Do you work at a pantry? Do you shop at a pantry? Do you donate to a pantry? – Part 6
THERE’S NO WAY TO GET AROUND IT.
Efforts by pantries and soup kitchens to connect with hungry people make them inefficient.
A person may spend several hours on the phone just trying to find a pantry open on a specific day that s/he has transportation. And, calling ahead is important. Often the list a person is working with is inaccurate/out of date.
MOST IMPORTANT: PANTRY SHOPPERS NEED TO DETERMINE IN ADVANCE IF THEY’RE GOING TO BE ADMITTED TO THE PANTRY THEY’RE TRYING TO SHOP AT.
On the Food Bank front, no one can call the Food Bank of Northeastern New York or the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley disorganized or inefficient. The delivery systems, quality management, efficient consumer response, and sensitivity to the needs of the different agencies is above reproach.
How the employees at these 2 Food Banks can soldier on year after year is beyond me. I visit a Food Bank weekly.
I PLACE, ON AVERAGE, 2-3 ORDERS MONTHLY. A Reservoir Food Pantry volunteer is in the produce area of the food bank every Monday. The employees are always courteous, friendly, professional. Never has an order been botched. This is an amazing record when one considers there are only 80 employees (some part time) for 1028 agencies.
Inefficiencies are seen in the enormous labor involved in a food drive. And…the Food Banks thrive on food drives.
FOOD DRIVES TAKE AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF WORK ON THE PART OF MANY PEOPLE. An “army” is needed to advertise the food drive, determine and monitor the collection points, motivate people to give the food to the hungry and then take it to the collection points.
Once that happens, the food is assembled at a central point for sorting. Finally, after much handling, this food ends up on its way to a food pantry. Many people involved in a food drive project are volunteers.
Fortunately the HPNAP people in New York State instituted client choice guidelines in 2008 so volunteers no longer spend hours filling bags of food to be distributed to the shoppers.
When food bags were distributed, people would be given bags of food:
which they possibly could/could not cook based on their kitchen facilities.
and which they possibly could/could not eat based on their health issues.
With client choice, the food collected is much more efficiently distributed. ( Shoppers take home the food they can use.
ON THE SUPERMARKET FRONT, THERE ARE COMMUNITIES, NEIGHBORHOODS, AND RURAL AREAS THROUGHOUT OUR COUNTRY WITHOUT GROCERY STORES. We call these areas “food deserts”. Food pantries and soup kitchens replace disappearing supermarkets in inner-city and rural locations.
In a different system:
one where adequate food stamps are distributed to hungry people,
one where an adequate minimum wage meets the housing, transportation, and food needs of a household,
many people now lined up at food pantries and soup kitchens could shop at the store of their choice and purchase the food they want and can eat. There would be profit making businesses in these inner city and rural areas.
But, then, what would happen to all of us who spend our lives volunteering and working so that others might eat?
How could we continue to reduce landfill clutter? How could we reduce dumpster and composter costs?
How could we continue to recycle all the wonderful produce if there is no place for it to go?
FOOD PANTRIES AND SOUP KITCHENS FUNCTION SUCCESSFULLY BECAUSE COSTS ARE MINIMAL. Everything is donated:
Volunteer time
Recycled food which has been diverted from a landfill
Pantry Space.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Do you work at a pantry? Do you shop at a pantry? Do you donate to a pantry? Part 5
UNREACHABLE
“Hi Chris! How’s it going today? Are you busy or what in here? This place is jammed! ”
“Busy as always Thurman. We’ve got melons and a lot of tomatoes today. We’re out of the special HPNAP produce.”
“Listen Chris, it doesn’t matter. Prasida and Francine and I always find something wonderful and magical here every time we come to the Food Bank.”
Prasida and Francine make it their life’s work to get the best possible produce from Latham to Boiceville every Monday morning. These 2 women know food. Each week is a food quest for them.
THIS IS EXACTLY THE SAME SITUATION FOR THOSE SEEKING FOOD FROM A FOOD PANTRY.
And, of course, fresh produce and bakery goods are only part of the picture…Much of what happens is unplanned, haphazard, erratic. No one really complains. After all, we’re getting food, aren’t we? And, none of us has the authority, resources, responsibility, or ideas to improve the system.
IT BOILS DOWN TO THIS: WE AT RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY:
GET WHAT WE GET
WHEN WE GET IT
HOW WE GET IT.
OUR CLIENTS GET WHAT THEY GET WHEN THEY CAN MAKE IT TO THE PANTRY.
