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 $$$ to be able to get just the items they need.
whose shoes were not warm enough.
who had no hats or gloves.
whose transportation situation was desperate.
whose positive mental attitude resisted all efforts to beat a person down into the ground.
The energy of those customers will sustain us all on an even keel until our return visit in February.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
I’m not Focused on Poverty
Poverty.
The subject is
huge.
intimidating.
scary.
To tackle poverty in this country is almost an impossible task.
Ronald Reagan said “We fought a war against poverty and poverty won.”
How a country as rich as ours can have so many hungry people is an embarrassment, a scandal. How can we let this happen?
How can we go about our lives every day just ignoring the millions of poor and destitute people?
How can we simply watch a new class, the struggling class, spring up and pretend it isn’t happening?
I’ve explored these questions for some time now and have finally come to the conclusion that I don’t have the answers.
This is the same question I ask when I explore the question of how the Nazis were allowed to slaughter so many Jews in the 30’s. I don’t know how this happened either.
However, there is one thing that I do know. I know that it is within my power to feed people and I can write about it.
I can’t find nonexistent jobs for them. I can’t get $$$ for their healthcare. I can’t get $$$ for the exorbitant rental prices they endure.
What I can do is offer soups, fresh veggies and fruits every Monday afternoon at 2:00 and I can tell the world on my blog.
For now, because that’s all I can do, I have to be satisfied with this.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
At the Intersection of Hunger and Health
I write 2 blogs. One is about hunger and food pantries. The other is about hea
lth through the lens of reflexology. They are two very different subjects, However, they definitely have an intersection point: disease.
People suffering with food insecurity, resource poverty, or who are the struggling poor experience a whole set of diseases based on what is or is not available for them to eat.
Diabetes
Hypertension
Heart disease.
Actually, these diseases can all be condensed into one: diabetes. Because, when a person has diabetes, the disease isn’t just diabetes. Diabetes brings several other diseases right along with it:
heart disease
blindness
kidney disease
Hunger, food insecurity, overweight/obesity, and supermarket abandonment all go hand in hand with diabetes.
I’ve gotten to the point where I can “see” a struggling poor person walking down the street.
And, of course, the situation with the hungry/poor is not a problem with a person individually. The entire issue is wrapped up in the community as well. People with jobs paying enough to buy healthy and affordable food have better health.
People with no jobs or minimum wage jobs often live in food deserts with no access to food. Without a working automobile, they are forced to live off food sold in gas station food marts, pharmacy food aisles.
Fortunate indeed is the struggling class person with access to a pantry offering nutritious foods. Fortunate indeed is the struggling class person who has SNAP and can get to a good grocery store.
Kingston, NY has several really good food pantries and is also the winter home of the Farm Stand located in Kingston Community Action at 70 Lindsley Ave. Every Tuesday morning at 10:00, a truck load of fresh vegetables arrives from the Food Bank of the Hudson Vallley. Last week they had potatoes, onions, squash, apples, parsnips, cabbages, cauliflower, and beets (among other delicious veggies).
Anyone can shop at the Farm Stand. All they ask is how many people are in your household. The Farm Stand opens every Tuesday morning and is open every morning until the fresh produce is gone.
Please visit the Farm Stand.
Please tell your friends, neighbors, relatives about this wonderful example of our tax dollars at work.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
“What’re You Doing?”
“What’re you doing?” she asked. For a minute, I didn’t understand what was happening. We were all crowded into the pantry. I was trying to make sure the shoppers got through the tiny shed with all the groceries they needed (and qualified for) without anybody getting squashed.
“What’re you doing?” she asked again. Then, I realized she was trying to talk with me about something in the midst of this chaos. Sometimes people do that. They decide to have a conversation…to get to know the people in the room better possibly. Often, they want to know more about a product or maybe get a recipe.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, I’m thinking about 2015. This place has changed so much over this past year. When I first started coming here, there were only a few of us. Now look around. There’re people everywhere. You open the pantry now every week about 2 hours early. The boxes are piling up outside. We’re all so happy you’re here and we’re all so grateful for the food. I know you can use some more help.
“Can you give anything away? What do you have to do to get a little freedom? How can you get a lighter spirit?”
WOW! Talk about God in the pantry! I thought a minute as the people moved through the tiny shed choosing a can of soup, a gallon of vinegar, a small bottle of water, a box of crackers.
But, I only needed a minute. What do I have to do to get a lighter spirit? Well, in order to lighten the load, I need to give something away…
Cardboard!
Every week our pantry is totally overrun with empty boxes at the end of the pantry day. By 4:00, everyone is tired, grumpy, winded, bushed, fatigued…you name it. And, what do we look at?
