Meetings, Meetings, Meetings: Preparing for the next Big One
“If one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And, if two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either one of them. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine three people walking in singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out, they may think it’s an organization.” – Arlo Guthrie
Disaster Preparedess, Response, and Recovery
Hudson Valley Farm Fresh
Shelter Committee
Volunteer Workforce
Feeding Committee
Community Animal Response Team
The list continues. Groups have been meeting for months.
THE FOCUS IS ON THE NEXT BIG ONE. I’ve attended some because, as a pantry coordinator, I’ll be involved somehow. After a hurricane or other disaster, the people visiting a pantry can be frightened, confused.
A pantry coordinator after Irene and Sandy, I experienced first hand the face of tragedy worn by the shoppers after they lost homes, jobs, cars.
AFTER IRENE AND SANDY, I TRIED TO INTEREST WOODSTOCK PEOPLE IN PREPARING FOR THE NEXT BIG ONE. I was too soon. The response was silence and cold stares.
Now, a group works to minimize future damage. The thought, planning, preparation, is significant, thorough, detail oriented. Many people are important in this endeavor: Michael Berg from Family, Robert Lamoree from Community Action, and Michael Raphael from American Red Cross. Beth McLenden from UlsterCorps, John Scott from Bruderhof, Stacey Rein and Su Marcey from United Way, and a deeply involved group supporting these people. Representatives from FEMA, Homeland Security, Office of the Aging, Alcoa are doing their part to move this preparations along.
THERE ARE OTHERS – MANY OTHERS. What’s important is not the names. Everyone does whatever is necessary to minimize disaster damage and to be more effective responders:
They’re seeking out community leaders and residents to identify shelters, feeding stations.
They’re planning innovative strategies to reach more people.
They’re making efforts to identify those who will need assistance.
They’re working to get as many people trained as possible.
FOR MANY, THE EFFORTS ARE HERCULEAN I see legacies being left as people work. I see careers boosted. But, let me state here: I don’t think even one person is focused on either legacy or career ladders. Everyone is focused on disaster preparation, response, and relief.
Every Monday afternoon at 2, Reservoir Food Pantry volunteers gather behind Robert’s Auction and distribute food to people whose lives were seriously impacted by Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy. Many still do not have their lives repaired.
Our disaster preparation focus at the pantry is how to feed shoppers during and after a disaster. We’re trying to identify the older homebound persons who might not be on anyone else’s radar screen.
FOR THIS, ‘HYPER LOCAL KNOWLEDGE IS NEEDED’. Unfortunately, Ulster County is a large, diverse plot of land. Few know the entire county intimately. Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Committee people are scouring the entire county and gathering information, planning…working hard to have Ulster County ready for the next Big One.
ARE YOU INTERESTED?
On Tuesday, August 26th at 10 am, there will be a Phoenicia/Shandaken Area Disaster Workforce Planning Meeting at St. Francis deSales Parish Hall in Phoenicia at 109 Main St.
YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE AREA WILL BE A GREAT HELP HERE IF YOU CAN ATTEND AND CAN SHARE.
On Tuesday, September 2nd from 5 to 9 pm, there will be an introductory training at the Ulster County Sheriff’s office, 380 Boulevard, in Kingston. I’m going to attend this one. Can you come too?
And, on Saturday, October 18th, Alcoa/American Red Cross will sponsor an Emergency Preparedness Event from 10:30 am to 3 pm at Alcoa Fastening Systems, 1 Corporate Drive, Kingston.
COME IF YOU CAN.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Homeless Visit the Food Pantry
“Homeless is not a category of people. It’s just a situation that happens. It can happen to anyone.” -Salvador Altamirano-Segura
In some respects, the homeless have problems just like you and me…
mental illness
physical disabilities
domestic violence
HIV issues
employment
underemployment
unemployment.
Finally, many are also veterans.
THEY JUST DON’T HAVE A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS.
Homeless people, families come into pantries very quietly. They’ve lost their voice. The goal is to melt into the background, get food, and disappear.
