In the Parking Lot of the Woodstock Reformed Church
“It’s one thing to wish for things to be different in your life, and it’s something else to have the capacity to create the life you want.” – Sister Mohini
Every week more people came to the pantry for food than the week before. This phenomenon had been going on for months…years; ever since the fall of the economy in 2008. Some weeks we’d get ten new families.
And, of course, they all became regular shoppers.
“We’ve got to do something>” I said to Guy Oddo one afternoon.
“Yup” he aid “the parking lot’s dangerous. There’s going to be a wreck out there one of these days.”
Actually, there was. Someone ran into my car about two weeks ago. “Do you have any suggestions?”
“Well, how about we put a volunteer in the parking lot to direct traffic.?”
“What if we limit the shopping time in the pantry?”
“Can we make some of these people park in the town lot down the street?”
So, we did all three things. Guy stood in the parking lot with maps to other parking lots in town. He distributed the maps while directing traffic. And, we further limited the shopping time in the pantry.
They kept coming, the new families. They needed the food.
Nothing,
not rain,
not sleet,
not snow,
not 100-degree afternoons,
not a totally packed parking lot,
not insults from pantry deniers stopped them.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
1 Corinthians – A Puzzle I’m Trying to Solve
“I sometimes listen to politicians talk about the poor people, welfare and food stamps and notice no one ever talks about the enormous fear that comes with poverty and with the constant state of high anxiety. You feel as though there is a giant boulder gradually sliding down a mountainside towards you. Any disruption, any time day or night it could hurtle down and crush you.” – Sheila Moore
The first time I met the Pastor of Woodstock’s Christ Lutheran Church, she used a phrase I had never heard before: feeding the “unworthy hungry” as she lobbied against the new pantry guidelines set down by the Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program. I was mystified. What did this term mean? Where did it originate? I heard it again, off and on, at pantry meetings and occasionally in the hallway.
Because this term came from a Lutheran Minister, I did some research. I went to my computer and googled “unworthy hungry”. Up came a list of websites, all of which referred to the text in 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians, a book in the New Testament of the Bible, was written by Paul of Tarsus to followers in Corinth according to BibleStudyTools.com: “All believers are indispensable to the church.” The “unworthy hungry” I heard the Pastor refer to didn’t seem to match what I read at yearinthebible.com which spoke a lot about love: “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Do everything in love.” Mark Mattison in auburn.edu, concluded “The next time your church celebrates communion, take a look around the room and consider the brothers and sisters with whom you are communing…Drink deeply of the cup of forgiveness and thank God that Christ is coming soon to usher us in to the banquet hall where we shall celebrate with the saints in the body.”
Everything here I read was confusing because I didn’t read “unworthy hungry” in any of the quotes. What was the connection?
If what I read in 1 Corinthians was correct, the people who came to the pantry are not the “unworthy hungry”. They are, instead, coming to receive communion in the most basic sense. Instead of a sip of wine and a bit of communion wafer, they receive the food they need to sustain themselves in the coming week.
1 Corinthians seems, to me, to be more about how to conduct the sacrament not how to feed the poor.
This confirms my theory that pantries are, indeed, religious services, churches if you will. The pantry service offers neither theology nor creed nor rituals. The pantry service works through love. Feeding the hungry is a sacrament.
The “unworthy hungry” term relates to the way people abused the Lord’s Supper. I never saw anybody in the line at the Good Neighbor Food Pantry abusing anything except maybe their feet as they stood for extended periods of time. These people were, for the most part, respectful, grateful, hopeful. They were trying to make their way through life with insufficient money, food, healthcare, transportation, education, spiritual support.
“Thurman, how can you serve food to her? Her son works and she has a car. She shouldn’t get food.”
“Thurman, that woman lives in Kingston. You gave food to a family from Shandaken last week. Our pantry should be for Woodstockers only.”
“Thurman, that person’s car is too nice. How can you give food to a person with a car like that?”
“Thurman, the cardboard boxes from the Food Bank create an eyesore when the church people are entering and leaving the building on pantry day. Please keep the cardboard out of sight.”
“Thurman, you are serving entirely too much food to these people. You can’t do this.”
“Thurman, why are you serving fresh fruits and vegetables in the pantry? You shouldn’t do this.”
“Thurman, you’ve begun to open the pantry in the afternoons. Our pantry should not be open in the afternoons.”
