7 Ways We Use Food Pantries
Food Pantries feed the hungry…and very successfully at that, actually. After all, there are very few stories right now about starving people dying in the streets. We Food Pantry volunteers can pat ourselves on the back for that, at least.
But, so much more happens in a Food Pantry beyond feeding the hungry.
For starters, thousands of volunteers are kept gainfully occupied and off the streets as we (wo)man the pantries.
The United States Department of Agriculture disposes of thousands and thousands of pounds of surplus foods every year in Food Pantries. Unfortunately, though, the USDA seems to have a somewhat embarrassed attitude about the distribution of agricultural surpluses. Anybody who thinks about it quickly realizes that it’s impossible to grow just exactly what we need every year. It’s much better to have too much than too little. So, the USDA needs the Food Pantries to dispose of this surplus. Sure beats hauling it off to the landfill.
Thank you USDA! I just wish you felt better about the job you do.
Supermarkets use Food Pantries to dispose of food they can’t sell. By donating produce,
baked goods,
meats,
packaged shelf staples,
grocers avoid dump fees, discourage dumpster divers, accrue tax savings, and tell the world about how many thousands of dollars they donated to feed the hungry.
Churches throughout this country feed the hungry in Food Pantries located in their basements. That is, all except for the famous St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco where Sara Miles put the pantry on the altar. She subsequently wrote a book about it entitled “Take This Bread”. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Congregations label their Food Pantries as outreach but I don’t buy into that concept. What we’re all doing, really, is celebrating the enormous abundance existing in this country…in this world…on this planet.
Environmentalists use Food Pantries to divert food bound for the landfill. It’s amazing when you think about it. Several million people in our country are prevented from starving to death when they shop at a Food Pantry and take home produce, dairy products, meats, baked goods, shelf staples that would otherwise have ended up at the landfill.
Schools throughout our fair nation distribute food to children to take home on the weekend. The Backpack Programs offer food to children who have none in their households.
It’s a real ego trip for whole segments of our society. Everyone feels all warm and fuzzy about food donated to Food Banks. This includes farmers, grocers, food manufacturers, restaurants, bakers, religious and civic institutions feeding the hungry, and, of course, the people who read the stories about the generosity of these businesses.
This warm and fuzzy feeling we all get when we realize which businesses are contributing to feeding the hungry rubs off positively on Food Banks. They, thankfully, are very influential charities as a result. Food Banks rank right up there with hospitals, the United Way, and the Y.
And, it’s all good. Food Banks need the $$$ to keep the whole industry going. The demand for the food keeps growing and growing because the minimum wage jobs don’t pay enough $$$ to allow workers to buy groceries. SNAP benefits get whittled away each year. There’s not much left except the Food Pantry.
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www.feedingamerica.org/officialsite
www.reservoirfoodpantry.org
Thurman Greco
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.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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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
Resolutions for 2015
The ad in the New York Times read:
Lighten up.
Get to know your neighbors.
Pick your battles.
Although that ad was actually written for the Museum of Modern Art, it could have been written just for us.
Resolutions at the Reservoir Food Pantry scream at us as our shoppers clearly point the way ahead in 2015. We’ve narrowed the choice down to just a few so we can successfully carry them out.
Resolution No. 1 – Lighten up.
And, lighten up we will. We’ve actually begun to do just that. At the end of every pantry day, we have only a few fresh food items left. Last Monday’s pantry ended with 6 squashes and a small bag of spinach. We can’t get much lighter than that.
In 2015, we’ll continue going to Latham weekly and returning with food to distribute on that day to the many who come and those we deliver food to. No longer will we be bringing 5 or 6 of something to the pantry. We’re going to be looking for items that have 80+ available. If we can’t find 80+ of something, it won’t come in the van.
Reservoir Food Pantry food is both a supplement to what people can find in other places and a necessity for those whose income doesn’t last the entire month. We’re not a pantry anymore. We’re a food distribution center.
Resolution No. 2 – Get to know our neighbors.