There are reasons for this. They are often suffering from mental illness in addition to homelessness. Homelessness accompanies a number of mental illnesses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Mentally ill persons have a tendency to become chronically homeless.
This can create an exception to the voiceless rule as the person communicates with beings unknown to the rest of us in tongue we don’t understand. One shopper at our pantry has been in another world since before I began working at the pantry.
According to MentalIllnessPolicy.org, there are over 250,000 seriously mentally ill homeless persons in our country. This statistic is very telling. What it says is there are more homeless people with untreated severe psychiatric illnesses than there are people receiving care for their diseases.
I see the sidewalks of whatever town or city I’m in as nothing more than wards for the untreated mentally ill. They mentally ill homeless suffer with all the day-to-day survival that all homeless have and, to top it all off, they’re sick.
THE HOMELESS HAVE SPECIAL NEEDS OVERLOOKED IN A PANTRY.
For starters, they have no address. This can be a real hindrance if a pantry bureaucracy requires such. In some communities in this area, several kind souls allow the homeless to use their location as a mail drop/address so they can receive the services they so desperately need and so they can register to vote.
Many pantry coordinators have no concept of the food needs of the homeless. Because the homeless have their kitchens in their shirt pockets, they food they use is very limited: protein/cereal bars, peanut butter, crackers, fresh fruits and vegetables to be eaten raw: blueberries, carrot sticks, celery, lemons, lettuce, limes, milk in pint containers, nuts, oranges, strawberries, sweet peppers, tomatoes.
ON BEHALF OF THE MANY HOMELESS IN OUR COUNTRY, I THANK YOU FOR READING THIS BLOG/BOOK.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
There Shouldn’t Even Be Pantries
There are sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry. – Ed Asner
THE CROWD WAS HEAVY THAT AFTERNOON, WITH THE HALLS PACKED.
People had begun to line up two hours early to shop in the pantry. Every poverty category was gathered outside the door: artists, crazy poor, disabled poor, elderly poor, employed poor, disabled poor, generational poor, hardworking poor, homebound, homeless, ill poor, mentally ill poor, messed-up poor, musicians, poets, newly poor, resource poor, struggling poor, transient poor, underemployed poor, unemployed poor, veterans, Woodstock’s colorful characters, writers. They got a three-day supply of food last week and by now it was all gone.
THE PANTRY ROOM OVERFLOWED WITH PRODUCE: oranges, lemons, carrots, potatoes, onions, eggs, Bread Alone breads, Bella Pasta, packs of organic salad mixes, fresh herbs, mushrooms. The list seemed endless.
The pantry opened promptly at 3:00 and by 3:02, there were four people already shopping in a line in the pantry room.
PRASIDA, RICH, GUY, TONY, AND ROBYN WERE AT THEIR STATIONS MOVING PEOPLE ALONG.
“Will the next two people in line please come into the pantry room now?”
“We’ve got room for another person here.”
“HEY TONY, HERE COMES ANOTHER BOX”. I was pitching freshly emptied boxes to Tony about every 2-3 minutes.
“How”‘s it going? Don’t forget to take a bag of carrots. We were able to get enough for everyone to take a bag.”
“Wait, wait, wait. What’s wrong? You’re crying. What happened?”
“Oh Thurman, I feel sooo ashamed. I was at the head of the line. Suddenly, a man walked in the door who wasn’t a shopper. He came right up to the line and spoke to us all: ‘There shouldn’t be any pantries. None of you should even be here in this building. All of you should go out and get jobs.’ “
“Thurman, you know I’m too old to work. Nobody hires people in their 70’s.”
“Listen Beverly, don’t even think about it. It was nothing.”
“OKAY EVERYONE, LET’S KEEP SHOPPING.” I SAID AS I WENT TO THE PANTRY DOOR AND CALLED TO GUY.
“What’s going on?”
” Thurman, a watcher came in and told everyone in the line that we should all go out and get jobs and that none of us should even be in the building. Everyone’s upset. But, we’re handling it.”
“Thanks’s Guy.”
“Here Tony, can you take a couple of extra boxes real fast?”
“Thanks.”
