SNAP
SNAP is important. SNAP will help you if you are having trouble buying groceries.
SNAP is important for your community, too, because when you are able to get food with SNAP, you will have cash available to help pay your rent or buy gas to get back and forth to work.
Have you, or has someone you know, applied for SNAP? SNAP was formerly known as food stamps.. SNAP is about all that’s left in the way of assistance for people because welfare is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking yet again.
If you are having trouble paying for your groceries, now is a good time to apply. If you’ve applied in the past and were denied, maybe you need to apply again. You may, after all, have answered a question incompletely or incorrectly and were denied this benefit. Try again. You might do better this time around, especially if you or someone in your house is disabled or is a senior with medical expenses.
Some people are reluctant to apply for SNAP because they don’t know if they are eligible. Or, maybe they applied in the past but were denied. Many people don’t know how to apply and are overwhelmed by the application. Some people have never heard of SNAP and think of it as food stamps.
One thing: If you work, you need to know how to meet the work requirements.
Some information is needed to successfully apply for SNAP. This information comes in several categories.
Proof of income is necessary. This comes in the form of pay stubs, social security income information.
An identification is needed. This might be a State ID, passport, birth certificate, etc.
Bills help. This will include medical, heating, water, auto, rent.
Your social security number and the numbers of everyone in your household is necessary.
Dependent Care Costs will help. These include day care costs, child support, attendant for disabled adult.
Contact your local Department of Social Services office to arrange for application assistance. If this doesn’t work for you, contact your Office on Aging or Catholic Charities.
SNAP is an important benefit which will help you if you are having trouble buying groceries.
SNAP is important for your community, too, because when you are able to get food with stamps, you will have cash available to help pay your rent or buy gas to get back and forth to work.
SNAP is important for your household because you’ll be able to get more food with your SNAP card and you won’t be hungry anymore.
This translates to better health.
Thank you for reading this blog post.
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Please forward this article to anyone and everyone you know who might be able to have a better life with SNAP.
Thurman Greco
This book is being published now and will be available soon!
This book will be going to the publisher before the end of the year.
The Pantry
Lord, thank You for the food pantry where I work.
And, Lord, thank You for the shoppers and volunteers I’ve come to know through our work here.
I ask You Lord, have patience as we learn to pray for one another and care for one another. Our pantry work is a glorification of Your name as You work miracles in our midst. Thank You for the difference You make in all our lives.
Lord, You teach us much in this pantry. For starters, You’ve taught us that the hungry shall be fed – no matter what – no matter why – no matter who.
We experience what it means to be new as we learn what it’s like to work with, accept, and feel welcome – both the worthy and the unworthy.
We’re learning that we’re all Your people. We are all accepted. We are all holy. We are all worthy. The pantry is faith in action.
Amen
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Thurman Greco
The Big Picture
Lord,
As I work in the pantry week after week, I encounter problems.
There is not enough food, not enough space for the food we have, and not enough time to feed the hungry.
There are too many hungry shoppers, too many cars in the parking lot, too many cases of fresh fruits and vegetables, and too many cardboard boxes.
And, as I listen to the car radio when I drive back and forth to Latham on Fridays, I’m aware that I, like those around me, am concerned with problems and challenges in my own small, personal universe.
You, Lord, see the big picture. You see everyone’s problems and issues. You take everyone’s world and make it all work somehow. What we have, as humans, is a stew. You have us all together in this universal stewpot. In the Army, Lord, there’s a name for it: Mongolian Stew
You are beyond all of us in scope and size. Somehow, you stoop down and get in the stewpot with all of us and get involved in our details as You take on our problems.
Through your vision and wisdom, You see the needs of everyone and You send us love, kindness, and miracles. You take the troubles off our shoulders.
Help me Lord, surrender to Your kindness, love, wisdom.
Help me just give the pantry over to you 100%. Help me turn the problems of the building, the hungry, the volunteers, the church, the community, over to you. You do the perfect job of problem solving. After all, you are the God to whom we all pray.
How can I do anything less? When I do this, Lord, I’ll walk in love, with a strong heart, and a solid faith. I’ll receive a spiritual awakening. This will bring glory to you.
Amen
The manuscript for the memoir will go to the publisher on Tuesday, January 9th! I’m ecstatic! I’m excited!
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Thank you
Thurman Greco
Caring Hands
Kingston, New York is a rapidly gentrifying and trendy trendy little town in New York State. Almost every day I see new neighbors in this community. They’ve found just the perfect weekend apartment and are ecstatically, euphorically furnishing it with just the perfect finds. In short, they are in love with Kingston!
In their giddiness, they have may not have yet noticed the Caring Hands Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen. Or maybe they have. Maybe they see that one of the most important things about Kingston is that the residents care for one another. This attitude helps make Kingston what it is – a community we all want to be part of.
2017 is turning out to be a tough year for food pantries in general and Caring Hands Food Pantry in Kingston, New York in particular. But, Caring Hands isn’t just a food pantry. It’s a soup kitchen, and a warming center with a recovery and twelve-step program. As if that’s not enough, they’ve got a free legal clinic, too.
Volunteers at Caring Hands, under the direction of the Rev. Darlene L. Kelley at the Clinton Avenue Methodist Church, work hard as they put their beliefs into action daily. Almost 600 meals are served weekly in the soup kitchen. Over 3,000 households receive groceries monthly.
Children, the elderly, families, veterans, and the ill are all welcome at Caring Hands. The goal is to help people in need help themselves. The message of God’s transforming love is spread throughout the community from the Clinton Avenue Methodist Church as it ripples out in waves.
It is easy for you to be a part of this message. You don’t have to move to Kingston. You don’t have to attend the church there. You don’t even have to know anyone in the area. All you need to do is give a little … or a lot … of whatever you can share.
- Sending a check always helps. Caring Hands always needs money.
- Sending a gift certificate always helps, too. Did someone give you a gift certificate that that you’ll probably never use? Well, now is a good time to use it. Send it on over.
- Extra time is extremely valuable. If you live in the area, you can be a part of this miracle when you volunteer. Your gift of presence will be greatly appreciated.
- Hold a food drive. Gifts of food are always, always needed. If you don’t live in the area, hold a food drive anyway and donate the cans and boxes of food to a food pantry in your area.
- Call an elected representative and lobby for the poor and hungry in your area. Persuade this elected official to be generous with funds for those around us who do not have everything they need to live a healthy life.
- Your prayers and kind thoughts are always welcome. Those at Caring Hands as well as at other food pantries throughout our country are working hard to bring food and love to a broken community. They need your support.
Caring Hands has a mailing address to send your check and/or gift certificates: CARING HANDS
c/o THE CLINTON AVENUE UMC
P. O. Box 1099
Kingston, New York 12402.
Thank you for reading this blog post. Hopefully you’ll share it with your favorite social media outlet.
With this blog posted article comes an apology for not having posted often enough in the past months. This doesn’t mean that I don’t care or that I’m no longer interested in hunger. To the contrary. I’m deeply involved in bringing my next book to my publisher. And, it’s about hunger in America.
Thurman Greco
Top 3 Myths about Food Pantries
Much that is written, said, and believed about food pantries is simply not true. Maybe the problems themselves are somehow created by those of us who work at the food pantries. I admit it. I encounter people all the time who believe things about pantries that are simply untrue. I’ve been listening to these people for 10 years.
And, somehow, I’ve been unable to dispel these fallacies. I listen. I talk to the people. I certainly have the facts. I have the statistics. I have the stories. Somehow, they just don’t seem to hear the real story.
So, now, with this post, I’m hoping to debunk 3 myths anyway.
FOOD PANTRIES FEED A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO DON’T NEED THE FOOD.
I don’t know how this rumor got started. In the last few years many, many more people have been using food pantries than in times past. Many pantries have long waiting lines for the hungry. No one goes to a food pantry unnecessarily. The waits are too long, the selection is often minimal.
THANKSGIVING IS THE BEST TIME TO DONATE FOOD TO A FOOD PANTRY BECAUSE PEOPLE GO TO FOOD PANTRIES DURING THE HOLIDAYS MORE THAN ANY OTHER TIME OF YEAR.
Food pantries need your donations of food/expertise/time/money all year long. People don’t just get hungry in November.
Frankly, the neediest time of the year for pantries/soup kitchens/shelters is August. Summers are pretty lean but August is severe. Pantries need your canned/baked goods, shelf staples all year long. If you have a garden which is producing too many tomatoes please share this fresh produce with your area pantry. If you suddenly find yourself cleaning out your kitchen, please bring those cans and boxes you’ll never use to the pantry.
September is a good time to donate peanut butter, jelly, and other school lunch snacks to your neighborhood pantry.
ONLY PEOPLE WHO QUALIFY FOR SNAP CAN GO TO A FOOD PANTRY.
I don’t know how this rumor got started either. Often a food pantry is a supplement to a household’s SNAP budget. But there are many, many people shopping at food pantries who never make it to the SNAP office. Some food pantries get visits from people wanting to sign them up for SNAP.
Actually, it would be wonderful if more people would get both SNAP benefits and food pantry food. This is true for the elderly especially. Often, people are afraid of going to the SNAP office. They’re afraid they won’t be able to find it. They are afraid they may not be able to answer the questions. In rural areas, the fear is that it will take too much gas.
THANKS FOR READING THIS POST!
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.
“I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore” is coming soon! Hopefully, when this book is published, I’ll have more time to post articles on this blog.
