The Big Picture
Lord,
As I work in the pantry week after week, I encounter problems.
There is not enough food, not enough space for the food we have, and not enough time to feed the hungry.
There are too many hungry shoppers, too many cars in the parking lot, too many cases of fresh fruits and vegetables, and too many cardboard boxes.
And, as I listen to the car radio when I drive back and forth to Latham on Fridays, I’m aware that I, like those around me, am concerned with problems and challenges in my own small, personal universe.
You, Lord, see the big picture. You see everyone’s problems and issues. You take everyone’s world and make it all work somehow. What we have, as humans, is a stew. You have us all together in this universal stewpot. In the Army, Lord, there’s a name for it: Mongolian Stew
You are beyond all of us in scope and size. Somehow, you stoop down and get in the stewpot with all of us and get involved in our details as You take on our problems.
Through your vision and wisdom, You see the needs of everyone and You send us love, kindness, and miracles. You take the troubles off our shoulders.
Help me Lord, surrender to Your kindness, love, wisdom.
Help me just give the pantry over to you 100%. Help me turn the problems of the building, the hungry, the volunteers, the church, the community, over to you. You do the perfect job of problem solving. After all, you are the God to whom we all pray.
How can I do anything less? When I do this, Lord, I’ll walk in love, with a strong heart, and a solid faith. I’ll receive a spiritual awakening. This will bring glory to you.
Amen
The manuscript for the memoir will go to the publisher on Tuesday, January 9th! I’m ecstatic! I’m excited!
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please share it with your preferred social media network.
Thank you
Thurman Greco
It’s Celebration Time! – Hunger Alleviation Today
It’s been a looong time everyone! I’m offering an update today because the book is finished and going to press soon. It’s been months, eons maybe, since I’ve posted on this blog and I’m grateful to be back. It’s as if I’ve been living in a cave – a writing cave.
When a person purchases a book, the attention put to that purchase may certainly have been less than five minutes, maybe even two minutes. Writing a book can take years. This book has been in the making since 2005. The manuscript has been foremost in my life since 2013.
And, if anything, the issues are more relevant now than they were in 2005.
For the past months I’ve put my full attention to the book because hunger alleviation is extremely important not only to me personally but to our nation in general.
Even if people don’t realize it.
But, yes, hunger alleviation is important because we have many, many people in our country who are not getting enough to eat.
There are many hunger prevention programs working to feed people who otherwise would not have enough to eat. The holidays are coming. Please think about sharing what you have with those who have less.
And, now, act on those wonderful thoughts of generosity. Join the hunger alleviation movement!
Thanks for reading this blog post. Thank you for your support of the hungry in our nation and around the world.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Caring Hands
Kingston, New York is a rapidly gentrifying and trendy trendy little town in New York State. Almost every day I see new neighbors in this community. They’ve found just the perfect weekend apartment and are ecstatically, euphorically furnishing it with just the perfect finds. In short, they are in love with Kingston!
In their giddiness, they have may not have yet noticed the Caring Hands Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen. Or maybe they have. Maybe they see that one of the most important things about Kingston is that the residents care for one another. This attitude helps make Kingston what it is – a community we all want to be part of.
2017 is turning out to be a tough year for food pantries in general and Caring Hands Food Pantry in Kingston, New York in particular. But, Caring Hands isn’t just a food pantry. It’s a soup kitchen, and a warming center with a recovery and twelve-step program. As if that’s not enough, they’ve got a free legal clinic, too.
Volunteers at Caring Hands, under the direction of the Rev. Darlene L. Kelley at the Clinton Avenue Methodist Church, work hard as they put their beliefs into action daily. Almost 600 meals are served weekly in the soup kitchen. Over 3,000 households receive groceries monthly.
Children, the elderly, families, veterans, and the ill are all welcome at Caring Hands. The goal is to help people in need help themselves. The message of God’s transforming love is spread throughout the community from the Clinton Avenue Methodist Church as it ripples out in waves.