WHEN THEY CAN NO LONGER MAKE IT TO THE PANTRY, WE GET IT DELIVERED TO THEM SOMEHOW.
LARGE DIFFERENCES EXIST IN CLIENT ACCESS TO PANTRIES AND SOUP KITCHENS. There are no soup kitchens in the Reservoir Food Pantry area. If a person out here needs to go to a soup kitchen, the best opportunity is to go to Woodstock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 4:30 pm. That’s when the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in the back building of Christ Lutheran Church is open. Chances are good that if you don’t live in Woodstock and don’t have the wherewithal to put together a meal at your home (wherever and whatever that is), you aren’t going to have the wherewithal to make it over to Woodstock either.
AVAILABILITY HAS A LOT TO DO WITH ACCESS. Our pantry distributes food 3 days weekly but it’s only open on Mondays in Boiceville. If, for example, you live in West Shokan and have no transportation on Mondays, you aren’t going to make it to our pantry. Unfortunately, this also holds true in urban settings as well.
KINGSTON HAS MANY PANTRIES AND SOUP KITCHENS. There again, you need to be able to get to them when they’re open. Some people simply can’t make it over.
Take, for example, Motel 19, a shelter located at the intersection of Routes 28, 209, and 87 on the edge of Kingston. Without a bicycle or car, a person is looking at a long hike.
Imagine being a young mother with an infant or child trying to get to a grocery store, doctor’s office, pantry or soup kitchen. Imagine walking down a highway with this infant or child in your arms as cars travel faster than 45 miles per hour.
What if there is rain, freezing rain, or a snow storm?
Shoppers in rural areas routinely face transportation difficulties. People travel significant distances. Some walk, bicycle, take the bus, or hitch rides from friends and neighbors.
THE RULE IS THIS: THOSE MOST IN NEED HAVE THE LEAST ACCESS TO TRANSPORTATION.
Reservoir Food Pantry has been designated a mobile food pantry. We deliver food to half of our clients. One stop is a low rent complex for seniors. Another is an intergenerational low rent complex. The remainder of the stops are at individual residences – apartments, homes, rooms, whatever.
As challenging as it is for shoppers to get to the pantry, it’s equally difficult for the pantry volunteers to get to the Food Bank. At Reservoir Food Pantry, we’re fortunate to have dedicated volunteers and a reliable vehicle sold to me by Sawyer Motors at an excellent price. Remove those 2 factors, and the result is a mess.
SOME FOOD PANTRIES HAVE LIMITED FINANCIAL DONORS AND VOLUNTEERS. Some have transportation issues. They may lack produce, baked goods, and other foods necessary for a balanced diet.
The structure of our Food Bank/Food Pantry system is unable to ensure those in the greatest need will have access to food.
The Food Banks of Northeastern New York and the Hudson Valley are focused on developing innovative ways to get the food to the people. A designated truck is driven on a regular route to grocery stores, farms, food manufacturers, and other locations to pick up food and take it to the Food Bank. It is then sorted and made available to pantries.
THE FARM STANDS AT PEOPLES PLACE AND COMMUNITY IN KINGSTON ARE PRODUCTS OF THIS EFFORT.
The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley conducts daily mass food distributions throughout the area where a food bank driver in a semi delivers 12 pallets of food to a central point predetermined by a schedule. The food is then distributed to pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, individual households. Communities receiving these food distributions regularly include communities such as Lake Katrine, Gardiner, Kingston.
We have much needed food going to hungry people. I only wish more of it were going to the more rural locations.
Now that I’m writing a wish list, I wish more pantries would open on evenings and weekends. This is difficult to do, I know. Reservoir Food Pantry is not yet open weekends.
I also wish pantries could give up some of the identification requirements.
JUST FEED THE PEOPLE, YOU KNOW?
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Thurman Greco
The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley has a critical need: Volunteers!
Recent cuts in SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp Program) are forcing more and more people to turn to food pantries and soup kitchens to help feed their families. To meet the increasing need, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley is finding new sources of donated food. As more food comes into the Food Bank, dedicated volunteers are working overtime to sort it for distribution to nearly 400 emergency feeding programs.
NOW, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE, THE FOOD BANK NEEDS OUR HELP. Both groups and individuals are urged to volunteer to help get this food to those in need. Right now, there are thousands of pounds of food in the warehouse waiting to be prepared for distribution.
YOU CAN VOLUNTEER AT A DAY, EVENING, OR WEEKEND SHIFTS. CALL TROY MARTIN AT 845-534-5344.