We look at a mountain…an actual mountain of cardboard.
When I thought about giving away those empty boxes, my heart began to sing. I felt as if I was as light as a feather.
What a wonderful opportunity this shopper had given to me…to everyone at the pantry, actually. She gave us the gift of vision. Once a vision exists, reality can follow. So, I began to visualize a pantry with 0 discarded boxes at the close of the pantry day.
I was energized by this vision. I realized what needed to happen was the reality of the vision. The energy needs to follow the intent to create the reality.
So, 2 thoughts came to me.
The first thought was to give away the boxes…1 by 1. That’s how they do it at the Food Coop in Great Barrington. When a shopper goes to the Food Coop there, s/he chooses the cardboard boxes needed to carry the groceries out of the building.
So,that’s what we’re doing now. Beginning just a few minutes after the shopper started talking to me, I asked everyone to take home a box. That, of course, didn’t get rid of all the boxes.
But, it did make a huge dent in the pile.
I’m also asking everyone I meet at the pantry “Who can haul off the boxes at the end of the pantry?” I’m sure as sight that someone will surface to take the empty boxes to a dump somewhere.
There is someone out there who wants to volunteer at the pantry, who has a pickup or SUV, and who knows where a convenient transfer station is.
Maybe you know someone. Maybe you can do this. If your answer is “yes” please drop by the pantry on Monday afternoon about 4:00 or call 845-399-3967.
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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
Supermarket Abandonment
Woodstock is a food desert. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Woodstock lacking in anything. After all, 60% or so of Woodstock’s residents are weekenders with homes in the city. They venture up on weekends, hang out and entertain their friends with foods coming from the Sunflower, Sunfrost, the Cub Market. The main ingredient for their meat dishes most often comes from the well stocked Woodstock Meats.
But, what about the rest of the crowd who live here 7 days per week? The lucky ones with working automobiles shop at Hurley Ridge Market on 375 in Hurley, the Price Chopper in Saugerties, or one of the other chains in Kingston: Shoprite, Hannaford’s, Adams Fairacre.
Higher income locals also shop at the Sunflower, Sunfrost, Cub Market. Additionally, they shop in Saugerties or Kingston at Mother Earth’s.
These upscale shoppers, both locals and weekenders, focus their purchases on all natural, organic. Hudson Valley grown food. Popular buzz words are organic, non-GMO, Paleo, free range, antibiotic free, gluten free, hormone free, and…you get the picture.
Those who are not vegetarians or vegans also shop at Woodstock Meats and maybe at Adams Fairacre. The point here is that these shoppers participate in consumption trends associated with their lifestyle and health. And, with the upscale foods available in Woodstock, they’re able to get anything they want, whenever they want it.
The not-so-lucky live a different way. The Woodstock resident without a working automobile shops at the CVS, Rite Aid, Cumberland Farms.
The Woodstock resident without a working automobile gets Sunflower products by diving in the dumpster behind the store and by shopping at pantries located at Family of Woodstock, Holy Ascension Monastery, and in the Woodstock Reformed Church. Some homebound Woodstock residents benefit from Sunflower’s benevolency with produce and bread donated regularly to Meals on Wheels. These meals are delivered to their homes throughout the week for $3.00 per meal.
In years past, the Grand Union was extremely popular in Woodstock. Community groups held raffles, Girl Scouts sold cookies, and neighbors visited with one another while shopping. After snow storms, everyone went to Grand Union, shopped for milk, butter, and eggs, and swapped snow stories.
It was indispensable for the elderly and those without cars. In 2001, the Grand Union closed and CVS got the space. In typical Woodstock fashion, residents took to the streets with demonstrations. But, it was to no avail. On April 11, 2001, Woodstock became a food desert.
The result? Many local people walking on the sidewalks of Woodstock today don’t have enough $$$ to purchase a sufficient supply of nutritious food. Food insufficiency is also known as food insecurity. More people than we realize deal with this situation on a daily basis.
Without access to nutritious food, they suffer from overconsumption. When a person eats too much of the wrong thing and too little of the right thing, hunger, poverty, and diseases such as diabetes overlap and connect.
For those of you who believe the fault is entirely that of the hungry, poverty stricken person: please remember that the community is as much to blame as the individual. People eat what they have access to. They don’t eat what they can’t get. Less prestigious stores in Woodstock offer too few choices of healthy and affordable food. They offer packaged food rich in fat, sugar, salt, preservatives, artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, pesticides.
As the wealthy and privileged shop for the best available food and adapt the latest food and health trends to their diets, the lower, less privileged class is left further and farther behind. They will probably never catch up.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Stewart’s Shops and the Milk Coupons
“Hi Bob. How’s it going today?”
