For the Brave and Diligent Shopper
Lord, this prayer is for the brave and diligent shopper. She walks in. And she never misses a week.
Lord, she is ferociously focused on getting to the pantry.
Looking neither left or right, dismissing the rain, or the cold, or the boiling heat, she makes her way each week through the crowded parking lot.
I pray for her grace, energy, and willpower. I pray that someone or maybe several someones can witness and celebrate her discipline and focus.
And, I pray that others will notice her voyage each and every week. I don’t want to be the only one who sees her gracefully make her way through the crowded shoppers waiting outside the pantry for it to open.
Lord, I know you sent her to lift our hearts: patient, lovely, graceful. She is our inspiration.
I think of her on shopping days when I drive to Albany for extra food. She keeps my own work ethic steady.
And, she lifts my heart.
So, thank you again for sending her.
Amen
You can purchase this latest book about the spiritual journey of hunger at www.thurmangreco.com.
Please check out the YOUTUBE channel show. Renee, our own wizard, loads new episodes on Tuesdays. “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco” is a positive, entertaining series of conversations with local VIPs that I’ve conducted throughout the last 15 years or so. There have been a few intermissions throughout the years, but not many.
My guests enjoy being on the show and many ask to return. One thing we all have in common: we’ve all met each other somehow in Woodstock, NY
AND thank you for reading this article. This blog post, and the others soon to come, celebrate 10 years of Hunger is not a Disease.
Find out more about Thurman at www.thurmangreco.com.
Send me an email at thurmangreco@gmail.com.
Join me on facebook!
Thurman Greco
Thank You for the Small Pains I Get in the Pantry
Lord, you know I do need them, of course.
For each sore shoulder pain or back spasm that goes away after a while: THANK YOU!
The small pains remind me of all the pantry work that needs to be done every day. When the small pains come around, they remind me to pray for more volunteers.
So, thanks for the sneezing fits and scratchy throats I get every delivery day.
The last time I had a sharp pain on delivery day, I caught myself praying in surprise. And, guess what! The entire Roberts family showed up to help. It was just a miracle – that’s all.
And, one afternoon, I had a shoulder pain during the pantry shift and a volunteer stepped out of the line and helped us all that day. And, he kept returning every week for several months.
For me, these small pains are reminders that I should ask for help and be ready for it to show up!
What these pains mean is that I should also hold out hope for the coming miracles.
After all, miracles happened and I couldn’t hide from them. I was in denial for the longest time but, eventually, I had to face facts. When I finally owned up to their reality, I saw they were special miracles for a food pantry.
Stigmata, relics, icons, and visions weren’t appropriate for the pantry.
Nobody controlled how or when they happened, only whether or not they were seen for what they were. I wasn’t focused on the miracles because I was busy paying attention to lifting boxes, stocking shelves, filling out forms, driving to the dump with the trash.
And, so, Lord, I promise to try to ask for help when the pantry needs it.
Meanwhile…thank you…and…Amen
THANKS FOR READING THIS POST! It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?
I have a whole volume’s worth of meditations, devotions, short stories filled with gratitude and thanksgiving.
Please let me know what you think: thurmangreco@gmail.com.
“Miracles” is on sale at thurmangreco.com.
“Let’s Live with Thurman Greco” – the YOUTUBE channel is a place to stay on top of Thurman’s video productions.
My guests are various people whose lives have brought them to Woodstock for a day, a week, an hour, a decade or more. I can truthfully boast that my guests report they enjoyed the experience and will be happy to return.
Subscribe today and never miss a show!
Both the blog and the show are a means to healing for viewers.
Thanks for reading this article. Please share it with your friends and family. Forward it to your favorite social media network.
This book is available at www.thurmangreco.com
It is my latest book about food pantries, hunger, and Woodstock.
ENJOY!
Everyone shopping at a pantry has a first visit
A first-time shopper in a food pantry looks at the available foods and the question coming to mind is “How am I going to get a meal out of this?”
Supermarket shoppers push some foods aside, choosing other items. When that happens, a store manager sends the rejected boxes and cans to the food bank where they land at the last stop: a food pantry somewhere.