Although we’ve only been open since 2013 and we’ve had very little “press”, word is spreading rapidly. A pantry is a community within a community. It’s important now for Reservoir Food Pantry to open its doors so everyone in the area knows about us, understands us, knows our mission.
Resolution No. 3 – Pick your battles.
Fighting hunger is not for sissies. The effort required to take on this fight is larger than life almost. The rewards are also larger than life. We need volunteers to help distribute food. Not only do we have more people shopping at our pantry, we also have more home bound people requesting services.
We need people to:
help deliver food to the homebound.
work in the pantry itself on Monday afternoons.
dispose of the mountains of cardboard we generate every Monday afternoon.
bring the monthly shipment over from Kingston.
If you’re interested in working in the pantry, please join us on Mondays at noon at the pantry. Or, call me at 845-399-3967. Those who help in the pantry understand the importance of the work and get much pleasure from it. They realize what they are doing is necessary and they get very attached to the job.
The economy has changed dramatically since 2005. Both Irene and Sandy contributed much to local changes. Food stamp cuts have all but removed any safety net a person may have had.
Reservoir Food Pantry offers a client food distribution system where the hungry shop weekly with dignity for fresh produce, baked breads, and canned and packaged goods. People come to the pantry for healthy foods to sustain themselves and their households. We deliver food to those who cannot come to the pantry.
When we feed people, we strengthen the entire community as we assist those who are most vulnerable.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Thurman Greco
Awaken The Connection
PANTRIES CAN BE POWERFUL PLACES. Everyone coming to a pantry needs healing of one kind or another. People come to pantries for just that healing.
The Reservoir Food Pantry offers an opportunity for all of us to find a place of connection and wholeness within ourselves.
This connections makes us aware that what we think and do matters, that our feelings and intentions are important, and that we are not alone or separate. We are not above or below others.
THESE REALIZATIONS CAN BE INCREDIBLY POWERFUL. Once we become more aware, we feel more responsible for our inner growth and for all life around us.
Feeding people and allowing others to feed us makes us know that we are all one huge family on this planet. Knowing this concept can wake up the world.
JOIN US. Work in the pantry, shop in the pantry. Participation in the pantry will allow you to experience deeply your connection to all living beings.
YOUR COMMITMENT TO A PANTRY WILL ALLOW YOU TO JOURNEY DOWN A PATH WHERE WE CAN ALL BE ONE AND DEEPER COMMUNICATION IS A REALITY.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Charity
You won’t hear statements like these at our food pantry:
“No one coming to our pantry gets food unless I know they really need it. I go to their house and check.”
“We make everyone show ID. We need proof of address, proof of your children.”
“We make everyone show their Social Security card at our pantry.”
FOR ME, THE VERY WORD “CHARITY” IS CREEPY. I’m not in a charitable business. I’m in the business of feeding hungry people food diverted from a landfill.
I love to multi-task and, as a pantry coordinator, I’m really in my element. The pantry I manage feeds all manner of people a 3-day-supply of food. This is delicious, nutritious food, much of which is organic.
Farmers, grocers, food manufacturers, share what they cannot sell. As I distribute all this food – left over because it’s the wrong shape, wrong size, maybe the wrong color – they get a tax break.
Personally, I love the idea that landfills are not getting larger so quickly, that fewer dumpsters and composters are being used. And, at the same time…sick people, old people, unemployed people, homeless people, are not going hungry.
FOR ME, HUNGER IS OBSCENE.
At the Reservoir Food Pantry, we have the least possible eligibility requirements. People coming to our pantry sign their name and check off the number of household residents. That’s it.
(When I had been a coordinator only a few months, someone complained loudly and a fancy USDA inspector drove down from Albany for the express purpose of taking me to the woodshed. That didn’t happen. He approved of the pantry. He carefully explained to me what’s necessary for our sign-in procedures. I’ve followed them ever since.)
Basically, if they’re hungry, we give them the food. Anyone willing to stand in line an hour for food can’t be all that rich.
PANTRIES OFFERING CHARITY HAVE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT APPROACH. Once we get into charity, we make the shopper feel:
humiliation
shame
inadequate
powerless
desperate
wounded.
