Food Pantry Blog – Whew!
Such a day! Such a week! Even I can’t believe all of it. But, I suppose actions speak for themselves. And, I have to realize we’ve been working towards this week for a whole year now.
Volunteers at the Reservoir Food Pantry are living proof that excitement can make a person drunk. We were intoxicated on gratitude all day Monday.
For starters, Prasida went off to Latham early Monday morning and returned at noon with almost 700 pounds of fresh produce – gorgeous produce. Corn, greens, potatoes, onions, carrots, herbs, spinach, apples, apricots, peaches, melons, beans.
And, while Prasida was off on 87 doing her thing, the two Bobs, Pat and I were over at the Hannaford’s getting our very first monthly shipment. With a lot of planning and praying, this went off without a hitch. This is a huge step for our new little pantry. We’re working on a standing appointment at 11:30 on delivery day!
Then, we made our way over to the pantry and set up our tables. The spread, under a gorgeous sky, was the best ever. And, to celebrate all this bounty, some of us worked the distribution tables serving groceries from the Food Bank, Migliorelli Farm, Shandaken Community Gardens, Bread Alone, and Esotec.
Others measured shelving for the new shed we just put behind Robert’s Auction. At one point, Sean went off to purchase same so we can get it installed.
By the end of the pantry day, we were all so excited we weren’t touching the ground.
We’re soon to celebrate our first anniversary! We hope you’ll come out between 4 and 7 on the afternoon of September 11th. We won’t be hard to find. We’ll be in the adorable red shed behind Robert’s Auction in Boiceville.
Come out and see what all the excitement is about. Come share some refreshments. Come see where people pantry shop in the Reservoir area!
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
Thank You to Everyone Who Helps Out
THE RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY OPENED LAST SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, TO VERY LITTLE FANFARE. As we approach our one-year anniversary, I am amazed at the number of people we are serving. We offer food weekly behind Robert’s Auction on Monday afternoons at 2:00. We deliver food to one senior community on Tuesdays. We deliver food to another community on Fridays. In between, volunteers deliver food to homebound individuals in the area.
Our success is the result of much thought, work, and planning on the part of the volunteers, and generosity on the part of area residents who provide food and funds whenever asked.
AS A NEW PANTRY IN THE FOOD BANK SYSTEM, WE’RE CONTINUALLY BUYING FOOD, GASOLINE, REPAIRS, OFFICE SUPPLIES, INSURANCE. We cannot ever, not in our wildest dreams, provide this much food to this many hungry people without the support of those around us .
You, our friends and neighbors, open your wallets and kitchen cabinets every time we ask.
Monthly, pantry volunteers stand at the entrance to the Kingston Walmart for three days asking for food and/or money to feed the hungry. The generosity of the Walmart employees allowing us to solicit for funds and the generosity of the store shoppers responding to our plea is mind boggling. We will be standing in front of the Walmart today, Thursday, and Friday.
EVERY OTHER MONTH, WE’RE OUTSIDE THE BOICEVILLE IGA ASKING FOR FOOD. People are always very generous to our plea.
We receive weekly food donations from Bread Alone, Migliorelli’s, and Shandaken Gardens.
I CANNOT EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE ANY MORE PLAINLY THAN THIS: without your help, our pantry cannot exist.
Thank you.
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
Eat – Share – Give – at the Reservoir Pantry in Boiceville, New York
When we opened the Reservoir Food Pantry in September 2013, we served about 50 households the first month. That, in itself was a large number. This June, 2014, we served 450 households consisting of 429 adults, 329 seniors, and 207 children.
ADD THOSE NUMBERS TOGETHER, AND THE TOTAL APPROACHES 1000 PEOPLE.
Our food pantry is supported by an all volunteer group of people from the community at large. We’ve received much help from local businesses: Boiceville IGA, Boiceville Inn, Bread Alone, Roberts Auction, Wastewater Treatment Plant.
We’ve received help from local friends and neighbors who help our mission. We’re proud of the way our pantry volunteers have responded in these hard times.