Foods ending up on a pantry shelf are often unrecognizable to the ordinary person shopping at the supermarket.
Food pantry shoppers may not know how to make their future happen but they know standing still isn’t the answer. To be hungry is to search for spiritual sustenance, mental stamina, physical endurance, emotional balance, and food.
People go hungry when the income, whatever its source, isn’t enough to meet the cost of living.
When a person lives with hunger, just waking up in the morning and going through the day challenges heart and soul. A normal existence seems impossible. Every chance at happiness seems lost.
Most food pantry volunteers and shoppers I know are in a reconstructing and healing mode. Life is finally improving! After losing everything, getting things right again means taking many steps. For some it means “No matter how hard I try, I’m never going to be able to fix this mess”.
But this isn’t necessarily true. Hunger doesn’t rob us of every chance for happiness. Figuring this all out means trying new things again and again and again.
Food insecurity leads to questioning everything including our basic beliefs because they failed us from the getgo. For many, searching for a stable food supply, a roof, gas in the car, clothes, and healthcare becomes a search for God.
The soul needs compassion, forgiveness, and the ability to give more than take.
When shoppers don’t have enough food to eat, giving and sharing and believing are necessary. Because there are no road maps for this trip, the soul becomes the guide.
Volunteering in the pantry changes lives and heals people. My first visit to a food pantry changed my life. In my heart, I feel a food pantry has opportunities waiting for us. They are different for everyone, but they are there.
It takes much energy and time to find a food pantry you can get to and where you can shop. A person can burn up many phone minutes doing this. This experience strips away any illusions we have about ourselves and the world, and how our lives are unraveling.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I feel you are reading this article for a reason.
Maybe you need a moment for yourself. Maybe you are seeking information to change your life. There are interesting, informative, and life changing articles on this blog which date back to 2013.
Maybe you can benefit from some of the information in this blog. I feel that you can discover some strategies for boosting your life and times.
Please share this blog post with your preferred social media network and forward it to your friends and family.
Learn more about hunger and homelessness on YOUTUBE at “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco”
Find out more about Thurman at www.Thurmangreco.com.
Thanks again!
Thurman
10 Things You Can Do to Help the Homeless
Persons with no fixed address live in what some refer to as an “invisible world”. With your help, they may not be stuck there. Making their day-to-day lives a bit easier is helpful and important. There ARE things you can do.
This list of ten things to do may seem a little bizarre to you. But, a List of Shelters is very different from a List of Food Pantries or Soup Kitchens.
If you take this list seriously and use some of the suggestions, you’ll understand.
You’ll see.
But, whether you try to do one item or all ten, I send you gratitude. The things you do will ripple kindness out beyond your circle. And, right now, kindness is needed desperately.
DEVELOP A LIST OF SHELTERS
Search out local shelters and create a list card. List each shelter by location and include phone numbers and a bit of information which may be helpful to those without addresses.
Distribute copies of this card to homeless people.
MAKE A LIST OF FOOD PANTRIES
A homeless-friendly food pantry distributes ready-to-eat items like peanut butter and crackers in individual packets, cereal and milk in individual containers. Some food pantries offer small containers of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Search out area food pantries that are homeless friendly. Make an info card listing hours and days each pantry is open. Include the phone number, address and directions to get there.
Distribute copies of this card.
INCLUDE A LIST OF SOUP KITCHENS
Search out area soup kitchens. Make an info card listing hours and days each soup kitchen is open. Include the phone number and address with directions to find it.
Carry copies of this card to distribute.
DONATE CLOTHING
Organizations serving the homeless always need gently used items in good condition. They need items in all sizes from infant to XXL and beyond.
Blankets and sleeping bags are in demand year round.
People are always asking for socks.
DONATE GROCERIES
Because the homeless carry their kitchens in their pockets, their food needs are specific: peanut butter and crackers in individual containers, individual packets of vegetables and fruits to be eaten raw (such as strawberries or carrots), cereal packed in individual containers, milk packed in individual containers.