“Thurman, you’re serving entirely too many people.”
“Thurman, you’re serving all the wrong people here.”
“Thurman, you’re filling this building with vagrants and riffraff. You need to keep the riffraff out.”
“Thurman, you don’t serve this kind of food to these people. They’re going out of here with $70-80 worth of fresh produce. This is wrong. I’m going to tell Pastor Sonja, Ed Jabbs, and Pastor Bode about this. I’m very close to Pastor Sonja and she’s not going to be happy. You’re feeding the unworthy hungry.”
“Thurman, why is the pantry open two days each week?”
“Thurman, you shouldn’t feed this food to these people. If they’re hungry enough, they’ll eat anything.
The term “unworthy hungry” was a popular phrase used as the amount and quality of food was discussed. The HPNAP guideline that the pantry serve a three-day-supply of food to include fresh produce, whole grain breads, and 1% milk was extremely unpopular to some people.
The subtext of this dialogue was that if the pantry didn’t give them the right kind of food or enough food, they would leave town…go to Kingston.
In order to understand the situation, a person needs to look at the whole picture.
Pantries are our tax dollars at work.
A popular refrain was that no one who lived outside of Woodstock should receive food from the pantry. Kingston had many pantries, soup kitchens, shelters. Saugerties had four pantries. Woodstock had two pantries. Bearsville had a pantry, Phoenicia had a pantry. Olivebridge had a pantry. Then there was a long dry spell until Margaretville. There were many poor and hungry people living along the Route 28 corridor from Woodstock to Margaretville. Where were these people to go for food?
They hitch hiked in. They rode the bus. They piled in cars. They came to the pantry in any and all kinds of weather.
They were hungry.
The struggle to get food to where it’s needed is never ending. The needs of the hungry were great. All we did, as a pantry, was open the door and let the hundreds of hungry people walk in…in groups of five.
But, that was only part of the story. At the lowest rung of the poverty ladder, it’s not what pantry the household is nearest. It’s where they can get to. If a person lives in Saugerties, for example, and the nearest pantry is open on Monday, it will be of no use to the person who can’t get to the pantry on Monday. However, if the pantry in Woodstock is open on Wednesday and the person can get a ride on Wednesday to the pantry, then that’s the pantry which will be used.
Pantry deniers concerned with feeding the “unworthy hungry” need to consider the source of both the food and the money. The Good Neighbor Food Pantry, a tax exempt 501(c)3 corporation, received funding from many sources outside Woodstock. The majority of the food came from Food Banks located in Latham and Cornwall.
Sponsors are very important to a pantry. Good Neighbor Food Pantry sponsors came from many locations. The Boy Scout Food Drive originated in Kingston at the Boy Scout Headquarters. The food itself came each year from a troop in Glenford. The annual United States Postal Service Food Drive included food from all over Ulster County. Shoprite in Kingston donated money annually. Wakefern Corporation donated funds annually to our pantry from their office in New Jersey. Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Kingston and Catskill donated money. Hannaford’s in Kingston donated food boxes in December. One Saugerties family donated over $3000 annually. Markertek in Saugerties donated funds to the pantry. The ancient Order of Hibernians in Kingston donated money.
The list of individual donors located outside Woodstock is pages long. People throughout the country feel a connection to Woodstock and want to share.
Ethically, in order for the Good Neighbor Food Pantry to refuse to serve households outside of Woodstock, the pantry would also have to refuse donations from businesses, foundations, and individuals outside Woodstock. The pantry would have to stop getting food from the Food Banks.
Funding the pantry received from out-of-the-area donors far outweighed the shoppers who lived beyond the 12498 zip code.
I felt compelled to refer to Jesus. When Jesus fed people, he never asked who they were, where they lived, why they needed food. He simply fed the people. He made no mention of requiring people to show proper ID or live in a particular zip code. Additionally, He never preoccupied Himself with their character. He cared not whether they were ill, wealthy, thieves, criminals, etc. If they were hungry, they were fed.
In any event, both the argument I heard about feeding the “unworthy hungry” and my rebuttal never really amounted to more than so much hot air and anger being spread around the room.
The State of New York, through the management policies and guidelines of the Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) determines who gets fed and who doesn’t get fed in a pantry. They are crystal clear. In 2012, a directive entitled “Open to the Public” was handed down to agencies. The “Open to the Public” feeding program policy includes all populations without regard to gender, race, color, ethnicity, age, nationality, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, income, disability, or health status. We do not exclude any population group from receiving services upon first request or repeat visits to our pantry.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Banks Are All About Distributing Food To The Hungry.