When charity and outreach become a part of the feeding, food workers become possessive of the food. The big question then becomes: “Are you worthy?”
Charity brokers forget the food is not owned by the coordinators, churches, volunteers, board members. It has been entrusted to us to distribute.
OUR JOB IS TO GIVE IT AWAY. At the Reservoir Food Pantry, we understand this concept. We offer, whenever possible, a service preserving dignity.
In our great nation, there is no excuse for anyone to go hungry because our country is oversupplied with food.
When we feed the hungry, we strengthen the entire community.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Charity, What Charity?
“GIVERS GIVE.” – Kim Klein
“Thank you for being so kind. It really helped to come here. You made my situation seem a little better” the woman said as she left the pantry yesterday. We hear words like this every week…every pantry shift. People are grateful for kind words accompanying a three-day-supply of food. At the pantry, they hear kind words and then go home (wherever and whatever that is) and put food in an empty refrigerator if they have one.
KIND WORDS ARE EASY. The most difficult task I’ve encountered in the pantry since 2005 is to teach people that we’re working with a new paradigm.
In the 20th century, our nation offered government-sponsored welfare programs, and volunteerism. Private charity extended stopgap efforts and emergency assistance feeding programs to deal with hungry people.
Now, in the early 21st century, welfare reform offers cutbacks and reductions in public assistance programs. Wages decline. Housing costs increase. Corporate’s favorite method for boosting stock prices is to lay off employees and downsize to increase profitability. While these techniques may increase the Dow Jones Average, they accompany deteriorating economic security and accelerate inequality. Our hopes for eliminating poverty have been abandoned.
People hold down two and three minimum-wage jobs. Paychecks cover only rent and transportation. Food assistance is no longer emergency. People rely on food pantries and soup kitchens for their food. For members of the Struggling Class, there is no money for food…not last month, not this month, not next month.
So, this wonderful new industry is developing which recycles food rejected from grocery stores, food manufacturers, farms. Food Banks divert food from landfills and distribute it to food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters.
THE FALLOUT FROM THIS IS FABULOUS! Money is being saved on dumpsters, composters, compacters, and landfill fees. This responsible method of disposing of unwanted excess food also offers us the opportunity to be kinder to our planet as we improve our environment. Besides, why throw away good food ?
THERE’S ALL THIS FOOD OUT THERE. There’s enough food for everyone. Why can’t we just stop the push back and feed the people? When this happens, our lives (everyone’s lives) will be different.
IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT HUNGRY CHILDREN AND GRANDMOTHERS.
Pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, halfway houses are our tax dollars at work. The food effort is mostly manned by volunteers diverting food headed to the landfill. This recycling effort works to keep people from starving in the streets.
YOU CAN BE COMFORTABLE SHOPPING AT A PANTRY. Just walk up, ride a bicycle up, or drive up to your neighborhood pantry and shop for the food you need. Hold your head high, knowing that by shopping at a food pantry, you are helping reduce landfills and you are visiting a facility where your tax dollars are at work.
If you are still uncomfortable shopping at your neighborhood food pantry after a few visits, either try out another pantry or call up the manager and volunteer. You won’t be hungry anymore. You’ll meet new friends, get good exercise, and become very knowledgeable of food. You’ll be doing wonderful things for our planet too.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Homeless Visit the Food Pantry
“Homeless is not a category of people. It’s just a situation that happens. It can happen to anyone.” -Salvador Altamirano-Segura
In some respects, the homeless have problems just like you and me…
mental illness
physical disabilities
domestic violence
HIV issues
employment
underemployment
unemployment.
Finally, many are also veterans.
THEY JUST DON’T HAVE A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS.
Homeless people, families come into pantries very quietly. They’ve lost their voice. The goal is to melt into the background, get food, and disappear.
There are reasons for this. They are often suffering from mental illness in addition to homelessness. Homelessness accompanies a number of mental illnesses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Mentally ill persons have a tendency to become chronically homeless.
This can create an exception to the voiceless rule as the person communicates with beings unknown to the rest of us in tongue we don’t understand. One shopper at our pantry has been in another world since before I began working at the pantry.