WE ARE ALL ONE TRAGEDY AWAY FROM LIFE ALTERING CIRCUMSTANCES. Sometimes it’s a health issue, an accident, the loss of a family member or a hurricane.
The gift you give makes a significant impact, helping us provide much needed food to give to people in our area. You help us transport this food from the food bank to our pantry weekly…a vital part of our pantry operations.
THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO OFFER SUPPORT.
BY CHECK: The Reservoir Food Pantry, P.O.Box 245, Boiceville, NY 12412
BY INTERNET: Go to http://www.reservoirfoodpantry.org/donate.html. This link will take you right to the place on our website where the donate button is.
BY PHONE: The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley accepts donations by phone. Just call 845-534-5344. Our pantry number is 2539f. When you call this number and donate, you are giving to the Food Bank Adopt-a-Pantry program which is, by far, the most value you can receive for your generosity. The Adopt-a-Pantry program gets you $10 dollars in food for every $1 dollar you give. This is the most direct way to be sure that your hungry friends, neighbors, and relatives will receive the most food possible. Please tell Donna that you want to adopt the Reservoir Food Pantry and that our number is 2539f.
BY WILL: That is one way you can be sure that the Reservoir Food Pantry will be around for future generations.
Thank you in advance for your generosity. Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco-
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A Lesson I Never Learned in the Food Pantry
I NEVER LEARNED TO DISOBEY THE BOSS. And, I guess I never will. After all, I’m over 70. Chalk it up to dementia (She’s old and crazy and feeds the unworthy hungry”).
“SERVE YOUR SHOPPERS A THREE-DAY-SUPPLY OF FOOD. Each person gets food for three meals a day with each meal having three of the five food groups” the trainer at the Food Bank taught us. “Your agency needs to offer fresh fruits and vegetables, 1% milk, and whole grain breads.”
So I did.
Excitedly, I returned to the pantry with my car packed to the hilt with crates of grapes, Bolthouse carrots, 50-pound bags of onions and 100-pound bags of potatoes.
THE REACTIONS WERE STRONG – DISTINCT. “Wow Thurman! I never saw anything in the pantry like this before! Thanks!” said Dianne as she put her selections of produce in the shopping bag.
“Thurman! Thurman! Whatever you do, just don’t get our pantry shut down!” implored the church secretary.
“How can that happen?” I replied. I just didn’t understand what was in store for me.
I was the coordinator. I was just doing what the Food Bank said, after all. Besides that, the food was all totally free.
I SOON GOT IT.
“Thurman, you don’t feed this kind of food to these people.”
“Thurman, this food is laden with vermin. Get this stuff out of here NOW!”
Except, it wasn’t. It was gorgeous, restaurant quality food donated by the Food Bank.
And I didn’t. The hungry took the produce out in their shopping bags every week. They took it home, to wherever that was, and fed it to their children and family members.
And, the entire conflict was a secret for the longest time. I never told a soul about how angry the building committee was with my actions.
If I never told anyone, I felt, things would settle down and the building committee would slowly realize that we had new rules. And, of course, it took awhile for reality to sink in. Then, two things happened.
The building committee finally got very loud. They finally had an uprising which resulted in a series of meetings I called the inquisitions.
AND, I LEFT.
Some stories have good endings. Woodstock is now returning the Good Neighbor Food Pantry to its pre-2008 glory days.
I’m off in Boiceville where the Boiceville Inn, Roberts Auction, the IGA, and The Wastewater Treatment Plant people are appearing to feel positive about a pantry in the area.
WE FEED THE HUNGRY EVERY MONDAY AFTERNOON AT 2:00.
It’s a glory day at the Reservoir Food Pantry.
Peace and food for all.
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A SUMMER STORM AT THE GOOD NEIGHBOR FOOD PANTRY IN WOODSTOCK
“Although hurricanes can form as early as May and continue into December in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, the official Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1 and ends November 30.”-www.Theweatherchannel.com
WEATHER WAS ALWAYS AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION AT THE PANTRY. Winters were important because of the cold, cold, cold waits in front of the building before the door opened.