Cover art for this book was contributed by Michele Garner.
I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore
.
This is the story of hunger in America as only the hungry can tell it.
It began as an outreach activity at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Woodstock, New York. My job was to pass the pantry key from one congregation to the next each month. Total monthly time commitment: two hours. By the time I moved on to another food pantry eight years later, it had become a calling.
From the very first day, I felt compelled to write down things people said to me in the pantry. Trouble is, I’m not a writer and never have been.
So, the prayers manifested themselves. It was all I could do to just keep up with the words.
Obviously, I needed supervision, guidance, mentoring. As I lived this story and began to write it under the direction of Lillie Dale Cox Thurman and Uralee Thurman Lawrence, the story and the people strengthened me. I found that I wanted things for these people. Mostly, what I wanted for these hungry people was the same thing they wanted. What I wanted, (and what they wanted) really, wasn’t much:
I wanted the hungry to sleep with full stomachs at night.
I wanted them to wake up in a dry space in the morning.
I wanted them to have healthcare.
And I wanted them to have jobs which paid the rent, bought food, and covered their transportation needs.
I wanted them to be a part of the community where they lived.
Finally, I wanted their children to be well educated.
My hope is that you will see this book as a glimpse of what I see…a collection of prayers offered as prize crystals or gems to be shared with the universe.
This book is being edited now. I hope to have it finished by the end of the year!
Please send kind thoughts and support on this project!
Cover art by Michele Garner. Thank you Michele. This cover is perfect!
Thank you for reading this blog post.
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Thanks,
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
“A Healer’s Handbook” by Thurman Greco is now available on Amazon or at http://www.thurmangreco.com
A Holiday Gone Wrong
“When we talk cooking and eating, we are talking love, since the entire history of how a family loves – when and how they learned to love – can be told in most kitchens.” – Marion Roach Smith
The first year a person uses a food pantry for primary shopping, Christmas is a holiday gone wrong. After several years, Christmas 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 household when no money is available to purchase them in a grocery store.
Once, I heard some pantry shoppers talking in the line about holidays past. Their conversation centered around people celebrating by eating too much delicious food and visiting with relatives, friends, neighbors while swapping stories, catching up on the news.
For more and more people living in poverty, this just doesn’t happen. Both households and individuals find themselves unable to finance the expense of the holiday event.
Not only can they 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. Recipes, pots and pans, china, silverware, crystal are long since gone. Eating without a kitchen is the way of the modern household living on a minimum wage.
With luck, today’s struggling class household will have the gas to get the car to a soup kitchen. Otherwise, it’s going to be a regular day with a meal prepared in a crock pot, or on a hot plate. The economic situation for some is that just to take the day off and still be able to buy groceries the next day is more a goal than anything else.
Realities faced by the hungry pantry shopper weigh on my shoulders every day of the year. This weight keeps me squirreling away food so the pantry shelves can be stocked for celebrations with canned soup, canned gravy, potatoes, stuffing mix, canned green beans, cranberry sauce, chicken broth and all the fruits and vegetables that can be gotten at food drives and the food bank. Storeroom space and a few freezers at the food pantry are essential.
Pantry volunteers have a difficult time just keeping up with the ever increasing client census. Those with a stable shopper base, a large storeroom and connections can begin scrounging in July to set aside food. It’s extremely challenging to get several hundred or a thousand of an item in the summer and store the food until December.
After several years and several holidays, the food gatherer in the household becomes, if time allows, more skilled at scrounging for food in both the pantry and the grocery store. The difficulty lies, mostly, in the ability to get food items considered “traditional” by a household when no money is available to purchase the items in a supermarket.
While distributing food, I mentally predict who’s going to be successful at scrounging and gathering by the sound of the automobile as it’s driven into the parking lot of the pantry. A successful holiday dinner depends on a working automobile, time available between jobs, and the energy to sustain the search.
Transportation challenges, disabilities, and serious illness in the family can defeat all efforts.
Thank you for reading this article.
Please share this story with your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
Book Update: “A Healer’s Handbook” has been published and is available on Nook and Kindle! It will be available in the paper version in early January. If you order it now, it will be mailed directly to you upon publication.
More information about this book can be found on Thurmangreco.com.
Publication of “The Unworthy Hungry” is now scheduled for January 2018.
Thank you for your support and your patience. Now that “Healer’s Handbook” has been published, there will be more frequent and regularly published articles on all blogs.
Thanks Again
Voices not Heard in the Hallway
We’re having a white Christmas in Woodstock. The tree is up on the village green!
Voices can be heard in the hallway, just like all year long.
Except:
One thing no one ever discusses in the hallway of the pantry is the past. The shoppers speak about things that happened in the past week or so but never much beyond. Whatever took place before the food pantry came into their lives just isn’t on the agenda.