According to MentalIllnessPolicy.org, there are over 250,000 seriously mentally ill homeless persons in our country. This statistic is very telling. What it says is there are more homeless people with untreated severe psychiatric illnesses than there are people receiving care for their diseases.
I see the sidewalks of whatever town or city I’m in as nothing more than wards for the untreated mentally ill. They mentally ill homeless suffer with all the day-to-day survival that all homeless have and, to top it all off, they’re sick.
THE HOMELESS HAVE SPECIAL NEEDS OVERLOOKED IN A PANTRY.
For starters, they have no address. This can be a real hindrance if a pantry bureaucracy requires such. In some communities in this area, several kind souls allow the homeless to use their location as a mail drop/address so they can receive the services they so desperately need and so they can register to vote.
Many pantry coordinators have no concept of the food needs of the homeless. Because the homeless have their kitchens in their shirt pockets, they food they use is very limited: protein/cereal bars, peanut butter, crackers, fresh fruits and vegetables to be eaten raw: blueberries, carrot sticks, celery, lemons, lettuce, limes, milk in pint containers, nuts, oranges, strawberries, sweet peppers, tomatoes.
ON BEHALF OF THE MANY HOMELESS IN OUR COUNTRY, I THANK YOU FOR READING THIS BLOG/BOOK.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Last Monday at the Reservoir Food Pantry
It is not necessary to advertise food to hungry people, fuel to cold people, or houses to the homeless.” – John Kenneth Galbraith
TWICE AS MANY FOUND US THIS MONDAY AT THE RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY AS FOUND US JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO. We’re not trying to hide out or anything but each week, the number of people shopping at our pantry grows.
We’re open Monday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00 up the hill behind Robert’s Auction. They trickle in, slowly, (some a little hesitantly), trying to figure out how to act at a food pantry. Soon, they’re visiting, chatting, getting to know one another over apples, asparagus, lettuce.
“How much of this can I have?”
“Look at this! I haven’t had an orange in ages.”
“Wow! What beautiful lettuce!”
The fresh produce comes from Migliorelli Farm, Shandaken Community Garden, and the Food Bank of Northeastern New York.
The bread comes from Bread Alone.
This event could have sent inexperienced volunteers into total confusion mode. Not this crowd. Everyone is experienced so we just went into expansion mode. Before 3:00, we were discussing where we’re going to put the new shelves we’re buying for the shed that just got delivered.
We were discussing where the new refrigerator and freezer that we so desperately need are going to go.
The shed had one level of need last week. This week is a totally new picture.
BECAUSE, WE ALL KNOW THAT NUMBERS GO UP IN A PANTRY. They don’t go down. The Boiceville area has needed a pantry for awhile so we’re prepared to expand to meet the demand created by increasing numbers of shoppers.
Our updated shopping list includes one refrigerator, one freezer, four sets of industrial shelves, and $280 more each month for gasoline to drive to Latham for food to feed the hungry.
Last Saturday saw Prasida, Bob, Sean, and Bonnie outside the Boiceville IGA asking for food or funds. Either was just fine. All the money donated went right into the grocery store for food. We bought everything on sale: canned tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, salad dressings, mustard, canned beans, soups.
We’ll be back at the IGA at the end of September we hope. We’ll be asking for holiday foods: canned pumpkin, canned green beans, canned cream soups, stuffing mix, gravy, instant mashed potatoes…as much as we can get for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Prasida and Bob will be outside the Kingston Walmart on August 13, 14, and 15th again asking for food and funds. Without the generosity of the IGA and the Walmart managment and shoppers, our pantry would be a very different place than it is now.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE: VOLUNTEERS, STOREKEEPERS, DONORS. We are here today, serving the hungry, because you care.
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Thurman Greco
Peace and food for all.
Peace and food for all.
The Wednesday Afternoon Farm Festival in Woodstock
In typical Woodstock fashion, the town fought over the farm festival for years before it finally happened.
FIGHTS LIKE THIS HAPPEN IN WOODSTOCK ALL THE TIME. Every community improvement takes years of fighting before it becomes a reality. And, while this entertains many people, it holds up progress.