Or, email him at tmartin@foodbankofhudsonvalley.org.
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Do you shop at a pantry? Do you work at a pantry? Do you donate to a Pantry? – Part 4
PANTRIES OPERATE ON WHAT’S AVAILABLE, NOT WHAT WE NEED.
When I think of the monthly food order…three words come to mind:
Donations
Surpluses
Leftovers
THAT’S WHAT WE GET. The items are lined up on the form emailed to us twice weekly. The form lists available foods in fine print. If the email has fewer than 20 pages, I know I’m in trouble.
For me, the most important section of the list is the USDA section. This category usually takes less than a page. No matter. This is the free food I can order each month.
At the Reservoir Food Pantry, we’re allowed 2 cases of whatever items they have on hand. And, I go for it all. This is what I order first.
Right now, USDA staples include small boxes of raisins, canned cranberry sauce, and canned beans. We’ve had these items for about 3 months running. The volunteers who haven’t been working in the pantry long wonder out loud why I keep ordering these items over and over. What they don’t see, because they haven’t been doing this long enough, is that these items will soon be absent from the list and may never reappear.
IN CONTRAST TO GROCERY STORE ITEMS, WHEN STOCK GETS LOW, A PERSON SIMPLY ORDERS MORE.
SURPLUS FOOD IS AVAILABLE UNTIL IT’S NOT. Surplus food, by its very nature, is only temporary. Nothing is permanent in a pantry. It’s not even long-term. The moral of this story is that, in the pantry world, all good things come to a final end.
Even though I know all good things come to an end, what I cannot say is “when”. The stuff will just, one day, no longer be available.
THIS GIVES THE WHOLE SYSTEM A FRAGILE TONE.
THIS ALSO HOLDS TRUE FOR THE GOVERNMENT FUNDING WE RECEIVE. The numbers of hungry shoppers keep rising. The unemployment funds and food stamps available to the hungry keep shrinking. I expect to wake up one day and read in the New York Times that some senators and congressmen just cut off all the food money for the hungry and homeless.
WE OPERATE OUR PANTRY ON DONATIONS. No salaries are paid at the Reservoir Food Pantry. We ask for every penny we receive and hold food drives monthly to supplement our HPNAP food grant.
There is no funding for overhead, supplies, equipment, gas and auto repairs, insurance. The fact that we’re all volunteers gives the pantry effort a temporary feel. People show up and do the job they do until they don’t show up anymore.
I’m happy with an all-volunteer army although some regular volunteers have questioned my feelings over the years. Everyone working at the pantry is there for a reason. Some don’t even know why they’re doing the job they are doing until later when they look back on that part of their lives.
WE ALL SEEK HEALING AND A PANTRY IS A WONDERFUL PLACE TO HEAL. Volunteers tell me this is an important part of their lives. People shopping at the pantry help out as well. We receive a sense of satisfaction from giving something to others. Reservoir Food Pantry is in a gorgeous area. The food is the best we can find. What more can we ask for?
I’m not threatened by unpredictable funding, precarious food supply, and increasing demand.
We don’t turn anyone away at the Reservoir Food Pantry. We know what it’s like to be hungry.
Peace and food for all.
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Happy Holiday!
Traditionally, holidays revolve around a meal served at a food laden table. People sit around the table, or several tables, eat too much delicious food and visit with relatives, friends, neighbors. They swap stories; catch up on news.
FOR MORE AND MORE OF US, THIS JUST DOESN’T HAPPEN ANYMORE. Households and individuals find themselves unable to finance the expense of the holiday table: the turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, fruit salad, pies, cakes.
Not only can people not afford the food, more and more people no longer have the table to sit at, the chairs to sit on, and the stove to cook the food.
THE RECIPES, POTS AND PANS, CHINA, SILVERWARE, CRYSTAL ARE LONG SINCE GONE. Cooking without a kitchen is the way of the modern household living on a minimum wage.
With luck, today’s minimum wage household will have the gas to get to the soup kitchen. Otherwise, it’s going to be a regular day with a meal prepared in a crock pot, electric skillet, toaster over, or hot plate.
For the pantry shopper, there’s an opportunity to get extra fruits and vegetables. Some better connected pantries will offer canned hams or turkeys.
The first year a person uses a pantry for primary shopping, Thanksgiving is a challenge, a holiday gone wrong. After several years, Thanksgiving becomes whatever the household can make of it. The adjustment is, for some, difficult, and for others …more difficult.