It is easy for you to be a part of this message. You don’t have to move to Kingston. You don’t have to attend the church there. You don’t even have to know anyone in the area. All you need to do is give a little … or a lot … of whatever you can share.
- Sending a check always helps. Caring Hands always needs money.
- Sending a gift certificate always helps, too. Did someone give you a gift certificate that that you’ll probably never use? Well, now is a good time to use it. Send it on over.
- Extra time is extremely valuable. If you live in the area, you can be a part of this miracle when you volunteer. Your gift of presence will be greatly appreciated.
- Hold a food drive. Gifts of food are always, always needed. If you don’t live in the area, hold a food drive anyway and donate the cans and boxes of food to a food pantry in your area.
- Call an elected representative and lobby for the poor and hungry in your area. Persuade this elected official to be generous with funds for those around us who do not have everything they need to live a healthy life.
- Your prayers and kind thoughts are always welcome. Those at Caring Hands as well as at other food pantries throughout our country are working hard to bring food and love to a broken community. They need your support.
Caring Hands has a mailing address to send your check and/or gift certificates: CARING HANDS
c/o THE CLINTON AVENUE UMC
P. O. Box 1099
Kingston, New York 12402.
Thank you for reading this blog post. Hopefully you’ll share it with your favorite social media outlet.
With this blog posted article comes an apology for not having posted often enough in the past months. This doesn’t mean that I don’t care or that I’m no longer interested in hunger. To the contrary. I’m deeply involved in bringing my next book to my publisher. And, it’s about hunger in America.
Thurman Greco
Top 3 Myths about Food Pantries
Much that is written, said, and believed about food pantries is simply not true. Maybe the problems themselves are somehow created by those of us who work at the food pantries. I admit it. I encounter people all the time who believe things about pantries that are simply untrue. I’ve been listening to these people for 10 years.
And, somehow, I’ve been unable to dispel these fallacies. I listen. I talk to the people. I certainly have the facts. I have the statistics. I have the stories. Somehow, they just don’t seem to hear the real story.
So, now, with this post, I’m hoping to debunk 3 myths anyway.
FOOD PANTRIES FEED A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO DON’T NEED THE FOOD.
I don’t know how this rumor got started. In the last few years many, many more people have been using food pantries than in times past. Many pantries have long waiting lines for the hungry. No one goes to a food pantry unnecessarily. The waits are too long, the selection is often minimal.
THANKSGIVING IS THE BEST TIME TO DONATE FOOD TO A FOOD PANTRY BECAUSE PEOPLE GO TO FOOD PANTRIES DURING THE HOLIDAYS MORE THAN ANY OTHER TIME OF YEAR.
Food pantries need your donations of food/expertise/time/money all year long. People don’t just get hungry in November.
Frankly, the neediest time of the year for pantries/soup kitchens/shelters is August. Summers are pretty lean but August is severe. Pantries need your canned/baked goods, shelf staples all year long. If you have a garden which is producing too many tomatoes please share this fresh produce with your area pantry. If you suddenly find yourself cleaning out your kitchen, please bring those cans and boxes you’ll never use to the pantry.
September is a good time to donate peanut butter, jelly, and other school lunch snacks to your neighborhood pantry.
ONLY PEOPLE WHO QUALIFY FOR SNAP CAN GO TO A FOOD PANTRY.
I don’t know how this rumor got started either. Often a food pantry is a supplement to a household’s SNAP budget. But there are many, many people shopping at food pantries who never make it to the SNAP office. Some food pantries get visits from people wanting to sign them up for SNAP.
Actually, it would be wonderful if more people would get both SNAP benefits and food pantry food. This is true for the elderly especially. Often, people are afraid of going to the SNAP office. They’re afraid they won’t be able to find it. They are afraid they may not be able to answer the questions. In rural areas, the fear is that it will take too much gas.
THANKS FOR READING THIS POST!
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.
“I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore” is coming soon! Hopefully, when this book is published, I’ll have more time to post articles on this blog.
Cover art for this book was contributed by Michele Garner.
I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore
.
This is the story of hunger in America as only the hungry can tell it.
