Hunger Is Not a Disease

After 30 Years of Service, Good Neighbor Food Pantry Closes June 1.

After feeding hungry people in Woodstock for over 30 years, volunteers at the Good Neighbor Food pantry were asked to leave the pantry’s space at the Woodstock Reformed Church by June 1, when the pantry will close..

This didn’t happen because there were no hungry people to use the pantry.  This pantry has been one of the largest in the area since it expanded in the economic downfall of 2008.  Before that time, shoppers were mostly a couple dozen single homeless men and Woodstock colorful characters.

With the economic downfall, patronage escalated from 25 people per week to hundreds.  Hungry people filled the halls.  The line filed out the door into the parking lot.

Before the economic downfall, people came in and got one or two each of four basic items:  cereal, tuna fish, peanut butter, soup.  About the time that the crowds began to shop for food, the food bank changed the system  to include fresh produce and a three-day-supply of food for every person in the household.

People left the pantry with bags of food:  eggs, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, items of dignity.

Church members and townspeople never really accepted these changes.

People resented the changes they didn’t ask for.  This was understandable.  No one likes change, especially uninvited change.

They liked feeling only a few people in town needed food.

They liked thinking the pantry was “theirs” when it really belonged to the Food Bank.   After all, that’s where the food came from.  That’s where volunteer  training came from.    That’s where food and rent grants originated.

With the changes in food served came training classes at the Food Bank.  Funds became available to assist pantries with rent, and utilities.  At that time, the volunteer coordinator applied for and received a $1,000 rent grant to pay the church annually.

The $1,000 rent grant was new for the Woodstock Reformed Church.  No food pantry volunteers had  paid  rent money to help the membership.

At the time, the intention was to increase the amount annually.  $8,000 was a long range goal.

$8,000 was not out of line if the refrigerators and freezers were moved from the unpainted barn in the parking lot to the church basement.

A nationally known fundraising guru, Kim Kline, taught interested nonprofit volunteers how to raise money.  She based her success on the premise that givers give.  She told everyone in the class exactly what to do.

After this class, pantry volunteers in Woodstock did exactly as she instructed.

These fundraising efforts at the pantry made the Good Neighbor Food Pantry a success story.  Secrets of successful fundraising are outlined in detail on pages 196 and 197 of the book “I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore.”

The Good Neighbor Food Pantry need not close.  There is time to raise the money needed.  There are probably still volunteers in this pantry who remember these skills taught by Kim Kline.

There is still time to feed the many hungry people who need this food.  The need is greater now than it has ever been.

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Thank you for reading this blog post.  Please forward it to your preferred social media network.  Share it with your friends.

Thank you for your interest in feeding hungry people.  Our need is greater now than ever before.

Thurman Greco

Woodstock, New York

 

 

 

Have You Applied for SNAP?

Have you, or has someone you know, applied for SNAP? SNAP is about all that’s left in the way of assistance for people as welfare shrinks and shrinks.

SNAP is important for you and your household because you’ll be able to get more food with your SNAP card and you won’t be hungry anymore. This can translate to better health.

Are there more days in your month than money? Are you a senior who has outlived your pension, savings, or 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 your situation.

If you have trouble buying food, 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 because of it. 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.

You may be reluctant to apply for SNAP because you don’t know if you are eligible. Or, maybe you applied in the past but were denied. Maybe even you don’t know how to apply and are overwhelmed by the application. You might even have never heard of SNAP and think of it as food stamps.

SNAP is a debit card which offers privacy and is easy to use in grocery stores. If you don’t want anyone to know you receive SNAP, they won’t. Once you are approved, your SNAP allotment will be renewed monthly.

One thing: If you work, you need to know how to meet the work requirements. Some information is needed for you to apply successfully for SNAP. This information comes in several categories.

Proof of income is necessary. You can use pay stubs, social security income information.

Are you a senior? You are eligible for SNAP. If you are a senior, please apply for SNAP benefits. You worked all your life, paid your taxes, contributed to the economy. It’s time to benefit from all of the contributions you made throughout your life.

Identification is needed. This might be a state ID, passport, birth certificate.

Bills help. Bring your medical, heating, water, auto, rent bills.

Your social security number and the numbers of everyone in your household are necessary.

Dependent care costs will help. These include day care costs, child support, being an attendant for a disabled adult.