When someone in your community conducts a food drive, donate a bag full of homeless-friendly foods.
If no one is having a food drive, fill a grocery bag with food and take it to your local food pantry, shelter, or soup kitchen.
Better yet, hold a food drive yourself.
In the past I’ve blogged posts about holding a food drive. Several dates of these posts include May 3, 2018, January 13, 2021 – February 11, 2021 – February 25, 2021. There are others.
Food drives are not difficult and they can be fun. Everyone should have the experience. Email me if you have questions. thurmangreo@gmail.com
VOLUNTEER AT A SHELTER
Shelters depend on volunteers to sign people in, and cook and serve meals. Depending on the resources of the shelter, you may be able to do other things such as helping kids with homework, teaching ESL classes, writing resumes.
VOLUNTEER AT A SOUP KITCHEN
Soup kitchen volunteers pick up donations of food, help prepare and serve meals, cleaning up at the end of the shift.
VOLUNTEER AT A FOOD PANTRY
Volunteering at a food pantry is a community experience. I did it for years. Never, at any moment, did I feel I was wasting my time.
SHARE A MEAL
Whenever you leave your home, bring a bagged meal to share with a person on the street.
ADVOCATE
When you do a few of the things on this short list, you will find yourself involved in your community, even if that was not your intention.
Your interest in hunger and homelessness automatically makes you an advocate – even if you don’t think you are. When you help feed hungry and homeless people, you are fighting hunger in our country.
Most people in food pantries distribute a 3-day supply of food to everyone in each household.
But, however you see yourself, your good work, kindness, and generosity will ripple out beyond yourself and your community.
One thing is for sure, we need more good work, kindness, and generosity rippling out.
Something else happens when you share info cards, bagged lunches, food, and sleeping bags:
The homeless people you interact with begin to lose their invisibility. You replace that invisibility with respect when you treat them as individuals. Courtesy, kind words and a smile will change not only your life but theirs. .
You may even learn someone’s name!
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please share it with your favorite social media network.
Forward it to a friend or relative.
Learn more about hunger and homelessness on YOUTUBE at “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco”.
Hats, aprons, T-shirts, and books are available at www.thurmangreco.com
Having touble finding YOUTUBE interviews? Send an email to thurmangreco@gmail.com. We’ll get you there!
Thanks!
Thurman Greco
One last commercial here: A “HOPE on the ROAD” presentation was recorded and is on YOUTUBE. Tune in to YOUTUBE to benefit from this presentation.
I can present a segment of “HOPE on the ROAD” to your library, your organization, your class, your group.
If you are a Reiki practitioner, “HOPE on the ROAD” is easy to learn so you can present it to people in your area.
There is no charge for “HOPE on the ROAD”. To participate in “HOPE on the ROAD”, contact me at thurmangreco@gmail.com.
Thanks again,
Thurman
SNAP for YOU
Think back to the time when you were a child. Life was probably less complicated then. Occasionally your parents or grandparents or maybe a school teacher, or a rabbi, priest, or pastor had talks with you about life.
Your mother, father, grandmother, teacher may have spoken about sex, money, God, doing right from wrong, not stealing. These talks were important.
Well, now you are an adult with your own life. Consciously or unconsciously, these early life talks shaped you and still influence you to this day. The reality is that the person who took the time and effort to make you a successful adult may now be in need of a talk. It’s entirely possible that this older person of influence to you is quietly doing without the food necessary to lead a healthy life.
Why is this happening?
Well, there may simply be more days in the month than money. Many seniors in our country have outlived their pensions, savings, ability to hold down a job. Statistics tell us that one senior in seven doesn’t get enough to eat. SNAP is one successful way to help seniors.
Seniors are eligible for SNAP.
If you are a senior, please apply for these benefits. You worked all your life, paid your taxes, contributed to the economy. It’s time to benefit from all the contributions you made throughout your life.
SNAP helps pay for the food you need to live a healthy life. When you eat healthier food, you can prevent and control some chronic health issues. This will lower your medical bills.
When you get groceries with SNAP, you’ll have money for other things you need.
