunger at pretty much any place I’m invited.
Helping the 50+ population get the food is a challenge. It’s difficult to learn that you worked all your life, paid your taxes, participated in social security, and now …when you need it…it’s not enough.
What happened to our dream?
Was it ever real?
Did we get bilked?
Were we all just kidding ourselves?
OUR PARENTS AND OUR GRANDPARENTS WORKED TO BUILD A NATION. We worked to continue the American Dream. Now, we find that it doesn’t really exist. For some, the belief is that this dream never did exist. For many, the most important thing is to just not let anyone know how bad things are for them.
Hunger in the 50+ community today is where being gay was prior to 2000.
If you can talk just one 50+ senior into getting SNAP, you will be doing a wonderful thing.
Thank you for reading this blog.
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.
Don’t forget to join the email list.
Thurman Greco.
The Face of Hunger/The Face of Hope
Every Monday, she brings her little granddaughter to the pantry –
Sue, maybe 4, is shy – absolutely beautiful – and still totally unaware of her situation:
White
Mother working 2+ jobs
Not enough to eat
Threadbare clothes
This lovely child takes pleasure in the smallest treats. Today her treat is a can of juice one of the volunteers found that’s not yet dented.
Her grandmother is teaching her to:
stand in line quietly
smile
say “thank you”.
How these mothers and grandmothers can get these little children to stand perfectly still and quiet for the time it takes to go through the line is completely beyond me.
But, back to the story.They get a 3-day supply of food which will last for 7 days, this struggling pair.
She’s always happy visit the pantry. It’s got 2 rooms so their next stop is the produce room where they have apples today.
Garrett and Susanne also keep the place well stocked with children’s books so there will be another treat for her.
When I see this pair, I see the universal grandmother and granddaughter next door. They are us. They are our neighbors. They are our cousins. I am reminded that we do not live in a we/they world. The hungry are us.
I’ve been working in a food pantry for years…certainly long enough to have become hardened to the reality and face of hunger. However, that is not what has happened. If anything, I’m more sensitive to the issues. I now truly believe that humans are not meant to suffer hunger and poverty. We are not meant to turn our heads away from the issue of hunger.
Most poor families in America are working families. The low wages earned by the millions of hungry Americans are not enough to cover the cost of housing, medical care, child care, transportation, clothing and food.
As the Struggling Class begins cutting food because the budget no longer allows it, they begin by cutting out meat. If that is not enough, they go to the second level and cut out meat, vegetables and eat eat only cereals.
Finally, it means cutting out an entire meal every day.
Food Pantries offer the hope of at least not starving to death. When people visit food pantries they can get food which they otherwise could not purchase. This brings hope to us all – not only the hungry but to those who work to appease the situation.
http://www.allianceforpositivehealth.org
http://www.foodbankofhudsonvalley.org
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
Grocery shopping is always a problem for the elderly.
I first met her outside the shed at the Reservoir Food Pantry. A recent widow, I heard her comment “I just never knew how hard it was going to be as a widow.” Her husband died just over a year ago and she’s still making her way toward accepting her new reality.
“I never knew it would be so difficult…being alone like this. I’ll never tell my children I come here. I don’t want them to know.”
As she spoke, she wiped an occasional tear while moving through the pantry line with a group of women, all about her own age. They were choosing corn and apples, squashes, greens, onions, potatoes. As the line snaked forward, she turned her attention to the canned goods: beans, soup, fruits, veggies.
Pat hasn’t made it to the food stamp office in Kingston. For one thing, it’s a good half hour down Route 28. For another, she’s afraid:
of the forms,
the humiliation of being unable to survive on her own,
the long wait in a building she may not even be able to find,
finally, she’s afraid of the whole process which she finds frightening.
Her financial situation isn’t so far from all the other older women in the pantry line. Grocery shopping for the elderly is difficult under the best of circumstances. Getting to the grocery store can be challenging for older people – getting around in the parking lot and going up and down the grocery store aisles is no fun anymore. And, then, when they can’t find what they need, they have to maneuver the muddy parking area and the scary entrance ramp at the pantry. And…we haven’t even discussed the packages yet. They’ve got to be gotten home and in the house (wherever and whatever that is).
Finally, getting high quality, affordable food is more and more difficult as the days go by. And, as difficult as it is for Pat, she’s one of the lucky ones. She’s got a working automobile.
Combine the lack of a working automobile, bad weather, not enough $$$ and you’ve got the makings of a disaster for a senior.
I keep telling everyone who’ll listen that seniors should get their SNAP card, a list of nearby pantries, and their first social security check at the same time. So far, nobody has listened. Of course not. Why should they? We’ve all got gray hair.
Seniors struggle with the big 3:
food
housing
medical expenses.
Forget the extras like clothing. As seniors, we get less, pay more, and go without. When I need something new to wear, I go to the boutique of my closet.
Healthcare costs can be devastating, even to a senior with medicare. Once a person comes down with cancer or other expensive disease, the pocketbook empties pretty fast.
There is real pressure to feed the rising tide of hungry people at every pantry. We get questionnaires periodically from different agencies wanting to know how often we run out of food. How does “weekly” sound?
The Big 3 for pantries include:
high unemployment
widespread poverty
deep cuts in social spending programs.
Pantries, for the most part, are
arbitrary,
subjective,
strongly biased
when it comes to deciding who can and cannot receive food. There are simply too many agencies with too many people standing in line for too little food for any food bank or state office to properly oversee and supervise the selection process.
As far as feeding the hungry, we’re not even coming close to filling the need created by the widespread poverty and deep spending cuts. People in food pantry lines are, in a severe winter, choosing between eating and heating.
Our pantry, housed in a shed, an old green house, and the back of a restaurant is a ragtag emergency food movement which is in reality not emergency at all.
Lines and crowds outside our pantry on Monday afternoons can easily convince any onlooker that the good old U S of A has a food problem.
http://www.reservoirfoodpantry.org
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman
