Hunger Is Not a Disease

My Search – The Food Pantry Needs a Refrigerator – “The Ketchup Sandwich Chronicles”

February 16, 2019 at 2:00 pm

The pantry had a refrigerator and I needed a place to put it. But, to begin at the beginning, the food pantry had hungry people wanting and needing the hundreds of dozens of eggs we got from the food bank and Aldi’s.

Pantry volunteers needed a place to store the eggs before we distributed them. Where, oh where, could I put the refrigerator?

Early on pantry day, when I packed eggs in my car, nothing much else fit. Reusable shopping bags filled with eggs were in the rear hatch, on the seats, and on the floor. I felt like I was driving an egg mobile instead of a Prius. The only negative was refrigeration.

Each new food group added to the pantry shelves changed the dynamic, the pace of shopping in the room. Eggs were a huge addition. They were cheap. They didn’t take up much space but packed a nutritional punch. They were easy to cook. They were in big demand every time they were available in the pantry.

At the Food Bank of Northeastern New York in Latham I bought thirteen cases of loose eggs at a time whenever I could get them. When food bank stock was depleted, I bought over a hundred dozen eggs at a time at Aldi, a food store located at 767 East Chester Street in Kingston, across the road from Prestige Toyota. Aldi was the only local store willing to sell eggs to the pantry.

I tried to buy eggs at local farms and at Adams Fairacre, ShopRite, and Hannaford’s in Kingston. Nobody would sell eggs to the pantry because over a hundred dozen eggs were just too many and the pantry need wasn’t steady enough.

Aldi didn’t mind though. The store manager kept hundreds of dozens of eggs behind the glass door of a refrigerator case on the back wall of the store. All I had to do was open the door, wheel out the egg trolley, and load all the eggs I needed in large, reusable shopping bags which I brought with me. It took four shopping carts to get the loaded eggs to the checkout clerk.

I spent several months quietly searching for the refrigerator space I needed. I had a refrigerator and I just needed a place to put it. Then I got serious. I began with the church.

“Pastor, the pantry needs a refrigerator for eggs.”

“The pantry room is too small and the building committee won’t allow it.”

Next, I called around Woodstock from a list I’d made of people who might be willing to help me out. After the pastor, the Town Supervisor was top of the list. I was on his election committee when he successfully ran for office.

“Hi. I’m looking for refrigerator space for the pantry. Can I put one in the Community Center kitchen? I’ll donate it to the town. I just want to use it one day each week for eggs.”

“No.”

“Thanks.” Well, I thought, it’s a good thing I made a list!

I knew Woodstock Democratic Committee members. One was even on the Woodstock Town Board.

“I’m looking for refrigerator space for the pantry. I’ve got the refrigerator, I just want to use it one day a week for eggs. Do you know someplace in town where we can put one?”

“I’ll ask around and see what I can find.”

“How about Town Hall? There’s a large empty room there.”

“That won’t work. We’re going to renovate that building.”

My list is getting me nowhere fast, I thought.

At the end of the church parking lot stood a long, dirt floored, unpainted, rattlety trap building, a storage space for the popular Woodstock Village Green Bed and Breakfast. If I could get a corner in that old barn, I could put a refrigerator on a pallet. Dare I hope? I didn’t know the owners personally, but there didn’t seem to be any other options. So, I picked up the phone and called.

“I’m wondering if the pantry can rent a little corner of your barn for a refrigerator. I’m desperate for a place to store eggs. I’ve asked everyone and you are my absolute last hope.”

I might be able to pull this one off, I thought. When the pantry inspectors come, I just won’t mention the barn. I had to rely on food bank inspectors looking the other way and not asking about the food bank eggs.

One of the owners called back. “We can do this and there won’t be any charge.”

“Thanks. You’re going to heaven for this.”

“The refrigerator in the barn worked fine. Volunteers distributed eggs to shoppers on pantry day. Over time, local residents donated refrigerators and freezers.

Shopper census rose until we outgrew our small storage closet in the hallway.

“I need space Pastor. If you can’t spare a room for the pantry, I’ll just have to ask volunteers to bring the next shipment to my home where I’ll put it in my healing space. This is our biggest shipment yet, 3,000 pounds. The food is coming in.”

Each monthly shipment from the food bank up to this point had totaled less than 2,000 pounds. Pastor appealed to his consistory and the building committee. Word on the street was that many meetings followed and the pantry finally got, somehow, permission, maybe, to use the room at the end of the hall.

Food delivery day arrived and volunteers put food in the room. As they brought boxes into the room, I looked around. Nobody was there at the moment. The universe is on my side, I thought.

I hurried upstairs to the church office where I found the secretary. “We’re so happy to be able to store food in the room. Do you think it’ll be okay to bring a refrigerator in? This would mean we can keep eggs in the storeroom.”

Slowly, she smiled. “Sure, bring it in.”

Within minutes after I spoke with her, two men carried a refrigerator to the store room. “Put it against this wall,” I said, pointing to the one place where it would be least obvious.

At the end of the morning, building committee members inspecting the new storeroom saw a room full of food and a refrigerator filled with eggs. They were not happy.

I thought the pastor’s secretary was the number two person in the church so I went with her okay. The expressions on their faces taught me that the only people with any authority in that church were the building committee members.

From that morning on, pantry volunteers filled the stockroom to capacity with the food we got from the food bank. The refrigerator hummed along as we stacked eggs on every shelf in it weekly.

I don’t think I got permission to use the room permanently. It was a squatter’s rights kind of thing. Once I got the food in there, they couldn’t get me out. Before it was all over, the pantry received shipments every month exceeding 12,000 pounds.

The storeroom was a wonderful addition to the pantry. We routinely ordered food for advance needs during lean months and the refrigerator stored eggs.

The storeroom made all the difference.

Same with the barn. The dirt (mud when it rained) floor was permanently covered with flattened cardboard boxes and the refrigerators and freezers were stacked on pallets.

Was I wrong to have been so pushy?

Well, I don’t think so. I did make one mistake, though. I should have moved all the refrigerators and freezers into the storeroom that morning.

There were enough outlets.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for reading this article. Please share it with your favorite social media network.

Thurman Greco

Woodstock, New York

P.S. Please stay tuned for future chapters from my upcoming book “The Ketchup Sandwich Chronicles”.

    Do you work at a pantry? Do you shop at a pantry? Do you donate to a pantry? – Part 6

    December 11, 2014 at 6:37 am

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    THERE’S NO WAY TO GET AROUND IT.

    Efforts by pantries and soup kitchens to connect with hungry people  make them inefficient.

    A person may spend several hours on the phone just trying to find  a pantry  open on a specific day that s/he has transportation.  And, calling ahead is important.  Often the list a person is working with  is inaccurate/out of date.

    MOST IMPORTANT:   PANTRY SHOPPERS NEED TO DETERMINE IN ADVANCE IF THEY’RE GOING TO BE ADMITTED TO THE PANTRY THEY’RE TRYING TO SHOP AT.

    On the Food Bank front, no one can call the Food Bank of Northeastern New York or the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley disorganized or inefficient.  The delivery systems, quality management, efficient consumer response, and sensitivity to the needs of the different agencies is above reproach.

    How the employees at these 2 Food Banks can soldier on year after year is beyond me.  I visit a Food Bank weekly.

    I PLACE, ON AVERAGE,  2-3 ORDERS MONTHLY.   A Reservoir Food Pantry volunteer is  in the produce area of the food bank every Monday.  The employees are always courteous, friendly, professional.  Never has an order been botched.  This is an amazing record when one considers there are only 80 employees (some part time) for 1028 agencies.

    Inefficiencies are seen in the enormous labor involved in a food drive.  And…the Food Banks thrive on food drives.

    FOOD DRIVES TAKE AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF WORK ON THE PART OF MANY PEOPLE.   An “army” is needed to advertise the food drive, determine and monitor the collection points, motivate people to give the food to the hungry and then take it to the collection points.

    Once that happens, the food is assembled at a central point for sorting.  Finally, after much handling, this food ends up on its way to a food pantry.  Many  people involved in a food drive project are volunteers.

    Fortunately the HPNAP people in New York State  instituted client choice guidelines  in 2008  so  volunteers  no longer spend hours filling bags of food to be distributed to the shoppers.

    When food bags were distributed,  people would be given bags of food:

    which they possibly could/could not cook based on their kitchen facilities.

    and which they possibly could/could not eat based on their health issues.

    With client choice, the food collected is much more efficiently distributed. ( Shoppers take home the food they can use.

    ON THE SUPERMARKET FRONT, THERE ARE COMMUNITIES, NEIGHBORHOODS, AND RURAL AREAS THROUGHOUT OUR COUNTRY WITHOUT GROCERY STORES.  We call these areas “food deserts”.  Food pantries and soup kitchens  replace  disappearing supermarkets in inner-city and rural locations.

    In a different system:

    one where adequate food stamps are distributed to hungry people,

    one where an adequate minimum wage meets the housing, transportation, and food needs of a household,

    many people now lined up at food pantries and soup kitchens could shop at the store of their choice and purchase the food they want and can eat.  There would be profit making businesses in these inner city and rural areas.

    But, then, what would happen to all of us who spend our lives volunteering and working so that others might eat?

    How could we continue to reduce landfill clutter?  How could we reduce  dumpster and composter costs?

    How could we continue to recycle all the wonderful produce if there is no place for it to go?

    FOOD PANTRIES AND SOUP KITCHENS FUNCTION SUCCESSFULLY BECAUSE COSTS ARE MINIMAL.  Everything is donated:

    Volunteer time

    Recycled food which has been diverted from a landfill

    Pantry Space.

    Thank you for reading this blog/book.

    Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.

    Please send a comment.

    Don’t forget to join the email list.

    Peace and food for all.

    Thurman Greco

    November, 2014

    November 3, 2014 at 7:47 am

    GNP45

    “Say goodbye to the landlord for me;

    Sons of bitches always bored me.” – Guy Clark

    Yet another round of food stamp cuts went into effect just a year ago this month.  This national event with far reaching repercussions didn’t negatively affect everyone.  After all, a person not receiving SNAP card funds wasn’t even affected unless s/he was politically conservative.  In that case, November 5, 2013 was a glorious day.

    FOR THOSE RECEIVING SNAP CARD FUNDS, THE IMPACT WAS SERIOUS.

    Diane, a pantry shopper has been a widow now for a little over 2 years.  She depends totally on her low social security check.  Her SNAP card allotment was reduced to $45.  This $45 is her total food budget.  After Diane pays her rent and utilities, she has no $$$ left for food.  All the food she eats comes from the SNAP card and a pantry.  She purchases her clothes at the Family of Woodstock free store.

    Diane’s old car recently needed repairs and she tried to borrow the needed $$$.  That never happened so she wisely gave up and moved to Saugerties to be on a bus line.  Honestly, I don’t know how she managed to pull off a move.  They are very expensive endeavors.

    FOR PANTRY VOLUNTEERS, THE NOVEMBER 5TH CUTS BROUGHT DREAD.    We know  reducing SNAP card benefits isn’t the answer.   When people shop for groceries with SNAP funds, they not only offer nourishment to themselves and their families, they bring much needed outside $$$ to the area, which is often depressed.

    Many people have financial problems today which they are never going to overcome without a serious change in our country’s attitude toward poverty.  People have no $$$ for food because of:

    lack of viable employment

    high housing costs

    high medical costs

    Pantry shoppers lack resources to get beyond a chronic condition of lack in their lives.  A few people today are rich at the expense of the poor.  According to Couleecap, the richest 1% increased their share of total income by 10%, while, on average, the remaining 99% saw their piece of the pie shrink by 1-2%.

    As food benefits were gutted on that fateful day in November, pantry volunteers had valid concerns:

    THEY FEARED A NEW WAVE OF OVERWHELMINGLY LONG LINES OF HUNGRY PEOPLE.

    They feared we would all run out of food for the people and be unable to get enough  to feed the ever increasing number.

    There was a realization that few understand:   it’s been a long time since we really were emergency food providers.

    MANY FEARS BECAME REALITY.  Pantry shopping has definitely become more popular.   Every week Prasida and Francine bring back more and more food and every bit of it is distributed.  Sean Bigler records our weekly journey on a chart on the Reservoir Food Pantry Facebook page and on our website.

    The Food Banks of Northeastern New York and the Hudson Valley mustered forces to provide enough food every week.  They send trucks to farms, grocers, food manufacturers and bring food back for pantries to take to their shoppers.  If the hungry can make it to a pantry, they are fed.

    POOR AND STRUGGLING PEOPLE HAVE SLIPPED YET ANOTHER NOTCH AWAY FROM THE RICH.   I am convinced, every time I open the pantry doors, that there are now 2 Americas:  the haves and the have nots.

    We recently received a request for statistics:

    How many have we turned away?

    How long is our waiting list?

    THE QUESTIONS WERE ENDLESS, IT SEEMED.   Well, we don’t have those statistics in the Reservoir Food Pantry because we feed the people.  The weekly trip to Latham continues rain,  shine or snow.  The monthly food drives at the Kingston Walmart are important for pantry volunteers.

    Most weeks we run out of food about the same time we run out of people so we don’t turn anyone away.  We offer a heartfelt “thank you” to everyone who donates food to food banks and food pantries.

    At the pantry’s close last Monday, there were 4 carrots left over in a small box, and another small box 1/2 filled with green beans.

    We cannot do our job week after week without the continued support of:

    Migliorelli Farm,

    Ulster Corp gleaners,

    Shandaken Community Gardens,

    Kingston Walmart,

    Boiceville IGA.

    Father Nicholas at Holy Ascension Monastery shares donated yogurt with our pantry.

    Pieta Williams brings items of dignity.

    Lisa Library sends new books for the children.

    Beecher Smith and John Parete at Boiceville Inn are the reason we have a pantry with shelves now.

    LAST MONTH WE SERVED 856 PEOPLE.  In September the number was 834.   We expect November’s number to be higher.  It has never gone down yet.  Why should the trend be different this month?

    THE ACTUAL NUMBER DOESN’T MATTER.   We don’t plan to turn anyone away.

    Thank you for reading this blog/book.

    Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.

    Please send a comment.

    Don’t forget to sign up on the email list.

    Peace and food for all.

    Thurman Greco

    What? You’re STILL Here!

    September 12, 2014 at 8:04 am

    Pantry HND 3

    Can you believe it?  We’re STILL here!

    Reservoir  Food Pantry celebrated its first anniversary yesterday with an open house at our pantry shed behind Robert’s Auction in Boiceville.  Even with the wet weather, we had more guests than I ever imagined would come by!  We celebrated our new shed and now will begin to distribute food from this place beginning Monday afternoon at 2:00.

    On September 9, 2013, a band of four people who barely knew each other embarked on an adventure.  By the time we had our open house, we had fed 2810 households composed of 1874 adults, 2315 seniors, and 747 children.

    THAT SAYS IT ALL.

    But, wait!  Look at those numbers a bit.  We fed more seniors than we did the adults and children combined.

    OKAY NOW, THAT SAYS IT ALL.

    The 501(c)3 application was a joint effort with Sean putting in about 95% of the work.  This was a successful first project.  We received our approval!

    I guided us through the Food Bank process.  We’ve been an agency for several months now and, on July 1, 2014, we became eligible for a HPNAP line of credit offering food for the growing number of hungry shoppers.

    Prasida tracked the funds from the very beginning.

    Bonnie became the writer for all our activities including taking meeting minutes and writing press releases.

    Bonnie, Sean, and Prasida inspected every empty building along Route 28 in the Ashoken Reservoir area.  Many were perfect for our needs except for the rent.  We simply couldn’t afford what they asked.

    FINALLY, TOWNSPEOPLE CAME TO OUR RESCUE:

    John Parete is extremely generous with his restaurant.  Most of the people on our homebound list  are fed from stock kept in the “Bodega”.  We have  a freezer and refrigerator there also.  And, (very importantly), no one minds if we bring in food throughout the week.  John always greets us with a smile and is donating the space.  The only flaw in this scenario was that we didn’t ask him sooner.

    The Wastewater Treatment Plant people in tandem with the Olive Town Board is supportive.  We drive up to the parking lot on Mondays as if we own the place.  And, for the short time we’re there, we really do own the parking lot.  It’s a squatter’s rights kind of thing.

    Beecher Smith is generously sharing his property behind the Robert’s Auction so we can have our sheds.  We simply cannot distribute food from the parking lot through freezing temperatures and snowfalls.

    FRESH FOODS COME FROM FAR AND WIDE:

    Bread  Alone

    Migliorelli Farm

    Shandaken Gardens

    Huguenot Street Farm

    Food Bank of Northeastern New York

    Prasida  and Francine  drive up to the Food Bank every Monday morning for food.  We distribute this food as if we’re at the entrance to the Versailles.  As far as I’m concerned, we are at the entrance to the Versailles.

    Canned, dried, and boxed goods come from the Food Bank.  Volunteers have food drives at the Boiceville IGA one Saturday every other month.  Monthly food drives are held at the entrance to the Kingston Walmart.  Members of the Wesleyan Church had a food drive for us at Christmas.

    Esotec beverages is generous with periodic donations of juices and other beverages.

    Food from the Food Bank is recycled.  The produce, dairy, and bread given to us at Latham is all on its way to the landfill when it gets diverted and sent to the Food Bank, then on to  pantries, shelters, half way houses.  The canned goods are diverted at the grocery store from the landfill.  Cans are dented.  Many are outdated.  Some have no labels anymore.

    As more people find us, 2015 promises to be more eventful than 2014.    Each week, people walk, ride bicycles, drive cars to get to our  pantry.  It’s time  to   focus on developing systems and procedures given to me by my superiors at the Food Bank.

    Most people who shop at our pantry are Resource Poor.  They routinely choose between food and rent, food and medical expenses, food and transportation.  Resource poor are also food insecure.  They lack, at times, enough food for an active, healthy life for the household members.  Food insecurity comes in 2 categories:

    Food Insecure

    Very Low Food Security

    When we talk very low food security, we know some have limited access to grocery stores.  Their food comes from gas station food markets, and convenience stores. I’m not running down gas stations and convenience stores.  But it’s hard to find food that really nourishes there.  Vegetables and fruits are scarce.  When they are available, they’re expensive.  Salt, grease, and sugar are in abundance.  Fat is cheap, available, and filling.

    The area surrounding the Reservoir Food Pantry is just such a place.  A person, for example, living in Shokan is miles from the Boiceville IGA.  This trip becomes very challenging if there is no car or other means of transportation.

    Lack of transportation in the area  makes for a very strong take out department.  Many  shoppers  are unable to get to us.   We’re seeking volunteers to pack and deliver food to yet more homebound households.

    Disaster preparation looms large in our area – whether we’re ready or not.  We’re the strongest pantry in the Reservoir area and may be called upon in the event of a disaster.  The aftermath of  Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy was difficult for this area.  Many lost everything:  home, job, car.

    We are all grateful for the sponsorship of the Zen Mountain Monastery without which we would never have even gotten to first base.  The ripple effect of this generosity is traveling far and wide through both space and time.

    So…we’re still here.  We hope to be here in the future.  We plan to be here in the future.

    Thank you for reading this blog/book.

    Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.

    Please send a comment.

    Please sign up on the mailing list.

    Peace and food for all.

    Thurman Greco

    Pea

     

    We’re