“WE CAN TAKE TWO MORE PEOPLE IN THE PANTRY.”
“Thanks for coming today. Be sure and take all the bread and salad you want. Don’t forget to go down to the barn for some frozen food. We’ve got some good deals down there today.”
“Welcome to the pantry today.”
“Let’s keep the line moving now.”
“TONY, CAN YOU TAKE SOME MORE BOXES?”
On behalf of all the people shopping and volunteering in the Good Neighbor Food Pantry that afternoon, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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
What Hunger Looks Like in Woodstock
POLITICIANS THIS YEAR POSTURE ABOUT CUTTING BENEFITS AND INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING TO PRESERVE OUR NATION. Newspaper and magazine articles regularly discuss how we now have more super wealthy CEOs and individual Americans than we have ever had before. The growing number of poor is largely ignored.
More Americans live at or below the poverty line than ever before in the history of our country according to a Feeding America survey. Where do these people come from? They come from the poor and middle classes.
THEY MAKE UP A NEW GROUP: THE STRUGGLING POOR.
In September, 1990, when the Good Neighbor Food Pantry opened, President Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev met in Helsinki to discuss the Persian Gulf crisis. Only 13.5% of our nation’s people lived below the poverty line. That percentage represented about 33.5 million people according to infoplease.com. Today, it’s estimated that 15% of Americans live at or below the poverty line. That number is about 46.2 million.
AS THE COORDINATOR OF A SMALL TOWN FOOD PANTRY, I SAW THE SHOPPER CENSUS CLIMB FROM TWENTY-FIVE PERSONS PER WEEK PRIOR TO 2008 TO 500 PER WEEK BY 2013.
For years, the pantry served mostly single homeless men and Woodstock’s colorful characters on Thursdays. By the time we were serving over 500 people weekly, we were giving a three-day-supply of food to families, households, and individuals in many categories: artists, crazy poor, elderly poor, generational poor, homebound, homeless, ill poor, infant poor, messed-up poor, musicians, poets, newly poor, resource poor, situational poor, struggling poor, terminally ill poor, transient poor, underemployed poor, unemployed poor, veterans, writers.
AS TIME PASSED, I SAW MORE AND MORE HARD WORKING PEOPLE STRUGGLE WITH THE REALITY OF NOT HAVING ANY FOOD MONEY AFTER THEY PAID THE RENT AND BOUGHT GAS TO GET TO THEIR MINIMUM WAGE JOBS. I served people just laid off from a job who I knew would never work again. Seriously ill people came for food when they had no money left because every dime had gone to pay the medical bills. Traumatized people came in when their homes were foreclosed or destroyed because of Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.
On a more personal level I met 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, people battling terminal illness, politicians, schizophrenics, thieves, veterans, Woodstock’s colorful characters, writers, various church people, and pantry volunteers.
When I meet with other professionals in the food pantry industry, we all agree that we’ve never seen anything as bad as now. Don Csaposs, a retired board member of the Food Bank of Northeastern New York recently described our situation very aptly when he said: “We are living in an upside down world.”
NOW, IN 2014, POLITICIANS PONTIFICATE ABOUT THE POOR: LAZY, IRRESPONSIBLE.
The average wait for a three-day-supply of food (which must be stretched to last a week) in the pantry hallway is almost an hour. The building committee allows no chairs for the shoppers to sit on. In the winter, there is no heat in the building except for the body heat generated by people crowded in the hallway.
AND, THIS WAIT IS ONCE THEY ARE INSIDE THE BUILDING. Many wait outside for an hour or so in freezing weather, snow, sleet, rain, 100 degree heat, before the pantry opens. It doesn’t matter. The three-day-supply of food is gone and they have no money for more.
The three-day limit is a Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) guideline. And, it’s a practical one. The fresh produce distributed isn’t going to last much more than three days because it’s been diverted from a landfill on its way to the pantry.
While receiving a three-day supply of food, they are doing without a lot: salt, pepper, sugar, flour, fresh milk, cooking oil, coffee.
Often these people, like members of the Flores family work seven days a week – every week. Every family member has more than one job. They manage to bring in enough funds to pay the rent for a cramped apartment and to buy gas.