When I visit the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley or the Food Bank of Northeastern New York, the thing that comes to mind is that everyone is focused on feeding the people.
Food Banks are all about getting food. The warehouse has bays for large 18-wheelers to bring in loads of food for distribution.
The produce area is always packed with both food and agency representatives shopping for food.
Food. Food. Food. That’s all that’s going on.
In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, in the midst of all the people trying to get as much food loaded into their rigs as quickly as possible, there are four women at the Food Bank of Northeastern New York who are on the front line focused on keeping the food flowing to the hungry.
Kathy, Bonnie, Michele, and Nora are on the job every single day.
They are the hub of the operation.
Everyone who calls in or walks into the Food Bank of Northeastern New York meets Kathy first. She’s got an infectious smile, a winning way. When I talk to Kathy, I know that all is right with the world.
The phones are ringing off the walls all day long everyday. But, when Kathy answers my call, I know that she’s got all day and a special message for me and me alone.
When I give a food order to Bonnie, Nora, or Michele, I know they’ve got my pantry’s best interest at heart.
Frankly, this attitude, this treatment, this mannerly approach is special. It’s also quite rare. When was the last time you spoke on the phone to someone who cared about you and your needs? It’s been years for me.
The Reservoir Food Pantry is new. The Reservoir Food Pantry is still small. The budget of the Reservoir Food Pantry is even smaller. So, it’s imperative that every order reflects the very best deals.
When I call the Food Bank, I’m looking for the new arrivals on the USDA front. This food is free and because of the pantry’s size and newness, we’re only allowed two cases of whatever USDA comes in. Other than that, I’m after the best deals to be found on the Donation List and the Surplus List. So, I call two or three days each week to get whatever is available.
Then, on the following Monday morning, Prasida and Roseann drive to Latham and Cornwall and pick up as much produce as they can load in their vehicles.
Prasida also gets the order from the conveyor belt (We have a standing 11:00 a.m. appointment for boxed foods).
“Hi Chris. What have we got today?…WOW! Look at those oranges! And those organic apples! What a prize! Onions. Carrots. Salads. Chris, thanks so much for all you do.”
It’s crowded out in the produce room also. Again, everyone who comes in contact with us is there to help us, to serve our needs, support our efforts to feed the hungry.
Inside the building offices there is a whole army of people working hard to see that food gets to the Food Bank so it can be distributed to us. It’s very comforting to know that, no matter how difficult our tasks are in our pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, we have strong support for the jobs we do.
With support like that, we can’t lose.
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Peace and food for all.
7 Things to Consider When Searching for a Food Pantry
All food pantries are different. You need to shop for a food pantry as you would for a car, a major appliance, or any other big ticket item.
THE FIRST THING to look for in a pantry is the location. Where is the nearest food pantry? Will you be comfortable shopping at a pantry in your neighborhood? There are some real pros and cons to this decision. If you shop at your neighborhood food pantry, it’s inevitable that you’ll be seen by people who know you. For some, this is going to be the worst moment of your life. For others, not so.
One nice thing about choosing a pantry near where you live or work is that you’ll save on transportation costs. Also, pantries usually take a while to visit so the less time you spend traveling to and fro, the easier the whole event will be.
THE SECOND DECISION to make is about the hours the pantry is open. It does absolutely no good to know all about the pantry nearest you if it’s open on Tuesday and you can’t get there on Tuesday. So, know right from the beginning of your search when you have time and transportation to get to a pantry.
THE THIRD DECISION to make is about the food itself. The Reservoir Food Pantry, for example, is a vegetarian pantry. So, at our pantry, you’ll be hard pressed to find meat, fish, etc. You will, however, find yogurt. We’re currently offering 9 cups of yogurt per person in the household. I’m sure that luxury won’t go on forever but, for now, life is good.
Because we’re a vegetarian pantry, we offer a large variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and many items are organic.
We also have a freezer and refrigerator which further expand what we can offer on pantry day.
Of course, you can’t really ask pantry volunteers questions like “Are you vegetarian?” and “How many freezers and refrigerators do you have?” However, when you finally get to the pantry for your first visit, you can certainly use your eyes to decide about these things.