Summers were another matter altogether. Storms confronted us several times throughout the season. They ranged from gentle showers lasting a few minutes to hurricanes of historic proportions.
Always a concern in these summer events was the stream running next to the side of the church building. Actually, the building was constructed right into the stream with the parking lot on the other side of the stream. Drivers crossed over a tiny bridge to park.
Often when the rains came, the little stream rose. On several separate occasions I feared for the pantry. I didn’t fear for the building. Built many years ago, it weathered many storms and high water events. I feared water would enter the pantry room which was right on ground level.
Luckily this never happened. At one point, we were distributing food and watching the water level at the same time as it rose to within two inches of the building.
“PLEASE SHOP QUICKLY. THE STREAM IS RISING. I want us to get our food before I have to close the pantry.”
I repeated those sentences over and over and over. (As if the people could have shopped any faster. They were already being pushed to their very limits regularly in an effort to get as many people through the pantry as we could during shopping hours.)
Then, in August, 2011, Hurricane Irene blew through. The seventh costliest hurricane in U.S.History, Irene landed at Coney Island on August 28 as a category one storm and then moved through New York State on its way over New England.
Irene caused many floods described as five-hundred-year-floods by The Weather Channel. Disastrous floods occurred in the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley.
ON THE NEXT PANTRY DAY AFTER IRENE VISITED, PEOPLE FLOCKED IN. They had no power in their homes, apartments, rooms. Some had lost everything. Others were just inconvenienced by what was to be over a week without power.
All were grateful for the food they received at the pantry.Some in the line were visibly upset. It was painfully obvious that some were never going to spiritually, emotionally, and financially recover from Irene.
One couple, renting a place out near Boiceville, lost everything in the cabin they rented, including their car. Someone they knew had a room in a shed further up the road on a hill. They moved in. They’re still there. They still don’t have a car. They walk to the Reservoir Food Pantry and get what food they can carry to their home each week.
Within a very short time, the Food Bank was making Clorox available as well as water in gallon jugs. These two items had never really been on our order schedule before.
THE LESSON I LEARNED FROM IRENE WAS to be prepared in the summer. Now, I order cleaning supplies throughout the year whenever they become available at the Food Bank. We try to keep bars of soap and toothbrushes on hand in the Items of Dignity section of the pantry.
I keep water available in the pantry throughout the year if at all possible. At a minimum, shoppers can take a bottle each time they shop. In time of crisis, they can take much more depending on what we have stacked in the back.
Having bottled water stacked in the storeroom caused both problems and criticism when people who don’t understand our ordering system saw case after case after case of water just sitting in a corner. This was particularly irksome to those who saw us allowing people to take only one bottle weekly throughout the year when we had so much in the storeroom.
When criticized, I simply refused to move off the dime. Two things with their own clocks: Food Banks and Hurricanes. I learned to work with both schedules.
WHEN SUPERSTORM SANDY HIT New York City on October 29, 2012, the volunteers at the Good Neighbor Food Pantry were more prepared than they were when Irene visited. And, it was a good thing. Sandy was much larger and deadlier.
Sandy, affecting states from Florida to Maine was both the second costliest hurricane in U.S. History and the deadliest.
At the pantry, we didin’t skip a beat. As the shoppers filed in for food, we were savvy enough to ask each one about how they’d been affected by Sandy.
Probably half of the people coming through our doors in November were affected by Sandy. As with Irene, some Sandy victims in the line were unaware that food pantries even existed the week before. They just woke up one morning to discover life as they knew it to be totally different. To make matters worse, they soon learned they were in a new sociological category: situational poor. Not only were they homeless and scrounging for food, they were soon painfully aware they needed huge amounts of money to even begin the climb back to what they thought was normal.
“WE’VE LOST EVERYTHING, OUR HOME OUR CAR…EVERYTHING.”
“We’re doing better than some Thurman. Part of our house is still standing. Our car is not gone.”
“Everything is gone, our home, our car, my job.”