No insurance.
No food.
No clothes.
WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT, I REALIZE EVERYTHING THEY GET IS RECYCLED:
The apartment they rent is old and rundown.
Their pickup is definitely used.
The clothing is donated to Family by people who no longer plan to use it.
THE FOOD, LIKEWISE, IS RECYCLED.
The produce, dairy, and bread is all definitely on its way to the landfill when it gets diverted and sent to the Food Bank, then on to our pantry.
The canned goods are diverted at the grocery store from the landfill. Cans are dented, outdated. Some have no labels.
The boxed goods are the worst…especially the crackers. A box of crackers is often a box of cracker crumbs.
NO MATTER, PEOPLE ARE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT THEY GET. It’s better than nothing and no one ever complains.
On behalf of the Flores family and other pantry shoppers, I thank you for reading this blog/book. This blog is their story…one that desperately needs to be told.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Inspections in the Good Neighbor Food Pantry in Woodstock
“As I finish writing about this unpleasant part of my life, I tell myself that was then, and there is now, and the years between now and then, and the then and now are one.”-Lillian Hellman
As the coordinator of a Food Bank pantry, I was trained by, supervised by, evaluated by, and inspected by the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
THESE INSPECTIONS WERE ALWAYS INFORMATIVE, INTERESTING, AND A RELIEF TO HAVE BEHIND ME. I categorized them in several “Stages”.
A STAGE ONE INSPECTION was pre-arranged by either the Food Bank or myself. The representative from the Food Bank showed up at the appointed time, carried a clip board with a form which was filled out. After the inspection, we all signed the paperwork, made small talk and the person left.
The questions dealt with the food on the shelves, how clean the room was, how far the shelves were from the walls. The Good Neighbor Food Pantry never passed this 6″ limit but no one ever said anything. The pantry room was simply too small.
A STAGE TWO INSPECTION WAS A PHONE CALL.
“Thurman, how are you doing? I’m calling because we’ve received a complaint. Someone called and reported a shopper standing outside the pantry crying. What happened?”
“I don’t know. I’ll get back with you as soon as I can find out?”
“When do you think we’ll hear from you?”
“As soon as possible. I’ll ask some volunteers and get a handle on the situation. Thanks for calling.”
At a Stage Three inspection, someone called, wrote, or visited the Food Bank with enough venom, concern, clout (you choose the word) to cause a person to get up from his/her desk, go out to the parking lot and drive to Woodstock to inspect the situation in person on the same day.
MY FIRST STAGE THREE INSPECTION WAS THE RESULT OF A PHONE COMPLAINT, I THINK. I never knew for sure. Things were urgent enough that a USDA inspector came out from Albany in a State of New York car. He was a handsome young African American man (in his 40’s) wearing a white shirt and conservative necktie. The minute he walked in the door, I knew something was up. After all, who ever comes to the pantry in Woodstock wearing a shirt and necktie?
When he left two hours later, he knew “what color my skivvies were” as my grandmother used to say. He went over inch of the pantry, asked a million questions and took a kazillion notes. This man not only found out everything there was to know about the pantry, he realized early on that I was a brand new coordinator.
HE BECAME A WONDERFUL TEACHER AND I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT HOW TO MANAGE A PANTRY FROM HIM. I asked him a million questions back and also took a kazillion notes. When he left, I felt I had a friend and the knowledge I gained gave me confidence in my performance. Needless to say, my score was wonderful.
When in Albany the next week, I told one of the Food Bank employees about my recent inspection. Her face blanched as I talked. This gentle, well mannered, kind young man was the nastiest inspector on the circuit. He was only sent out when someone was really messing things up and needed to be “taken to the woodshed.”
A NOTE TO WHOMEVER COMPLAINED THAT DAY: the inspection was thorough, fair. I passed with flying colors. Thanks!
One important thing I learned from him: It’s not necessary to ask shoppers for identification. No one is required to show anything to get food. The people do need, however, to share their names, the number of people in the household and how many seniors, adults, and children are in the household.