A FOURTH DECISION to make about a pantry is whether you’re going to try to find one that’s open weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly. Reservoir Food Pantry opens weekly. Most pantries in our area serve a three-day supply of food. So, if you choose a pantry that’s only open one day a month, it’s for sure you’re going to need to connect up to at least two or three pantries.
For some, this is a good thing because it offers more variety in the foods you’ll find.
A FIFTH DECISION to make is whether or not you want a client choice pantry or not. Some pantries pass out bags of food. You take home what is given to you. Other pantries, like the Reservoir Food Pantry offer client choice. What this means is that you choose the foods you take home. Personally, I think the client choice pantries take more time to visit because the shoppers are actually choosing food. So, it’s a trade off. You spend more time in the pantry but you take home food you personally chose, food that you and your household members can eat.
A SIXTH DECISION involves the paperwork. Just how much paperwork do you want to fill out? You are only, really, required to sign your name for the food. However, some pantries want much more information. Some pantries want to see a lot of identification. Others never ask. One thing they can’t do though: they can’t ask to see your Social Security Card. And, they can’t ask for the number.
Frankly, if the pantry is client choice, if it’s open when you need it, if the volunteers are nice and treat you with dignity, fill out the paperwork and get the food.
A SEVENTH DECISION is all about you…and your attitude. Keep in mind as you travel down this path that you are a trailblazer. You’re moving into a part of our culture known only to those who use the service. You can be embarrassed, ashamed, depressed, angry. Or, you can realize that you are a forward thinking person who is adapting to life in the 21st century and embracing a new habits which many of us are already using.
I like the second way best. Life is easier with a coping attitude.
Pantry shoppers understand that pantry food is our tax dollars at work.
Pantry shoppers understand that money not spent for the food at the pantry store means there are a few more dollars that can be spent on other necessities like toilet paper and tooth paste.
Pantry shoppers understand that pantries offer foods which we can, in many instances no longer afford.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Reservoir Food Pantry – Then and Now
One thing about our pantry that makes us different is that we’re feeding people on a weekly basis ” – Deborah Nigrelli
I walked through the torn plastic curtain covering the entrance to the produce room exactly at 10:30 last Monday morning, just like always.
Except, it wasn’t like always. We hadn’t shopped for produce at the Food Bank in six months.
We parked the van in a slot, raced over to the edge of the Food Bank building and grabbed the only metal flat bed cart available – a 3′ x 5′ wheeled platform to hold all the precious cargo we hoped to find here.
For a few moments, it felt as if we’d shifted into another dimension. Everything looked the same – but it wasn’t. It was as if someone had built a theater set of the Food Bank produce room to trick or fool us. My knee jerk reaction was to ask myself “Where am I…?” Fifty or so years ago, I would have said that I had dipped into the Twilight Zone. But, we don’t say that anymore and I don’t know what people say now anyway.
Then, reality hit. This was the same place with six hard months of wear and tear later. The produce area had simply been “rode hard and put up wet” as my grandmother used to say.
Even the produce cart wasn’t right. It had seriously aged in the last six months. Two wooden slats were missing and one wheel appeared to be about to fall off. We wheeled it over to the produce area. Even though the distance was less than fifteen feet, we doubted the cart would make it. As soon as we got the cart to the produce, we got excited.
Smells waked up our noses: pineapple, oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, spinach, lettuce, potatoes, onions, eggplant, broccoli, bread, cakes. We piled it all on the cart as quickly as possible before one of the younger, faster, stronger pantry volunteer shoppers crowded in the room could swoop down and grab all the precious food before us.
It can happen. It has happened. More than once.
“Hey Thurman, look at those pineapples! How many should we get?” she asked as she loaded food onto the cart as fast as she could get her hands on the boxes.
“Listen grab all those carrots. They’re organic.” As I spoke those words, I hefted the 100-lb bag onto the cart.
“Well, look at the apples. They’re organic too.” On the cart went three cases. And, on and on it went. We walked down the line.
In truth, most of the food is organic. It’s also “past its prime” so it’s donated to the Food Bank. Everything given to the Food Bank has been left on the shelves at the super market because it was too old, too big, too small, bruised, misshapen, and left on the shelves at the super market.
In truth, it’s all diverted to the Food Bank on its way to the the landfill.