It began as an outreach activity at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Woodstock, New York. My job was to pass the pantry key from one congregation to the next each month. Total monthly time commitment: two hours. By the time I moved on to another food pantry eight years later, it had become a calling.
From the very first day, I felt compelled to write down things people said to me in the pantry. Trouble is, I’m not a writer and never have been.
So, the prayers manifested themselves. It was all I could do to just keep up with the words.
Obviously, I needed supervision, guidance, mentoring. As I lived this story and began to write it under the direction of Lillie Dale Cox Thurman and Uralee Thurman Lawrence, the story and the people strengthened me. I found that I wanted things for these people. Mostly, what I wanted for these hungry people was the same thing they wanted. What I wanted, (and what they wanted) really, wasn’t much:
I wanted the hungry to sleep with full stomachs at night.
I wanted them to wake up in a dry space in the morning.
I wanted them to have healthcare.
And I wanted them to have jobs which paid the rent, bought food, and covered their transportation needs.
I wanted them to be a part of the community where they lived.
Finally, I wanted their children to be well educated.
My hope is that you will see this book as a glimpse of what I see…a collection of prayers offered as prize crystals or gems to be shared with the universe.
This book is being edited now. I hope to have it finished by the end of the year!
Please send kind thoughts and support on this project!
Cover art by Michele Garner. Thank you Michele. This cover is perfect!
Thank you for reading this blog post.
Please share this article with you preferred social media network.
Thanks,
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
“A Healer’s Handbook” by Thurman Greco is now available on Amazon or at http://www.thurmangreco.com
Is This Life Now?
The New York Times – Friday, February 27, 2015 – “Food Waste Grows with the Middle Class” – page A24
A recent New York Times Editorial highlighted the “massive food waste” around the world. I urge you to read it. It was extremely well written, as are all of the NYT editorials.
Containing all the right buzz words:
landfills,
hunger,
waste disposal,
global warming threat,
it just didn’t go far enough.
FOOD PANTRIES FEED THEIR CLIENTS SURPLUS FOOD INTERCEPTED ON ITS WAY TO THE LANDFILL. They simply no longer have the $$$ for food at the supermarket or they live in food deserts (neighborhoods where there are no grocery stores or supermarkets.)
Is this life now? Yes, this is life in 21st century America. This is not emergency food. This is the new way we live in the good old U S of A.
PEOPLE ARE OFTEN ASHAMED TO SHOP IN PANTRIES. They don’t want to be seen bringing pantry food home. They don’t want to explain to their friends, neighbors, relatives about their inability to buy food at the supermarket. Well, now they can move on past the shame and embarrassment. With this New York Times editorial, we can all see that hungry people lacking $$$ to purchase food at a grocery store are now a part of the solution instead of the problem.
Hungry people shopping at food pantries help fight food waste. Food pantry shoppers can now realize they are helping reduce global warming emissions.
People shopping at pantries are in a financial bind where they are forced to make trade-offs. They pay rent when they don’t have enough food to eat. They “heat or eat”.
Often, they make health care trade-offs. People unable to seek needed medical care are unable to make good choices. Eventually they’ll be forced to deal with the medical situation and the longer they wait, the more expensive the situation becomes. The healthcare $$$ has been diverted to rent or transportation to get to work.
Articles like the New York Times editorial make it difficult for citizens in our country to completely ignore the fact that more and more people are going without food in our great nation because they simply don’t have the $$$ to buy it. We can no longer deny that hunger exists and it is becoming more and more difficult to be indifferent about it.
So, now, with this editorial, those of us who are hungry and ashamed of the situation we are caught in can feel better about ourselves. We can now shop at the pantry and eat at the soup kitchen knowing that we are, in spite of the low wages we work for, doing our part for a healthy planet. We are fighting global warming. We are our tax dollars at work.
If you read this blog and feel you are among those who don’t have enough $$$ for food, now is a good time to begin to shop at a pantry for the food you need for your household.
There is no better time than now for you to not only support your community but also your planet.
See you at the pantry!
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