“It’s going good here. There’s a long line outside here at the pantry. This place is really growing.”
“Bob, do you ever make it over to Stewart’s on 28?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, I’ve got something nice for you today if you can get there. I’ve got a milk coupon for you if you can use it.”
“Sure.”
This conversation was repeated many times in the pantry this week. Sometimes the shopper had transportation to get to Stewart’s. Sometimes the conversation didn’t go quite so well. In that case s/he didn’t get a coupon. The nearest Stewart’s Shop is on 28 near the Woodstock turnoff so those whose transportation is limited to bicycles and walking can’t make it that far down the road.
Solid gold, these coupons. For one thing, we distribute cereal and it’s really nice if we can offer milk to put on the cereal. This week we offered coupons to 100 families who visited our pantry!
Stewart’s Shops are located within a 150 mile radius of their headquarters in Saratoga Springs, NY which means that food pantries in Upstate New York are blessed with being near a company with a serious commitment to community support. A family and employee owned business, Stewart’s donates 5% of its profits to charity.
This year, 2014, Stewart’s is giving away over $2.5 million in monetary and product donations to non profit organizations in the 30 counties where they have stores.
Even though millionaires are fast becoming billionaires and the stock market is soaring, we really are living in difficult economic times…so much so that charitable donor organizations are as stressed as the non profits who solicit to them daily.
Stewart’s is well aware of the long term problems we face as we serve the hungry. Stewart’s also knows about the stresses non profits experience as we work to alleviate hunger in our area. That makes Stewart’s a real angel to food pantries and soup kitchens.
Apart from offering a sincere “Thank You” from all of us in the industry, there are several things we can do to show our appreciation to a company which is committed to feeding the hungry.
We can shop at Stewart’s when we purchase gas, milk, and bread.
We can support Stewart’s on Social Media.
So, I ask you to: Like Stewart’s on Facebook. Follow Stewart’s on Twitter.
The next time you shop for food or gas at a Stewart’s shop, can you take a moment to thank the employees of the store where you shop? A simple sentence recognizing the company and employees for their generosity is extremely important to all of us.
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Peace and food for all.
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
Dear Neighbor
THIS WEEK WAS GLORIOUS IN THE RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY. Although the pantry was so cold that the pens froze at the sign-in book, we didn’t even mind. After all, I’m experienced with working in a cold space. The Woodstock Reformed Church was never heated either. So what. It’s better for the produce, don’t you agree?
But, back to the glorious part…our first ever mailer went out this week. Or, rather, the whole project was completed on Tuesday when I took the last load of letters to the Kingston Post Office to the Bulk Mail room.
What a wonderful feeling that was! We’ve been working for months on this mailer. Robyn Daugherty addressed envelopes on many pantry afternoons beginning about last March.
Bonnie Lykes and Felice Castellano took up pen and envelope throughout the summer months. Then, other people joined in at the table and we finally finished the job this week.
Finalists included Louise Cacchio, Garrett O’Dell, Susanne Traub, and Barbara Freisner.
Prasida and I signed the letters.
The entire project was a huge leap of faith. After all, the Reservoir Food Pantry only opened in September, 2013, on Route 28 in Boiceville, when volunteers delivered food to 21 homebound households.. With little to no fanfare, we’ve been growing steadily. The need for a food pantry in our area was great when we opened, and it’s even greater today.
WE SERVE OVER 900 PEOPLE MONTHLY. 40% of those served are homebound residents in the area unable to come to the pantry. Families and individuals visiting the Reservoir Food Pantry weekly come from many different circumstances. Some are single parent families. Some work more than one job and are still unable to buy food after they pay the rent and get the gas to go to work. Some have lost their jobs, their homes. Still others are struggling with life-altering circumstances, be it a health issue, an accident, the loss of a family member, or other personal disaster.
The Reservoir Food Pantry was founded by local residents, Sean Bigler and Bonnie Lykes. We’re fortunate to have the support pf volunteers from the community. There are no salaried employees. We nourish the hungry, both in our pantry and by delivering food to those unable to visit the pantry. We offer canned, packaged food, bread and fresh produce regularly. We also offer a limited amount of items of dignity.
THE PANTRY NEEDS YOUR HELP. Your generosity is appreciated and your gift will be used to directly help neighbors. Please make your check payable to the Reservoir Food Pantry, and mail it to P. O. Box 245, Boiceville, NY 12412.
If you prefer to donate by credit card, please visit our website at www.reservoirfoodpantry.org/donate.
Reservoir Food Pantry, Inc., is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit charity and your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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Thurman Greco