In truth, I have much in common with this produce. I’m too old, too misshapen, too big, and I’ve been passed by a a few or so times in my life…especially in the recent past.
Shopping here today was like seeing an old friend after a long absence. “Wow. She’s aged. Wow. We’ve all aged.”
For a moment I felt myself aging.
For a moment, I saw myself for what I am – an aging crone accompanied by a retired Woodstock herbalist turned Hindu (Amma) devotee – struggling to lift case after case of food that I shouldn’t lift. But, who else was there?
This haul was some kind of miracle (they all are, actually.) We loaded all this precious food along with cases of cereal, whole wheat pasta, canned green beans, and canned fruit cocktail in the hold of Vanessa, an also aging Dodge Grand Caravan, and returned to Boiceville. We arrived just in time to set up our tables in front of the Wastewater Treatment Plant before the first shoppers arrived.
They trickled up, slowly, some a little hesitant, trying to figure out how to act at a food pantry. Soon, people were visiting, chatting, getting to know one another over apples, asparagus, onions.
In a pantry, we feed alcoholics, artists, child abusers, children, colorful characters, 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, veterans, writers, and volunteers.
Today was a little different from other Mondays, however. We doubled our numbers this week.
This event could have “thrown” other volunteers, just as the appearance of the Food Bank “threw” me earlier in the morning. But, not this crowd. Because all of us working at the Reservoir Food Pantry are experienced, we just went into expansion mode. Before 3:00, we were discussing where we’re going to put the new shelves we’re buying and what specifications our next truck is going to have.
Because, we all know one thing: census numbers rise in a pantry. They don’t go down. The Boiceville area has needed a pantry for awhile so we’re prepared to expand to meet the demand created by the increasing number of shoppers.
Our job is to make sure that we get enough food on our Monday morning trips to Latham…no matter what
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
A Prayer
Pantries are secular places, in New York State, anyway. We cannot discriminate against a person/family/household because of religious beliefs.
We “cannot engage in the promotion of a particular religion or political party as part of our feeding programs nor require clients to attend religious or political services or instruction in order to receive food.”
That being said, I read a prayer at the beginning of every board meeting. I felt then, and feel now, that it grounded the board members for the meetings. There was always spoken and unspoken push back from several board members about my pantry activities.
The pantry prayer that I read is repeated below. It is two sections. The top section was written by myself. The second part, beginning with the words “O God of abundance…” I got from Sara Miles’ book “Take This Bread.”
PANTRY BOARD MEETING PRAYER
To the God to whom we all pray –
We ask that our hands, hearts, minds, and souls be illuminated by the light of your compassion and unconditional love.
We ask that this meeting proceed for the highest good of all connected to our pantry:
The volunteers
The board
The customers who shop in the pantry
The people who donate the food
The workers at the food bank
And those who are seeking, but have not yet found, the pantry.
We ask for the protection and continued improvement of the health of our volunteers and shoppers in the pantry.
Please send Bodisaphas and Angels to guide and protect us as we strive to feed the people.
O God of Abundance, you feed us everyday. Rise in us now, make us into your bread, that we may share your gifts with a hungry world, and join in love and healing with all people.
Thank you.
Amen
Stealing?
“There’s a difference between criminals and crooks. Crooks steal. Criminals blow some guy’s brains out. I’m a crook.” – Ronald Biggs
“If a day comes when we don’t have any volunteers, all we have to do is put a nail in the wall and hang up the key. The shoppers will let themselves in the pantry, shop, and lock the door behind them.”
I always take pride in saying the Good Neighbor Food Pantry didn’t even need volunteers.
Of course, this was an exaggeration. But it applied to many of our regular shoppers who knew the rules, knew how much food they were allowed to take, and respected the system. It did not, however, apply to all of the shoppers nor did it apply to all the volunteers. We had several shoppers and volunteers who simply could not live with the three-day supply of food rule.
Pantries, by their nature, are overrun with rules. They are layered with rules. The rules have rules. There are more rules than cans of food in food pantries.
First, the Food Bank has rules: what kind of food we can serve and to whom, what the pantry should look like and how clean it should be, who gets the food.
Shelving is to be six inches away from the walls.
The bottom shelf of each unit is to be six inches off the floor.
The USDA food must be displayed.
Pantry volunteers receive safe food handling training at least once every five years.
The pantry has to comply with food safety standards.