Those years of fighting represented lost revenue for a town that really doesn’t have a lot of options for income.
Oh well, I’m getting off track here.
THE WEDNESDAY WOODSTOCK FARM FESTIVAL MEANT SOOO MUCH TO THE PANTRY.
But, not how you might think. Symbolism is important here. As people go down the path toward the pantry, they begin to lose their connection to the community. This happens mainly because they have no money to participate in activities and they’re depressed, embarrassed, sad about being broke, sick, out of a job, going through foreclosure, etc. You put in the words here.
Every situation is different, but the process is the same for the people going down the path.
So, the pantry shoppers, for the most part, didn’t have the money to participate in the farm festival.
MIGLIORELLI FARMS OFFERED A SMALL MIRACLE AT THE END OF EACH MARKET AFTERNOON. Several volunteers from the Good Neighbor Food Pantry were allowed on the grounds in the final few minutes of the market to load up a car with some of the veggies. We then took them back to the pantry and stacked them to distribute on Thursday.
WHAT A GIFT! Migliorelli Farms offered a real emotional boost to our many shoppers as well as delicious, nutritious food. Migliorelli fed the body as well as the soul.
Now, the shoppers at least had a small connection to the farm market festival.
Until…one day a member of the Farmers Market Board of Directors called me up and pulled the plug. “You can’t have any more of the produce Thurman. People are not shopping at the market because they’re waiting until Thursday to come to the pantry to get the food free.”
“HOW CAN THIS BE? The pantry shoppers don’t have the money to shop at the farm festival. Have you seen the people who shop at the pantry?” I was shocked to hear such words from a person who had never set foot in our pantry.
“Don’t even try to talk me out of this Thurman. Our Board voted on this. The Migliorelli food will be donated to an agency in Kingston. It will not be wasted. You will not get any more of the Migliorelli produce.” And, with that, she hung up.
I was stunned. I felt as if someone had hit me.
AND, IT WASN’T THE FOOD THAT DID IT. Our pantry was going to continue to have enough food. The Food Bank offered beautiful, fresh, organic produce every week, all year around. All we had to do was go up and get it. And, go get it we would. Our pantry commitment to fresh produce was serious.
The pantry shoppers, many of whom had absolutely no money at all were being denied participation in a local event that anyone could get in to…all it took was money.
Then, somehow, I’ll never know how, a miracle occurred. Someone (some people) spoke to someone (some people) and attitudes were adjusted.
WE WERE ALLOWED TO GET PRODUCE AGAIN.
I never knew how this happened. And, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that some person (people) fought for the pantry. And, they didn’t care whether anyone else knew what they did. They just wanted the produce to stay in our community. They just did whatever was necessary to get the food to the hungry. Rules were changed. Votes were changed.
FOR THAT, I’M ETERNALLY GRATEFUL.
Whoever brought about this change created a positive energy ripple effect.
Whoever brought about this change definitely made me realize that all is not lost in this world.
In spite of this, I never felt comfortable with the farm market food again. I felt each Wednesday’s gift from Migliorelli’s Farms might be the last. I held my breath as Guy drove the van over for the produce. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it return with fresh produce.
When the farmers’ market returned the next spring, I waited (quietly apprehensive) to hear words from Rick: “Thurman, Migliorelli is going to share its produce with the pantry this summer”.
Even as I heard those words, I didn’t believe them until I actually saw the produce. I always had a well formed Plan B ready in case we had to start making extra trips to Albany on Thursday morning. The need for fresh produce for our shoppers was great.
For the most part, these people were all in the process of losing so much. It was up to me to keep Thursday produce on the agenda at the pantry.
At the Reservoir Food Pantry, we are extremely proud to have Migliorelli Farms sponsor us. Our shoppers have beautiful, fresh Migliorelli vegetables every week . What a beautiful gift!
Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.
ON BEHALF OF THE MANY SHOPPERS WHO USE THE PANTRY, THANK YOU FOR READING THIS BLOG/BOOK.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