SNAP is a debit card offering privacy. That way, if you don’t want anyone to know you receive SNAP, they won’t.
When you use SNAP, your community benefits. This is because you bring money into your local economy which helps farmers, grocers, and local businesses.
When you receive SNAP, you are not taking money away from someone else who might need it more. There are enough SNAP dollars for everyone.
Apply for SNAP at your local Department of Social Services office.
Thank you for reading this article. Please refer this blog post to your preferred social media network.
Please share it with your friends or anyone who may benefit from its message.
If the information in this article interested you, please check out more information in “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco”, a YOUTUBE channel with many interviews and much information about alleviating hunger in America.
The website, www.Thurmangreco.com lists books which give more information. You can also purchase T-shirts, aprons, and other items to support alleviating hunger in America.
Healing 2: Serving the Hungry with Reiki and an Understanding Heart
The food pantry community included massage therapists, Reiki practitioners and other healers in the line. At one point, I taught Reiki therapy to volunteers and attuned them to Reiki. Laren was among the students in the volunteer class.
Reiki is health care for the soul. The pantry could definitely use this jewel!
Reiki changes people’s lives and she was no exception. For most Reiki practitioners, the change is slow, subtle, gentle. Some aren’t even aware of anything happening.
I knew Laren’s response to Reiki was exceptional in the first fifteen minutes of the Reiki I class. She took the Reiki 2 class. She took the Reiki 3 class. Several months went by and she took one of my advanced classes.
Well, Laren could have taught that class hands down. Every subject I brought up was one she had experienced. Laren went on to become a Reiki Master Teacher and now attunes her own students.
Laren dropped by the pantry monthly and offered Reiki to the building. I felt the energy shift as she invoked the ChoKuRei, the SeiHeKi, and the HonShaZeShoNen in the pantry room and the hallway.
Laren offered Reiki to the building as people rushed around the hallway, bathroom, and the pantry room, cleaning everything after the pantry closed and before we had to leave the building. No one paid attention to Laren calling in the symbols as she walked around the rooms.
This was energetic healing at work.
She gave particular attention to the corners of the rooms. Reiki energy transformed the pantry into a holy space, erasing the toxic fear of hunger so prevalent in the hallway and the pantry room.
The floors, walls, corners, became holy.
Fear of hunger wasn’t the only issue. Fear of job loss, illness, and fear for the children were common in the pantry. Fear was often palpable.
Reiki therapy is a spiritual wand touching those around us who need blessings and healing.
Reiki practitioners know that when the time is right, Reiki takes on a life of its own, offering healing where it’s needed, using energy which passes through the practitioner’s hands.
Using Reiki, we align ourselves with our divine order to extend blessings.
When I am in the grocery line, or the traffic line, or on a sidewalk, or on a massage table, the space becomes holy when I invite Reiki in.
Reiki heals through chakra points located throughout the body. In a Reiki session, the recipient is reminded who she is. This self-awareness opens the chakra portals for the person to become who she can be.
The future blends with the present and the past at this moment. Possibilities open. This is a miraculous process.
Reiki is a holy ritual. It’s hard to get too much of this divine energy because Reiki is all-loving and all-giving. Reiki wisdom guides the practitioner’s hands during a session to the points of divine connection on the body. Reiki shows us the meaning of life and the teachings understand the sacredness of this process.
Reiki is a jewel not bound by earthly things.
No wonder there are no contraindications to Reiki therapy.
Reiki is a light touch applied to a clothed body. When offering Reiki therapy, I often began a session applying this light touch to the crown of my client’s head.
After three or four minutes, I moved my hands to the occipital ridge at the base of the skull.
There, I placed one hand on the base of the skull and the other hand on the back of the neck. After a few short minutes, I placed my hands on the person’s body, following the lines of the person’s chakras along the spine.
As I placed my hands on the recipient, healing energy traveled up and down the chakras, beginning at the head and ending on the feet. I felt warmth, tingling.
Sometimes I saw images and color while the recipient lay in a sleeplike state on a healing table. Whether or not the word “sleeping” was correct, the person was usually not conscious.