Pantries are not allowed to barter food with other agencies.
Pantries are not allowed to give food to other agencies.
All the food is to be distributed to specifically designated needy persons.
The Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program has a whole other selection of rules, guidelines focusing on how much food we should serve and what its nutritional value should be.
Pantries are expected to offer fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, and proteins.
Pantries are expected to support the MyPlate guideline on food selection.
Pantries are expected to serve the shoppers with dignity.
Pantries are required to serve a minimum of a three-day supply of food to recipients.
Pantries may never discriminate against anyone in the provision of service to the hungry.
And, of course, in the Good Neighbor Food Pantry, the building committee was not to be outdone by anyone else. The building committee had its own list of rules:
The building committee was concerned with the hours we could be in the building.
The building committee was concerned with which days of the week we could be in the building.
The building committee was concerned with how many chairs could be in the hallway.
The building committee was concerned about what products we could have in the hallway.
The building committee was concerned with when and where we could be in the parking lot.
The building committee was concerned with when the produce could come into the building and how long it could stay.
The building committee was concerned with the cardboard.
Finally, the rabbis, pastors, and priests of the Woodstock Interfaith Council liked to chime in when I got too enthusiastic and raised to much money or fed too many people.
The important thing was to refrain from serving the unworthy hungry.
I divided the whole crowd into four groups. The first group I jokingly referred to as the Hot Doggers. These people liked to make the rules whether or not they had the authority. And, if they didn’t have the authority to make the rules, who cared? “Scream loud enough and you’ll be heard” seemed to be the motto.
The second group I sadly referred to as the followers. These were the shoppers and volunteers who had trouble dealing with the layers and layers of rules. At one point in the timeline of the pantry, (leading up to and during the Inquisition), people asked each other “what are today’s rules” as the building committee grappled with how many chairs we could have in the hallway for the shoppers, whether or not we could offer food in the hallway, and whether or we could offer diapers or pet food.
This group (the followers) was really in a bad place during some of the uncertain times in the pantry. They needed the food and they were voiceless. Absolutely no one cared what their needs were. It was hardest on those with mental and emotional issues.
One shopper summed it all up on several Wednesdays when she ran through the parking lot yelling “Thurman Greco is a fucking asshole!” at the top of her lungs.
And, finally, the third group was the onlookers. These were the people who lived in the community, lifted not one finger to help, and gave not one penny of support. Their claim to fame was their criticism of all the people who came to the pantry to shop or work and their criticism of everything that happened to the pantry even though they had never been to the place and knew nothing about what was going on.
It finally boiled down to respect. A fourth group was made up of shoppers and volunteers who didn’t care a whit about the rules, what was good for the pantry, what was expected of them, or anything else. All they knew was there was a lot of food finally coming through the place and they wanted it.
No matter what.
One such shopper was a beautiful young woman with two gorgeous daughters who had been coming to the pantry for years. She brought her children, as infants, with her every time she visited the pantry. The children became toddlers, then young children. The oldest daughter became ten. Gorgeous children. One day I realized she was teaching them to steal food.
She came into the crowded room with her two children who immediately scattered to different parts of the room and began to put food in the little bags. There was absolutely no way a person could follow what these three were doing. Final analysis required that an extra volunteer come into the already overcrowded room and supervise the children.
We had a cluster of shoppers who liked to come right at pantry closing time when we were distracted and under pressure with closing activities. Some came in the hope of taking extra produce home with them. Others came expecting to grab an extra can or two of some favorite product.
“You’re only allowed to take one can from that shelf, Sara.”
“Sorry. I forgot.”
One volunteer managed to squirrel away fifteen frozen pizzas.
One shopper, a young man with beautiful, shoulder length, auburn hair, tried to make off with ten bags of dried black beans.
“Put the beans back. We need to have enough bags for everyone. We won’t have enough if you guys take more than your share.”
No answer.
One volunteer brazenly went into the storeroom and carried out two large boxes of food she felt was owed to her simply because she was a volunteer.
“Dana, that food is for the take outs. You can’t take it.”
“Yes I can. I want it and you can’t stop me.”
“Dana, you can’t return here anymore.”
Then, we had one volunteer who went over to the items of dignity closet one afternoon and stuffed her pockets.
“Jean, what are you doing with all these items? We barely have enough to pass out to our shoppers.”
“These are for my friends.”