The difficulty lies, mostly, in the ability to get food items considered “traditional” by a family when the money is simply not available to purchase the item in the grocery store.
AFTER SEVERAL YEARS AND SEVERAL HOLIDAYS, A NEW TRADITION EMERGES. The food gatherer in the household becomes, if time allows, more skilled at scrounging for and gathering food at both the pantry and the grocery store.
If the household is composed of people with multiple jobs, if there are other issues:
transportation challenges
disabilities,
serious illness,
the effort is yet more difficult.
As time goes by, the person/household hopefully adjusts to the situation as the members transition from being situational poor to resource poor to struggling poor.
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If you want to send a donation, our address is: Reservoir Food Pantry, P O Box 245, Boiceville, NY 12412. Or, use the Donate Button on this blog. Thank you in advance for your generosity.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Do you shop at a Pantry? Do you work at a Pantry? Do you donate to a Pantry? – Part 3
THIS SOUP HAS NOTHING IN IT BUT SALT.
At first, when I was just learning to be a pantry coordinator, I didn’t understand what was wrong. We got in some soup which everyone looked at, read the label, and left on the shelf. So, I asked Barry to visit the pantry.
“WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THIS SOUP? Most of the people are leaving it on the shelf. There’s only 6 different things they can take home here. Why are they leaving the soup behind?”
“Well, it’s the nutritional content” he said, reading the label. There’s no nutrition. And, everyone knows too much salt is not good.”
I began to watch the shoppers reading the labels and I asked questions. I got an earful of important information from people trying to live on pantry food. I learned several important things:
THOSE SHOPPING IN A PANTRY HAVE LITTLE OR NO MONEY FOR HEALTH CARE/MEDICAL EXPENSES. FOOD IS THE FRONT LINE OF DEFENSE FOR THOSE ON A LIMITED BUDGET. The pantry food is, sometimes, nutritionally inadequate because
there may not always be enough of it
there may not be enough fresh vegetables
everything is canned resulting in high sodium products
there is no real choice.
At the time, there were fewer than 10 items in the pantry to choose from which didn’t offer a shopper enough options to deal with dietary restrictions (celiac disease, hypertension, diabetes), personal preference, and enough variety to offer good nutritional selection.
As a new coordinator, I still didn’t yet know all my options and wasn’t comfortable with the Food Bank system yet. This much I knew:
The food supply I had to choose from was then and is now supply driven instead of need driven. In other words, I can’t order everything the pantry needs at a given time because it’s not always available. Foods available at the Food Bank are donations from grocery stores, farms, food manufacturers.
MUCH FOOD BANK FOOD IS DIVERTED FROM A LANDFILL. In other words, it’s salvage. I order food donated from test marketing disasters, crop overproduction, Food Bank food drives.
MOST FOOD COMING INTO OUR PANTRY ARE NUTRITIONALLY SOUND BECAUSE I WON’T ORDER IT IF IT ISN’T. There are some issues with sodium and fat…but not many.
Several things happened in those early years that I coordinated the pantry. They really helped:
The HPNAP people took a stand against too much salt which I got all excited about. They issued guidelines forbidding agencies to use HPNAP funds to purchase foods have too many grams of salt per serving.
Gradually, as the economy declined, the HPNAP people added other nutritional improvements:
1% milk
Whole grain breads
Lean meats
A minimum 3 -day-supply of food for everyone in the household.
Fresh produce.
THESE GUIDELINES COMPLETELY CHANGED HOW THE PANTRY OPERATED AND WHAT WAS AVAILABLE. IT WAS GLORIOUS!
The pantry offered very little junk food even though there was certainly a lot of it at the Food Bank. The Food Bank accepts donations but that doesn’t mean I have to put the junk food on my pantry’s shelf.
These guidelines and availability are still a reality in the pantry world as our calendar approaches 2015. I leave the junk food off my orders so other coordinators can have it.
And, I’m still grateful for:
crop overproduction
Food Bank food drives
HPNAP guidelines
food that can be diverted from the landfill
generous bakeries
the Farm Stand
the Food Bank truck that’s making the rounds of the grocery stores, farms, food manufacturers so we can have their overage at our food pantry.
Peace and food for all.
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Do you work at a pantry? Do you shop at a pantry? Do you donate to a pantry? – Part 2
“Can I offer you some of this delicious celery? I noticed you just walked past it.”
“THANKS, BUT I CAN’T CHEW IT. I WISH I COULD.