On and on the stories went. Standing in the hall waiting to get food was a calming experience for some people. Others were not so calmed during their first two or three visits. They looked around in the line and saw some people for what they were: alcoholics, artists, child abusers, children, crazies, the disabled, druggies, drunks, elderly men and women, hardworking people juggling two and three jobs, homeless, mentally ill, messed-up people, musicians, normal people, people battling terminal illness, politicians, schizophrenics, thieves, Woodstock’s colorful characters, volunteers.
THE FOOD BANK OF THE HUDSON VALLEY SHIPPED TRUCKLOADS OF FOOD to our community in the weeks after Sandy. In a short time, we served lines of people from the parking lot at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church off Route 375 in West Hurley. In all, trucks were sent out ten times. This was in addition to the food we distributed to people on regular pantry days.
AFTER IT WAS ALL OVER, I went to the Town of Woodstock Board on two separate occasions and tried to involve the town in our future efforts to feed the hungry when disaster strikes. I was never able to engage the Town Board in an effort to feed people in the event of a storm or other event inflicting damage to Woodstock.
The Good Neighbor Food Pantry had the backing of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. We had volunteers who were able to deliver food during times of emergency. What we lacked were community officials who believed that Woodstock would ever get hit. And, also, we had demonstrated that we could/would deliver large food shipments to hungry people without involving the community in any way. Why should they bother to participate? A free ride already existed.
What we did not have and what I felt we needed was for the Town of Woodstock to allow us to deliver and distribute large amounts of food to hungry people from a community property location if a damaging disaster struck our area.
When I asked for this, I MET GLAZED EYES, STARES, AND SILENCE. And, really, why should they cooperate? The Catholic Church was the site of these emergency mass food distributions now. Why change things? They simply didn’t see the need to get involved if they could shove the job off on someone else.
My argument was, and still is, that the community has a responsibility to offer a location. In the event of a future disaster, the parking lot of the St. John’s R.C. Church was simply not big enough. I argued that preparation for such an event would not hurt.
This chapter may or may not not have a happy resolution. To my knowledge, no one has stepped forward with a provision for emergency feeding for Woodstock in the event of a disastrous storm or other event.
Current plans are being formulated through Ulster County. These efforts may be strong enough to overcome the disinterest of the Woodstock Town government.
THE RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY AND ITS LOCATION IN BOICEVILLE is now the focus of any disaster prevention efforts. Fortunately or unfortunately, the Boiceville residents are familiar with the aftermath of a superstorm.
Restoring normalcy to Upstate New Yorkers in the aftermath of both Irene and Sandy has been sadly lacking. Destroyed homes and businesses in our area are still not restored. A motel next to where we distribute food on Route 28 in Boiceville has been abandoned. Shoppers are coming for food who will probably never experience normalcy as they knew it before Irene and Sandy.
Sadly, mold and rot advance without any help but buildings and vehicles do not repair themselves. What we need to do is figure out how to facilitate the rebuilding of homes and businesses while preparing for the next disaster so this highly depressed area of Ulster County can begin to prosper again.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
November, 2013, and Today at the Food Pantry
“Say goodbye to the landlord for me; Sons of bitches always bored me.” – Guy Clark
Yet another round of Food Stamps cuts went into effect in November, 2013. This national event with far reaching repercussions didn’t negatively affect everyone. After all, a person not receiving SNAP card funds wasn’t even affected unless s/he was politically conservative. In that case, November 5 was a glorious day.
For those depending on SNAP card funds, the impact was serious.
Diane, a shopper in our pantry has been a widow for about a year. She lives totally off her low social security check each month. After Diane pays her rent and utilities, she has no money for food. The food she eats comes from a pantry. She purchases all of her clothes at the Family of Woodstock free store. Diane’s old car recently needed repairs and she was trying to borrow money to pay for them. Some friends of her deceased spouse gave her the funds needed to fix the car.
Jane is a single woman, also on social security. While her allotment is much larger than Diane’s, this is what Jane has for food. She has no budget for extra food money. Jane’s rent is higher than Diane’s but she also has no clothing budget. Jane’s entire monthly budget goes to the rent and gasoline for her subcompact car.