“Well, you can’t take them. Your friends aren’t signed in and we need these items for our registered shoppers. You know the rules. You’ve been working here a long time.”
One volunteer went around to area grocery stores and picked up foods for the Good Neighbor Food Pantry. Some of this food actually made it to the pantry. However, a portion of it was diverted to this volunteer’s friends and neighbors. The argument could be made that she distributed the food to people who needed it. That’s all well and good. However, she led the grocers to believe she was taking the food to the pantry to distribute to the hungry. She was being dishonest with the grocers who were entrusting the food to her. This reflected poorly on our pantry, I felt, as well as on all other pantries.
Finally, we had our mystery shoppers. Almost every week or two we came into the pantry to find that food had been removed from the shelves over the weekend. This was true in both the pantry and the storeroom.
Considering how many people went through the pantry, the thefts were very few.
As a pantry coordinator, I tried to convince everyone that the food on the shelves in a pantry is not there for the entertainment and amusement of disrespectful volunteers. Neither is it on the shelves for shoppers to take regardless of the rules.
Rather, the food belongs to the State of New York. It is only when it is put in one’s shopping bag after the person is signed in at the reception table that it becomes the property of the shopper.
The Food Bank and the Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program people had definite guidelines about how much food could be taken by both shoppers and volunteers alike. These rules were known by everyone.
Conclusion: Being a thief is a genetic trait.
Food Pantry Blog – Peggy and the Take Outs
“New people somehow suggest to you that your world is really not as narrow as maybe you believed it was. You’re not so limited by your psychological environment as maybe you thought you were.” – Leonard Michaels
The next series of chapters focuses on a very important part of the pantry life which we have not yet touched on: our Take Out Department which served food to homebound residents.
As a pantry, we never planned to deliver food to homebound people in the Woodstock area. But, to make a really bad joke, the building committee of the Woodstock Reformed Church made us do it.
This is the story: Pantries are required to have volunteers available to serve shoppers on an emergency basis if they call and can’t make it to the pantry when it’s open. Well, Good Neighbor Food Pantry volunteers weren’t allowed in the pantry except during select hours on select days. So, we needed an alternative acceptable to the Food Bank. We created a Take Out Department to deliver food to homebound households.
Our Take Out Department became enormously successful. It was also a tremendous amount of work for the volunteers. We began with insufficient structure and a few volunteers lost sight of the guidelines and rules. One volunteer felt that the 10-mile limit included all of her friends living in an area around Route 32 north of Saugerties. She also felt her mother who lived several hours away was on the route and that a three-day supply of food for her mother included everything she could fit into her car on the way up. She was also lax with the monthly reporting.
Peggy Johnson took over the Take Out Department.
Peggy organized all the Take Outs. she called every household monthly to see how things were going. She made great lists of all the foods they would, could, should eat and great lists of all foods they would not, could not, should not eat. Peggy knew her clients better than they knew themselves.
Peggy was strict with the rules. She didn’t have even one client who lived beyond the 10-mile limit imposed by our Board of Directors. Peggy was strict with her volunteers also. She insisted everyone follow the HPNAP guidelines exactly. And…Peggy demanded proper manners in the pantry. One month Peggy dismissed a volunteer on the monthly delivery day. Whew!
We had one young volunteer who was a computer whiz. She really didn’t want to work in the take outs. What she wanted to do was completely computerize our pantry and be some kind of “Jedi” for our lists, etc. Her hope was to computerize our pantry and use this experience to launch other projects for other pantries. (I honestly don’t think she realized how poor pantries really are.)
It was a good idea but never materialized because on one monthly delivery day Peggy caught her comparing tattoos with one of the Hudson Correctional Facility volunteers. Peggy spoke with her and she never saw her again. We never saw her again either.
In our next post, we’ll focus on the volunteers who made the take out department possible.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – What This Blog is About
Recently I was asked to explain what the hungerisnotadisease.com
blog is all about.
Well, for me, this blog has several layers.
First, there is the layer of the food pantry. This is a story in itself: intrigue, expose’, scandal, denial. On some level, the story of the Good Neighbor Food Pantry might as well be a mystery novel.
But, dig deeper. This blog is about the people who visit the pantry weekly…the voiceless people who are becoming more and more in number weekly. This is an incredible story in itself also: intrigue, expose’, denial.