Chakras are the communication system of the body. Chakras share information with one another as they physically, intuitively, energetically, and psychically communicate with one another.
They also talk with chakras in other bodies as well. There is no limit to how chakras communicate.
The pantry visits themselves were healing because the pantry experience healed. When shoppers and volunteers healed from the experience, they saw things in new ways.
When this healing happened, it made the person new.
In this new inner life and outer life, the person moved forward in ways impossible before.
Pantry volunteers served shoppers, volunteers, hungry people.
Distributing groceries all those afternoons in the pantry brought forgiveness and healing.
Fresh vegetables, eggs, and Bread Alone bread offered a healing experience with abundance. As volunteers fed the shoppers, they helped both themselves and each other. Did you want to be healed? Healing and feeding were connected.
The pantry was a safe haven for everyone, both volunteers and shoppers. Healing began and continued as people shared food. This safe haven was necessary because the unspoken word here was the feeling that we were the wrong people.
Unspoken here was the feeling that one’s status in Woodstock could make things right. Without the right status, a person would never be acceptable.
Health issues pointed to a need to cope with spiritual challenges. Healing was on the agenda and getting well was something everyone sought.
In the end, healing was not easy. Before the trip was over and a person felt healed, she experienced many things: acceptance, belief, change, connection, forgiveness, laughter, persistence, and transcendence.
For me, this was amazing. How can a person in a pantry line experience connection? How can a person in a pantry forgive others? The path is simply too rocky.
For some, it was giving up anger, drugs, or a lifestyle that changed when the house was in foreclosure.
Giving and receiving food brought everyone a little peace.
The whole experience was hard for people in the line who were unemployed, broken down psyhologically, economically, socially, spiritually, and physically,
As I watched healing in action, I saw patterns. First came forgiveness which made the healing easier. For sure, healing was harder when a person held a grudge.
The pantry visits themselves were healing. The pantry experience healed. When shoppers and volunteers healed from the experience, they saw things in new ways. This healing, made the person new.
In this new inner life and outer life the person moved forward in ways impossible before.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please share it on your favorite social media network.
You can find a large selection of interviews on YouTube under:
Thurman Greco
Let’s Live
Take This Bread.
Hope you enjoy them!
Thurman Greco
5 Easy Steps to Your Successful Food Drive
It’s easier than you think.
Step 1:
Choose the food pantry, homeless shelter, school, church, food bank, or soup kitchen to receive the food you collect.
Step 2:
Contact your recipient, and learn what items the hungry people need. Try to be specific. Can they only accept canned food items or can they use frozen and fresh foods? What about pet food?
If they need pet food or food for homeless people, for example, request those items (with specific food item suggestions) at your drive.
Step 3:
Decide how you want to collect the donated food.
The method I prefer is, of course, the one that worked for me several times. I recommend this method:
Gather some large empty grocery bags in good condition.
Attach a letter to each one saying something like:
Dear Neighbor:
“We are having a food drive in this neighborhood. Please fill this bag with food and set it out on your entryway on ………………………….. when it will be picked up between 00:00 and 00:00. Include am and pm to be more specific.
We need the following kinds of food:……………………..
Your donated food will be donated to ……………………………… Thank you for your generosity. If you have any questions, please call…………………………………. Signed…………………………………….”
Set the bags out at every address in the area you selected.
On the appointed date, return to the addresses and pick up the bags of food.
Step 4:
Deliver them to the selected food pantry, homeless shelter, school.
Step 5:
Pat yourself on your back. You did a great job!
My experience with this food drive method is that people respond positively because you give them bags, tell them exactly what food items you need, and return to pick up the food at a specific time on an exact date.
Thank you in advance for all you are doing to feed your neighbors.
Please post this article on your favorite social media network.
Share it with your friends.
Have a wonderful day!
Thurman Greco
www.hungerisnotadisease.com
Food Pantry Rules
A food pantry is what it is because of three things:
the economic situation at the moment
the volunteers
the people who shop there.
The people come together looking for groceries but often, they want and need far more.