For those working in pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters, the event brought fear. We know that cutting back on SNAP (food stamps) benefits isn’t the answer. These small amounts of money add up in a community. When people shop for groceries with their funds, they not only offer nourishment to themselves and their families, they bring much needed money into the area which, many times, is depressed.
People have financial problems today which they are never going to overcome without a serious change in our country’s attitude toward poverty. People have no food money because of lack of viable employment, high housing costs, no medical benefits and high medical costs. People shopping in a food pantry lack resources to get beyond what appears to be a permanent situation of lack in their lives. In short, a few people are wealthy today at the expense of the poor.
According to a Feeding America study taken in 2010, 75% of pantry shoppers are “food insecure.” This means they lack resources to put enough food on the table to feed themselves and other household members adequately. We repeatedly read/hear the statistic about one senior in seven not having enough food. It’s estimated that one child in five does not have enough food to eat. Many people live in areas with no real grocery store which means they are living on food offered in gas stations, convenience stores, and pharmacy grocery shelves.
As the food benefits are repeatedly cut, pantry volunteers experience a new wave of overwhelmingly long lines of hungry people.
They fear many, many more shoppers.
They fear we will run out of food for the people.
They fear we will be unable to get enough food to the pantry (soup kitchen, shelter) to feed the ever increasing number of people in the future.
There is this realization that no one in our country aside from the pantry volunteers understands that it’s been a long time since we really were emergency food providers.
It’s turning out to be a very busy summer.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Help Wanted at the Food Banks of Northeastern New York and Hudson Valley!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED THE FOOD BANKS
Have you ever wondered what goes on at the Food Bank? Where does the food come from? How does it get to the people?
Now is your chance to participate in a behind-the-scenes event at the Food Bank!
The Food Bank of Northeastern New York and the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley have recently received large donations of canned/boxed foods which need to be sorted before they can be distributed.
Your help is needed. Please come join in the project. Food is being sorted seven days per week.
Groups are welcome. This is a good opportunity for a church/civic group, scout group, garden club, writing group, book club. Individuals are also welcome! No group is too large or too small!
To join in this effort at the Food Bank of Northeastern New York in Latham, call Mary Mazur at 1-518-786-3691×268 or email her at volunteers@regionalfoodbank.net. If you would rather volunteer at Cornwall-on-Hudson, please call Andrew Bixby at 845-534-5344 to schedule a visit to help sort the donations.
Thanks for your help!
Thanks for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
A Food Pantry is a Thing – a Place – a Process
In the case of the Reservoir Food Pantry, its a collection of canopy tents up the hill behind Robert’s Auction House on Route 28 in Boiceville, NY.
But, more importantly, a pantry is also a process.
When a person (group) applies to be an Agency with the Food Bank, the first thing that happens is, essentially, a mountain of paperwork. Included in this paperwork is several pages of rules – guidelines – to be followed.
Examples:
The food only goes to the hungry.
The food cannot be given, bartered, sold traded with another Food Bank Agency.
The food cannot be served at a pantry or other social function.
The food cannot be sold.
The shoppers are to be treated with dignity and respect.
This list goes on and on and on. And, every rule makes sense and is easy to obey provided nobody is out for a scam.
More than the rules, is the process occurring as we, the new pantry volunteers and shoppers, get to know one another. Time and pantry visits are needed by us all to build a pantry community.
For me, a successful pantry offers food as well as a safe haven for everyone, both shoppers and volunteers, where healing begins and continues.
The Reservoir Food Pantry is developing an every-week rhythm that people appreciate, even need.
We gather under the canopies. People walk among the food: apples, oranges, onions, potatoes, carrots, greens, canned soup, canned vegetables, Bread Alone Bread. They choose a three-day supply of food which will last them seven days.
Offering food with respect and dignity and a spirit of community and sharing is essential to this whole process.
More than the food, we all take home a spiritual gift we receive on Monday afternoons. The gift of sharing of oneself feeds the spiritual hunger experienced by mankind.
And, for me, what binds this whole experience together for everyone is the food.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