And, on yet a deeper level, this blog is about the spiritual journey we are all on as we experience incredible change in our society. Most of this story is still, as yet, unknown to many, many people.
Because, you see, hunger as evidenced by food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters is still a taboo subject.
So…my challenge is to best tell this story, expose the shame that is being orchestrated by many people, and reveal the denial that many people still persist in perceiving.
What is going to work best?
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – My First Visit to the Good Neighbor Food Pantry: Hindsight is Always 20/20.
“So you begin…I began. I picked up one person – Maybe if I didn’t pick up that one person I wouldn’t have picked up 42,000. Just one, one, one.” – Mother Teresa
This morning I met Stuart Kline in Bread Alone. He was at the high coffee bar on a stool right at the entrance. Stuart and I see each other in passing most mornings at Bread Alone.
We exchange the usual pleasantries. What’s happening in Woodstock? Who died this week. It seems that everyone in our age group is dropping dead at the rate of one old codger a week. Some kind of fad, we joke.
Stuart is wearing a beautiful plaid shirt: chartreuse, red, blue, white. Plaid cotton.
Plaid. Floral. He has the distinction of wearing the most beautiful men’s shirts in Woodstock. His sister who lives in Nashville picks them up at a consignment store and sends them to him.
Suddenly – a shock went through me. A memory. Yes! A memory I never knew I had. It must have been one of the colors of his shirt. Who knows? Like a flash of some kind, I remembered the first time I walked into the Good Neighbor Food Pantry.
A new volunteer, I had been assigned a Thursday morning shift with Marie Duane.
I drove over to the Woodstock Reformed Church, parked my car in the parking lot behind the building and cautiously walked in. I had never been to the pantry before. There was no sign on the door so I wasn’t even sure I was in the right place.
I entered the empty hallway and found the first door on the right open. I turned into the room and there it was: a small room, actually, about 12′ by 16′. There were two windows on one wall and a third window on another.
Each wall supported a set of metal shelving units.
Each unit stood six feet high and three feet deep with four shelves.
Most of the shelves were empty. One shelf had cereal. There was a little handwritten note in front of the boxes: person: 1 cereal. family: 1 cereal.
One had a few cans of tuna. Another handwritten note in front of the tuna said: person: 1 can. family: 1 can.
One shelf had a dozen or so cans of soup with a handwritten note: person: 1 can. family: 2 cans.
One shelf held jars of peanut butter. Person: 1 jar. Family: 1 jar.
There may have been other items on other shelves but I don’t remember them.
A small table stood in the center of the room. A metal folding chair was placed in front of each window.
We sat in the chairs, Marie and I, and chatted with one another as people trickled in. We discussed the usual: weather, gardening, knitting, decorating the alter at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church.
“Hi. How are you today? Will you sign your name here?” Marie asked each person who came to shop.
The shopper signed his/her name and noted the number of adults, seniors, and children in the household. As a point of trivia, most of the shoppers were single, homeless men.
After signing in, the person walked around the room selecting from the cereal, peanut butter, and soup. The selected food was placed on the table and bagged for the person to take home, wherever or whatever that was.
This was my first visit.
At the time, I knew nothing about HPNAP guidelines: offering a three-day supply of food, who could or could not visit the pantry, what food safety rules we followed. I was unaware of these things.
I certainly had no premonition that I would ever even return to this room after this morning’s volunteer effort.
This was clearly a case of “fools rushing in”. Knowing what I know now, I should have just run out the door and never looked back. Certainly Marie could have handled the crowd that day without me. In the whole morning, no more than a couple dozen people visited the pantry.
But, I wasn’t blessed with any psychic knowledge…certainly not the feeling of danger I felt when I first saw Ed Jabbs of the building committee.
So…Marie and I sat and visited with one another for two hours while people trickled in for the few items on the shelves. At 11:00 a.m., we rose out of our chairs, walked out of the room while turning out the lights, closed and locked the door, and went home.
I got in my car, totally unaware of experiences waiting for me in the pantry, completely unprepared for what lay ahead.
Never in my wildest thoughts did I envision the hall filled with hungry people, the tiny room packed with fresh produce and jammed with shoppers.
Never did I foresee monthly food deliveries in excess of 10,000 pounds.
Never did I for one moment imagine the building committee of the Woodstock Reformed Church being irate 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.
Never did I think I would be grappling with the term “unworthy hungry”, introduced to me by local religious residents.
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