As holidays approach, no one ever mentions the Thanksgivings, Christmases, Hanukkahs, Passovers, Easters they had before their lives spun out of control. No one ever mentions that there wasn’t enough money to get Passover food which isn’t available in our pantry.
No one ever asks a child what Santa is going to bring.
Thank you for reading this blog.
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.
One thing: the reflexology book, “A Healers Handbook” by me, Thurman Greco, is finished! It will soon be available for purchase and can be bought now in the ebook version at Kindle and Nook. For you, the reader of this blog, this means that I’ll be posting much more often now.
Thurman Greco
Making the Most of What You Get at the Food Pantry
More and more pantries offer fresh vegetables and fruits. A challenge sometimes is making it last when it gets to your kitchen. Following are a few tips to help keep the food better. Even though it’s only going to be around for a day or two before you eat it, you want it to look its best, taste its best, and have the most nutrients possible.
FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Store LETTUCE, SALAD GREENS, and MUSHROOMS in a refrigerator on the middle or lower shelf away from fans because these items freeze quickly.
CUCUMBERS suffer from chill damage. You’ll have better luck with them if you store them on an upper shelf or on the door of the refrigerator.
CITRUS FRUITS release ethylene gas so it’s best to separate CITRUS FRUITS, MELONS AND APPLES away from delicate foods such as LETTUCE.
Some fruits and vegetables should not be refrigerated: BANANAS, GRAPEFRUITS, LEMONS, LIMES, MANGOES, MELONS, ORANGES, PAPAYAS, POTATOES, ONIONS, TOMATOES, AND AVOCADOS all do better when stored on a counter top.
Ripening some fruits on a counter top is best: AVOCADOS, KIWI FRUIT, NECTARINES, PEACHES, PEARS, AND PLUMS. After these foods are ripe, you may choose to put them in the refrigerator.
Fruits to store in the refrigerator include: APPLES, APRICOTS, BLACKBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, CHERRIES, CUT FRUITS, FIGS, GRAPES, ASIAN PEARS, RASPBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES
Vegetables to store in the refrigerator include: ASPARAGUS, GREEN BEANS, LIMA BEANS, BEETS, BROCCOLI, BRUSSELS SPROUTS, CABBAGE, CARROTS, CAULIFLOWER, CELERY, COLLARD GREENS, CUT VEGETABLES, ESCAROLE, GREENS, GREEN ONIONS, LEAFY VEGETABLES, LEEKS, LETTUCE, MUSHROOMS, PEAS, RADISHES, SPINACH, SUMMER SQUASHES, AND SWEET CORN.
POULTRY
When working with poultry, the wrapping should be completely unbroken with no punctures.
Raw poultry should have a fresh smell with no odor. It should be firm to the touch. It should not be sticky. There should be no discoloration. The internal temperature of raw poultry should be lower than 40F degrees.
Poultry should be stored separately from all other foods. It should be kept on the lowest shelf in the refrigerator to prevent contamination from dripping.
Anything that comes in contact with poultry or its juices should be cleaned and sanitized immediately.
Frozen poultry should have no soft spots.
Partially thawed poultry should be used immediately.
Poultry cannot be kept at room temperature for more than two hours.
Wash hands immediately after handling poultry.
MILK
Milk stays fresh up to six days past the sell-by date. Frozen milk can be stored longer.
If milk sours, use it in a baking recipe calling for buttermilk.
Sour milk is not unsafe to drink.
CULTURED PRODUCTS
COTTAGE CHEESE, YOGURT, SOUR CREAM, AND CREAM CHEESE are considered to be cultured products with a longer shelf life than milk. If the container is open, cultured products can be used up to six weeks past the sell-by date.
http://www.allianceforpositivehealth.org
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Prayer for the Hungry – Number 2
O Heavenly Father
I offer You gratitude for all Your blessings and love which You continually share with parents struggling with underemployment, poor health, insufficient food, transportation challenges.
I ask You, the source of all living things, to protect and guard parents who shop at the pantry.
Help them listen to their children’s needs as they struggle to live a life with insufficient resources… time, money, housing, health care.
Offer the peace which can only come when they know that You are a part of their lives every day.
O Heavenly Father, help them overcome their greatest fear – hunger.
Guide their lives so that no one in their household is hungry.
Encourage them to see the positive aspects of their lives.
Teach them to co-create abundance
Give them the courage to reach out when their needs are overwhelming.
Let them know that they can be secure in their paths.
Teach them to travel through their lives with grace.
Offer them the wisdom they need to hear Your guidance.
When, if…they question the struggle, please let them know You are with them always.
Please, gently touch their lives with your healing hands when health issues become almost too much to bear.
I ask these things in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Thank you for reading this blog dedicated to food pantries.
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Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
Art Work donated by Jennette Nearhood