While the coronavirus pandemic rages, the food pantry lines get longer every pantry day because people, families, deal with change they didn’t ask for.
In short, they are rewriting their destiny stories without a road map or instructions.
A number of the people in the pantry, both shoppers and volunteers, didn’t know about food pantries until circumstances set up a situation where they suddenly looked around a room and realized where they were.
There is a name for their category – SITUATIONAL POOR.
A person fits into the situational poor category when s/he lands in a situation created by an event such as a hurricane, fire, floor, pandemic, or other disaster which destroys the home, car, job.
Pantries offer much – peace, community, spiritual connection, groceries. I always think of a food pantry in the basement of a church as a cross between a church service and a busy pizza place.
A food pantry, and those connected with it, are not a program. They are a community. As volunteers, all we really do is open the door. As all the hungry people walk through the door, they undergo a change somehow.
Each person in a pantry, in whatever capacity, has experienced rejection in some way – too young, too old, too crazy, too sick, too poor, not poor enough.
The food pantry experience does not heal a person, nor does it change the story.
The food pantry experience does not offer therapy.
The food pantry is, instead, a conduit for each person’s own healing.
FOOD PANTRY RULES
Sign your name in the register as you enter the pantry.
Find a place in line.
Do not crowd or block the door to the pantry room.
No more than 2 shoppers are allowed in the pantry at one time.
No more than one new shopper is allowed in the pantry at one time.
Shop for a three-day supply of food for everyone in your household.
Place your selections on the table as you shop.
Respect the restrictions on certain foods.
Finish your shopping in 10 minutes.
Once you begin to bag your groceries, do not continue to shop.
Because the food availability is different each time you shop, it is best to visit the food pantry weekly.
Thank you.
Thurman Greco
P.S. The rules may be different at the pantry where you shop. Each food pantry is different. The space is different. The times the pantry is open is different. The management is different.
These specific rules were used in the food pantry I managed where the people were many, the space small, and the hours few.
Please forward this article to your preferred social media network.
Share it with your friends.
Winter Solstice – 2020
December 21st is the Winter Solstice for 2020.
The Winter Solstice is the annual celebration of the yearly rebirth of the sun.
Please take a few moments today to send healing, acceptance, regeneration, and rebirth to all living beings – both plant and animal.
Visualize a world in which all living beings have enough food and water to nourish themselves into wellness in 2021.
Take a moment to release those things which no longer positively serve our planet and its inhabitants.
Find a few minutes sometime today to reflect on our planetary needs. Reflect on how it will feel to live on a healthy planet where all beings experience wellness and coexist to honor and support one another.
Thank you for your healing thoughts and prayers.
Thurman Greco
Please forward this meditation to your preferred social media network.
Share it with your friends.
Meet Anna Woofenden – You’re Gonna LOVE Her and Her Book!
INTRODUCTION –
There aren’t many books about there about hunger in America. Whenever I think of books about food pantries, the first writer I think of Sara Miles.
Well, it turns out that Sara Miles has a special friend, a writer friend.
I found Anna Woofenden’s book, “This is God’s Table” by accident on a table at the Barnes and Noble store in Kingston, New York. If only I could give copies of Anna Woofenden’s book to everyone. And, I mean everyone, including you.
————————————
Anna Woofenden started a Garden Church without walls in a vacant lot on 6th Street in San Pedro, California.
Anna placed a cedar stump table in the center of her worship space and consecrated it when she anointed it with oil.
From that moment, people joined her as they gardened, worshiped, and ate together weekly. All were welcome at God’s Table.
Whenever everyone is welcome, they all come. This welcoming, worshiping, and eating together attracts the old and the young, the housed and unhoused, the rich and the poor, and everyone in between.
I invite you to get a copy of Anna Woofenden’s book, “This is God’s Table”, and read it.
You can connect with her at https://www.AnnaWoofenden.com.
Again, thank you for reading this blog post.
If you liked this post, will you please forward it to your favorite social media network?
You can connect with me on Facebook.
Thanks again!
Thurman Greco