HE ESPECIALLY LIKED THE CHAIRS LINING THE HALLWAY AND THE FRESH PRODUCE IN THE PANTRY.
As he left, he had one suggestion: get office space in the pantry. He and I both knew that it wasn’t going to happen. The building committee finally allowed me to store records but I couldn’t use any space as an office.
AND, OF COURSE, BOTH THE CHAIRS AND THE PRODUCE WERE VERY CONTROVERSIAL.
AFTER I FINAGLED STOREROOM SPACE, I REQUESTED AN INSPECTION. I wanted to avoid a confrontation further down the road if the room didn’t meet Food Bank standards. We passed that inspection.
EVERYTHING WAS CLEAN, SAFE, AND SANITARY.
ONCE WE BEGAN OUR TAKE OUTS, A FOOD BANK INSPECTOR CAME OUT AND SPENT ABOUT TWO HOURS WITH PEGGY JOHNSON. She answered all Peggy’s questions, got a very clear understanding of what Peggy was doing, how she was doing it, and who was receiving the food. When she left, Peggy was confident in her role of Take Out Manager for the pantry.
WHEN MIRIAM’S WELL WAS ON THE ROAD, WE HAD AN INSPECTION UNDER THE TREE AT ST. GREGORY’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. No one was ever more excited about that inspection than I. We were proud of Miriam’s Well and how the shoppers were responding to the experience.
WE HAD ONE DISTURBING STAGE THREE INSPECTION. I pulled into the parking lot one pantry day afternoon to find a Food Bank representative waiting for me.
“Thurman, we’ve received some serious complaints about a volunteer stuffing her vehicle with food while hungry people are lined up and waiting to receive their food at the Mass Food Distributions. What is the story here? Is this a fair distribution of food?”
“I’ll look into it immediately.”
OVERALL, OUR INSPECTIONS WERE POSITIVE. The only negative one was the inspection in the parking lot of the food pantry.
Peace and food for all.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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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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Bread Alone, the Women of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation, and the Food Pantry
The women volunteers of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation went out to the Bread Alone Bakery in Boiceville and returned with bread each week when it was their tour in the pantry. After the third tour, Neshama, a volunteer, came up to me quietly.
“Thurman, our tour is finished here next week. If you’ll send a car out each Wednesday, you can continue to get this bread. Show up at Boiceville at 4:45 and you’ll get everything you need.” With that statement, Neshama melted into the background. I never even got to really properly thank her for this gift. What a Mitzvah!’
I called Ann King. “Hey Ann, can you help me out here? You’re connected with Bread Alone. Can you go out and get bread for us on Wednesdays?”
“Of course, I love to. When do you want me to start? I’ll call out there and get the ball rolling.” To me, Ann King is the single most connected person in Woodstock.
After that, every Wednesday, Ann went out to Bread Alone in Boiceville with Prasida and returned with Vanessa totally packed with bread. The haul included baguettes, sliced loaves in plastic bags, enormous loaves sold by weight in the stores, small specialty rolls, ciabattas, French loaves, sourdough loaves, sesame loaves, multi-grained loaves. One week we did a cost analysis and the conservative total retail value of this weekly donation was $900. The annual total value of this donation came to over $43,000.
Thank you to everyone at Bread Alone for your generosity. Although I don’t know how many pantries exactly that Bread Alone donates bread to, my bet is that the number is large. My feeling is that this bakery feeds the hungry in the whole area.
ASTOUNDING.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Statistics, Statistics, Statistics in a small town food pantry in Woodstock, New York
“In many cases, homelessness is caused by extreme misfortune, not the lack of motivation by people who suffer from it.”-Elaina Wilson
EVERY MONTH we (pantries, soup kitchens) send our statistics to the Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNA) people – the government. Numbers tell it all: how many seniors, adults, children in how many households came by for a three-day-supply of food. Except…sometimes the numbers really don’t tell it all.
A Wednesday afternoon in the pantry prepares the statistics for the HPNAP people:
“Hi, how are you doing today? Can you sign your name here? How many people are in your household? The line isn’t too long today. Things seem to be going pretty fast.”