A big challenge in the food pantry system is getting the food to the people that they can eat. Many things come into play here:
Dietary preferences
Health conditions
Religious guidelines
One challenge hardly ever mentioned is whether or not a person has teeth.
Once the teeth are gone, many foods are just not edible for a person. Take for example a simple food like bread. Our pantry has always been proud to serve Bread Alone Bread. Unfortunately, toothless people have trouble eating it. It’s not soft enough.
There are many fruits and vegetables which a toothless person cannot eat:
celery
radishes
apples
Pantries offering client choice make life easier for both the pantry and the shopper because people take what they can use.
Another consideration in choosing food for pantry shelves is the homeless person. The homeless person’s kitchen is in his/her shirt pocket so the selection is limited to
peanut butter
protein bars
cheese
carrot sticks.
Foods for the homeless include items
which can be eaten raw,
which don’t need either refrigeration or cooking,
which can be easily carried from place to place.
Once a person becomes homeless, s/he more or less automatically becomes hungry. For many homeless, eating is a challenge repeated at every meal. Some food pantries knowingly or unknowingly are not homeless friendly because
of the bureaucracy of the paperwork (How does one prove which bridge s/he lives under?),
of the lack of foods on the shelves acceptable to the homeless,
and because pantry coordinators, church boards, feel that food pantries are inappropriate for homeless people.
Whenever I ponder the obstacles to offering proper food to pantry shoppers, I find myself asking questions:
Why can’t:
food stamps be more generous?
wages be higher?
gas be cheaper?
rent be realistic?
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Beginning with the next post, this blog’s articles will be published on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please let me know how this new publishing format works for you.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Do you work at a pantry? Do you shop at a pantry? Do you donate to a pantry? – Part 1
HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?
That question lives in the brain of every conscientious coordinator. It’s impossible to plan for pantry needs with confidence.
Much depends on a coordinator’s attitude. Some feel that all they need to do is get food on the shelves and if the food runs out, well, the food runs out and who cares anyway?
I NEVER BOUGHT THAT LINE.
The building committee of the Woodstock Reformed Church as well as some people in Woodstock felt it was my job to turn people away. They didn’t want too many people in the building and they didn’t want them getting too much food.
“How dare you serve this kind of food to these people?”
“How dare you serve this much food to these people?”
Some people felt shoppers should be limited in how often they could visit the pantry. Once weekly was considered too often. The idea was to prevent people from getting used to the idea of getting food at a pantry.
NO ONE SEEMED TO KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY FOR FOOD.
Fortunately for me and for the hungry, the Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program people stepped in with clear guidelines which appeared gradually over several years:
2005 – We were expected to offer 1% milk.
2008 – Pantries were expected to operate the client choice program.
2009 – Whole grain breads and cereals are to be served.
New York State requires that food pantries serve a minimum 3-day-supply of food for everyone in the household. This supply includes food for 3 meals each day for the 3 days. 50% of the food is to be fruits and vegetables. Each meal is to be composed of 3 of the 5 food groups.
Where pantries come up short in this scenario is the 3-day-supply deal. If we offer a 3-day-supply of food weekly to a family who is home bound or who is totally out of food money, the household will be taking a 3-day-supply of food and stretching it to 7.
If a person lives in an area with several pantries, it’s possible to visit 2 pantries for a week’s worth of food. This is difficult for a family with no funds because it costs more gas to get to 2 pantries. It’s also time consuming. A person doesn’t just run in to a pantry and pick up a few items. Lines are long. Waits are even longer. At Reservoir Food Pantry, we try to keep waits to a minimum by opening as soon as the pantry is set up. (This is usually about 1:00, even though the pantry opens at 2:00)
And what about the households in areas where the pantry only allows them to visit monthly?
“We don’t want these people depending on us for their food.”
“Pantries should only be available for occasional use.”
It’s extremely difficult to offer foods appropriate for everyone in a pantry. This week in the Reservoir Food Pantry, we offered the following choices:
1 cereal
raisins
instant mashed potatoes
canned beans
crackers
rice cakes
tomato base cooking sauce
canned fruit
canned vegetables
spaghetti
On the fresh side, we had eggplants, lemons, potatoes, kale, salad mix, papayas, bananas, onions. apples, pears, squash.
Produce came from Migliorelli’s, Shandaken Gardens, Ulster Corps gleaning, and the Food Bank of Northeastern New York.
Bread came from Bread Alone. Pies came from Meredith’s.