Contact your local Department of Social Services office for application assistance. If this doesn’t work, contact your Office on Aging or Catholic Charities.

SNAP is important for you if you’re having trouble buying groceries. SNAP helps you pay for the food you need to live a healthy life. When you eat healthier food, you will prevent and control some chronic health issues. This will lower your medical bills.

SNAP is important for your community, too, because when you are able to get food with SNAP, you’ll have cash available to use to pay your rent or buy gas to get back and forth to work.

SNAP is also good for your community because the allotment on your SNAP card brings outside money to your community. The money you bring into your local economy helps farmers, grocers, and local businesses.

When you buy groceries with SNAP, you are not taking money away from someone else who might need it more. There are enough SNAP dollars for everyone.

You can still shop at a food pantry if you are eligible for SNAP.

Get SNAP today!

Be well.

Thurman Greco

Thank you for reading this article.  Please refer it to your favorite social media network.

New Beginnings – Part 2 as I Explore the Spirituality of Hunger in America

 

 

 

 

Like many first-time pantry volunteers everywhere, I showed up that morning because someone from the church asked me to come.  A slot needed to be filled and I stepped up to the plate when I was asked.  I was a foot soldier in the army of the outreach.  I tried to live up to my status in the church as a new member.  I showed up at whatever activity needed help and did my share.  Nothing more.

I had no desire to move up any ladder in the congregation.

On that morning of new beginnings, I had no premonition I would ever return to this pantry room.

I had no plans for this place in my future.  I had a profession teaching reflexology, Reiki, and canine massage therapy in a healing space in my home on Tannery Brook.

This was a case of fools rushing.  Knowing what I know now, I should have run out the door and never looked back.  Mary could have handled the crowd that day without me.  In the whole two hours, no more than a couple dozen people visited the pantry.

I wasn’t blessed with any psychic knowledge…certainly not the feeling of danger I felt when I saw the head of the building committee in the hallway outside the pantry months later.

There were no lines in the hallway at the new beginnings of my time there.  People wandered into the pantry in groups of one and two to choose from cereal, soup, tuna, and peanut butter.

Never in my wildest thoughts on that day did I envision the pantry hallway filled with hungry people, the tiny room packed with fresh produce and jammed with shoppers.

By 2008, the tanked economy was well underway and waits in the hallway were an hour or more.

The Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) passed down feeding guidelines which included whole-grain bread, 1% milk, fresh produce.  By 2011, the building committee had rules dictating where people could stand, what bathroom they could use, and what parts of the hallway were off-bounds.

Never did I foresee monthly food deliveries averaging over 12,000 pounds.

Never did I imagine, on that day, building committee members angry over hungry people receiving food according to guidelines set down by the State of New York, the Department of Health, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

I never thought I would spend months grappling with the unworthy hungry, a concept introduced to me by a local religious leader.  The concept wasn’t explained.  Only the two words – unworthy hungry – were used in a sentence:  “You are feeding the unworthy hungry.”  This was something I never heard of before.  What did she mean?  Who were the unworthy hungry?

After that first morning in the food pantry, I drove home, pulled out a little notebook from a drawer and wrote what people said, like real writers do.  When I wrote these things down, I felt my grandmother’s presence.

Her spirit was with me in the room.  I looked around the dining area to see if someone had entered the room without my realizing it.  But, no, I didn’t find a soul.  I walked over to a cabinet and began my dialogue journal on that afternoon.

A shopper:  “They cut my food stamps again.  I don’t know how I’m going to make it.  I have no money this month.  My car died and I don’t know where I’m going to get money to fix it.  If I can’t fix it, I can’t buy a new one either.”

Lillie Dale Cox Thurman spoke to me clearly that morning with emphatic, strong, direct instructions.  She went straight to my head:  “Write this down!  Write this down too!  Now…write this down.”

My grandmother, Lillie Dale Cox Thurman, stepped into my life on the first morning in the food pantry and never left.  Not even when my mother, Uralee Thurman Lawrence, roared in with prayers and fast, furious, aggressive instructions which I resisted to the bitter end.  Under their directions, I joined the crowd in the basement and was soon volunteering regularly.

So, now, I’ve got the second volume, “The Ketchup Sandwich Chronicles,”  coming out on this blog.

 

Thank you for reading this blogged book!  Please refer it to your preferred social media network and stay tuned for future chapters!

Thurman Greco