“Nice to see you Mary. How’re things going for you?”
“Thurman, we’re so glad we could make it here today. We’ve been having a little bit of a rough patch lately. Our three grandkids are coming tomorrow and we don’t have any food in the house at all.”
Or…”How are you doing today? Your hat is just beautiful. I bet it’s one of the ones you made yourself. Glad to see you.”
“I’M NOT DOING TOO WELL TODAY. I got evicted and I’m moving in with my friend Mike. And, he lives in a studio over on Simmons. Thurman, this year has been such a struggle. Here I am, a talented, well educated woman. I just can’t seem to overcome the obstacles I’m being faced with. I can’t get a job. My efforts to start something have just not worked at all. I’m so sorry to be unloading these things on you but, right now, there’s just no one else.”
IN THE RESOURCE POOR CATEGORY THE FAMILIES CHOOSE BETWEEN FOOD AND utilities, food and housing payments, food and medicine or medical care, food and transportation, food and gasoline. This category chooses between everyday necessities and food.
Or…”We haven’t seen you in awhile. How’re you doing?”
“ACTUALLY, I’M DOING PRETTY GOOD. I GOT THE BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT SCHEDULED for next month and now I’m looking for someone to go down with me to the city to help take care of me when I get out of the hospital. I have to stay in a motel for three months after the transplant and they won’t let me get the transplant until someone promises to go and be with me. Do you know someone who can go with me? Thurman, I have absolutely no money to pay this person. I’ve got no money left at all. I know you aren’t allowed a bulletin board but can I put up some kind of notice somewhere for help?”
“I wish we did. But the building committee won’t allow us to put anything on the walls. I’ll try to spread the word, though.”
MANY PEOPLE SERVED BY PANTRIES LIVE IN poor health or without access to adequate medical care. About 50% of pantry shoppers have unpaid medical or hospital bills. This lack of insurance can be financially devastating to a family when illness strikes. The longer a person is uninsured, the worse the health becomes.
Or…”Hey Chuck, how’re you doing? We haven’t seen you in awhile.”
“Not so good Thurman. I’ve got to have neck surgery again. This is going to be the third time. I’m not even supposed to be out today but I’m completely out of food.”
Or…”Good to see you Bob. We haven’t seen you in awhile. What’s happening?”
“Well, Thurman, my car’s engine died so I can’t get out of the house. I’m completely out of food so I begged a neighbor to bring me here today.”
MOST PEOPLE SEEKING FOOD ASSISTANCE LIVE IN households existing below the Federal Poverty Line. About 75% of these people nationally earn less than $17,000 per year for a household of three.
Or…”How’re you doing today?”
“Fred’s still in the hospital. He’s been diagnosed with kidney disease and is on a special diet I’m so glad you had me go see Dr. Longmore. He told me exactly who to go see, what paperwork to get…everything I needed to get care for Fred. Because, Thurman, you know that I don’t have a dime. He’s going to get out of the hospital soon and will be on a special diet. Thank God the pantry has all these fruits and vegetables. Thurman, I don’t know what we would do without this pantry. You know we have no money and are living right on the edge. I’m hoping you have some laundry soap today.”
Or…”We haven’t seen you in a looong time. How’re things going?”
“WELL, IT’S BEEN A VERY COLD WINTER. I’ve been having a little housing trouble. I was camping out on Meads Mountain but I got caught and fined $500. So, I picked up my things and moved in from the road another thousand feet. I don’t think anyone can see me from the road now. And, I’ll tell you Thurman, it’s cold up there.”
Taken from the perspective of the people in the line, the statistics tell it all…just like it is.
AT THE END OF THE MONTH, EVERY MONTH, WE PACK UP THESE STORIES, THESE PEOPLES’ LIVES, THESE PEOPLES’ STRUGGLES AND PUT THEM INTO NUMBERS AND MAIL THEM TO THE HPNAP OFFICE.
AGENCY NUMBER
1063 households
1464 Adults
537 seniors
616 children
That about tells it all.
Thanks for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
Please share this article on your preferred social media.
Please send a comment.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