PANTRIES ARE CONCERNED WITH NUTRITION IN TERMS OF SALT, SUGAR, AND FAT.
Whether or not a pantry serves nutritious food depends on whether the coordinator of the pantry knows anything about nutrition. In a pantry, it’s often about choices. If the coordinator doesn’t know or care about nutrition, the food can help keep an unhealthy person sick.
FOR EXAMPLE, MANY SHOPPERS AT RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY ARE OVER 65. Current statistics show that 1 in 7 seniors don’t even get enough food to eat. When a senior doesn’t get enough to eat, s/he may get sick causing problems for the children and grandchildren.
Reservoir Food Pantry volunteers make an ongoing herculean effort to offer only the best produce to our shoppers. Prasida and Francine drive to Latham every Monday morning and return with about 900-1000 lbs of fresh food – much of which is organic.
AN IMPORTANT FACT: Reservoir Food Pantry is stocked with foods donated to the Food Bank and offered to us rather than foods that we selected. 100% of that food has been diverted from a landfill. The code is expired. Cans are dented. Labels are torn or missing. It’s all been rejected at a grocery store somewhere.
When we can’t get something we need, we rely on fresh produce to fill the gap. We’ll continue to do this as long as we have gas money to get to Latham.
SO WE HAVE A PROBLEM SIMILAR TO THAT OF OUR SHOPPERS. .
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Thurman Greco
The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley Needs our help!
For many years now, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley has been supporting us…all of us: agencies and the many hungry people we serve. All we do is pick up the phone and ask. The people at the Food Bank then come through with help.
A vivid memory I have of this response: After Superstorm Sandy, 10 semis arrived in the parking lot of St. John’s Roman Catholic Church on Route 375 over the space of a couple of weeks. Each semi came packed to the roof with food for storm victims. No questions asked. All we did was tell the people and they came for much needed food. Each delivery day there would be 80-100 households lined up.
I’m certain that we’ll get the same response after the next disaster.
Well, now is our chance to say “Thank You” to everyone at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
Due to an extremely large donation of food, the FBHV needs our help sorting product so it can subsequently be distributed to the hungry and needy.
The Food Bank is now open 7 days a week to sort this food. Can you say “Thank You”? Can you show your support to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley?
Call 845-534-5344 to set up an appointment to volunteer. Bring your friends with you. Come as a group. Let’s get this food sorted!
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Thurman Greco
But…are they hungry enough?
The “Are They Hungry Enough” issue looms large in food pantry conflicts. The fears boil down to this:
People are going to shop at the pantry when they actually have the $$$ to go to the grocery store.
Riffraff are going to take the pantry food and sell it.
These people wouldn’t need to come here if they managed their $$$ better.
VERY FEW PEOPLE ARE COMFORTABLE WITH THE CONCEPT THAT WE JUST GIVE THE FOOD AWAY…NO STRINGS ATTACHED. The unspoken text is that the hungry, the struggling class, individually and as a group should be punished for being the downtrodden.
Sometimes when I try to sort the issues out in my head, I remember the chicken yard my grandmother had during World War II. Occasionally, when a chicken would become sick, the other chickens would begin to peck at it. If the chicken didn’t get well, it would be pecked to death.
WHEN WE ATTACK THE HUNGRY FOR NEEDING THE PANTRY, WE’RE LIKE THE CHICKENS PECKING THE WEAKEST ONE TO DEATH.
I welcome all shoppers. They don’t have to be destitute although I see many destitute people nowadays.
Pantry shoppers routinely endure:
long lines
uncomfortable waiting conditions
lack of choice
WAITS OUTSIDE PANTRIES ARE USUALLY AN HOUR OR LONGER. At the Reservoir Food Pantry, we advertise our hours as 2:00 to 5:30. The doors actually open a little after 1:00 to a long line of people already waiting.
Shoppers wait outside the tiny pantry whether it’s raining, snowing, or if there are broiling summer temperatures. There is no shade outside our pantry…no protection from the elements.
They wait in this line for access to about 30 different food products. Compare that to a trip to a super market with 10,000 or so items to choose from.
THE PANTRY EXPERIENCE IS THE END OF THE ROAD. People are out of $$$ and need something to eat. period.
And, finally, if I ever could take the attitude that hungry people must have done something wrong and don’t need that kind of food…I remember the first time I naively asked a child in line about Christmas.
SANTA DOESN’T COME TO FAMILIES THAT STAND IN A PANTRY LINE.
THAT IS PUNISHMENT ENOUGH.
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Thurman Greco
