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
hunger/homelessness/food pantry – all in only 7 months!
It seems like a blink of an eye – Bonnie and Sean talking about opening a pantry in Boiceville, NY.
Well, it happened…and on September 9, 2013 we opened the Reservoir Food Pantry. From that day until now, April 7, 2014, we worked our fingers to the bone. (Not that we’re not continuing to do so.)
We spent months not only distributing food but processing mountains of paper work, having weekly training classes at JOMA, talks at the library, food drives at the IGA and Walmart, etc.
But, finally, on April 7th, exactly 6 months after our opening day, I felt truly at home. Why?
Seven of us were stuffed in our storeroom shoving cans and boxes of food on shelves in a fairly cramped space. For my money, in order to be a pantry – for real – it’s necessary to shove too many people in too small a space and stack cans as quickly as possible to get the job done as soon as possible.
We were really in that zone. It felt like we were all stuffed in a VW bug.
“Does this can have a bulge?”
“Nah. That one doesn’t have a bulge…the one over there does, though.”
“What about this dent?”
“Be sure and separate the soup cans.”
“Where does the cereal go?”
We’re home. At last!
I offer a special note of gratitude to Bonnie and Sean and their two schnauzers, Prasida Kay, and everyone in the Reservoir area who supported us while we got everything together: The Olive Town Board, the IGA, The Community Bank, JOMA, area residents who donated and are continuing to donate food and money.
I offer a special note of gratitude to the hungry who are checking out our pantry and who are returning.
People who have never visited a pantry before experience many things: fear, apprehension, embarrassment, curiosity, and finally, relief.
Residents in the Reservoir area are all being extremely supportive of our efforts. Thank you for your donations of food and money and time.
One last word: Hang onto your hats everyone. I think we’re on a wonderful ride. Join us if you can.
Peace and food for all
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – Hunger, Homelessness
Do you remember the recent story about Mary-Faith Cerasoli? Probably not. In today’s world, it’s easy to forget a story with so much information coming at us all day long, every day. Well, for my money her story is one of the most important local articles to appear in the New York Times this year.
Ms. Cerasoli, an adjunct professor of Romance Languages at Mercy College in Westchester is homeless. Corey Kilgannon recently covered her story as she (Ms. Cerasoli) painted a sign – “Homeless Prof” – on a white ski vest, and went to Albany, alone, to lobby our politicians there with a protest against her working conditions.
Her story brought up many questions for me:
Did she make it to Albany?
If so, with whom did she speak?
How was her situation received?
How successful was this trip overall?
What kind of push back did she receive at work as a result of the publicity she received?
Is it possible, now, that someone in power will understand that many people are underpaid?
Is it possible, now, that someone will realize educational institutions need pantries?
Is it possible, now, that other employed homeless people will be motivated to go to Albany and lobby?
Is it possible, now, that she will find affordable housing as a result of her story being made public?
The very short detail in the New York Times pieceabout the unnamed psychology professor who gathers leftovers from departmental luncheons speaks volumes in its brevity. It highlights how little we, as a nation, care about those who teach our children and fellow adults.
Whatever the outcome, the important thing which makes this story so extraordinary, is that Mary-Faith Cerasoli protested. Finally, a hungry person is refusing to be voiceless.
With any luck, Mary-Faith Cerasoli has started a trend.
With any luck, more employed poor and hungry people will travel to Albany.
With any luck, some politician in power somewhere will realize how disgraceful it is that we treat our professors this way…and do something about getting more income for professors and teachers.
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – If Only….
The inspiration for this chapter came from a quote written by Janet Poppendieck, author of a book about hunger in America entitled “Sweet Charity”.
There’s all this food out there. Most people who know about hunger agree there’s enough food for everyone. If we would stop the push back on this concept, and just feed the people, our lives (everyone’s lives in the whole country) would be very different. Imagine a world without hungry children and grandmothers.
Just for a moment, think of all the ways we can benefit our many people and institutions by using this extra food.
For starters, think of pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, as our tax dollars at work. Much of the emergency food effort is manned by volunteers diverting food headed for the landfill. For my money, this recycling effort works primarily to keep people from starving in the streets.
Now, consider the United States Department of Agriculture. As our country accumulates agricultural surpluses, instead of being embarrassed by the food, life would be better if the USDA could proudly distribute the surplus to those in need. After all, surplus food is an uptown problem. It’s almost impossible to produce exactly what we need. Farms don’t work that way. Weather doesn’t always cooperate. Droughts don’t come by request. Floods have minds of their own. It’s better to produce too much than too little.
Businesses can and should ship excess food to pantries, soup kitchens, shelters. This is a responsible way to dispose of unwanted excess food products. When grocers donate to food banks, they avoid excessive dump fees and accrue tax savings. They reduce dumpster diving.
Universities, hospitals, caterers, restaurants, bakers, schools, can use Food Banks to absorb leftovers. In metropolitan areas, the surplus food can go directly to soup kitchens, pantries. This is both a civic responsibility and community outreach.
Community colleges and Universities can recognize there are impoverished students, staff and faculty in their ranks. Pantries and soup kitchens on campus will make it easier for students and staff to stay.
Elementary, Middle, and High Schools would do well to recognize the poverty among the students and staff. Food Pantries have a definite place in schools. Backpack programs should be in every school to ensure that students have enough food to eat over the weekends and holidays.
Churches, Synagogues, and other religious institutions have opportunities to express concern for their fellow man as they include the poor at the table. Congregations refer to their feeding efforts as outreach. These necessary hunger prevention programs feed people who otherwise would not have enough to eat and they give the congregations a local outlet for charity and outreach programs.
Courts and penal institutions can use this concept by having people work service hours at pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, to avoid or lessen incarceration.
Working at a pantry, soup kitchen or shelter provides service opportunities for people of all ages. The more people donate time, the less isolated these facilities become.
Diverting food from landfills offers communities an opportunity to improve our environment. Besides, why throw away good food?
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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
Food Pantry Blog – 9 Things You Can Do To Help the Homeless In Your Area
“People are living in tents. They’re living in cars. They’re living in the woods.” – Ginger Segal
Be a friend to Mother Earth by donating instead of dumping food, growing fresh produce and donating it to your local food pantry, donating clean egg cartons and reusable shopping bags pantry volunteers to share with shoppers.
Donate food to a homeless friendly pantry in your area. A homeless friendly pantry doesn’t discriminate against homeless shoppers by demanding identification with addresses. After all, homeless people don’t have an address and cannot shop in those pantries requiring detailed identification.
Donate food to a pantry in your area that distributes food the homeless can eat. Homeless people carry their kitchens in their pockets so a lot of food which we take for granted and use is just not useful for the homeless person. Homeless people need peanut butter and crackers, cereal in small packages, fruits and vegetables to be eaten raw: carrot sticks, strawberries, blueberries, celery sticks, etc. Milk in small containers is useful.
Give a little throughout the year by regularly donating to the pantry in your area which is most homeless friendly.
Volunteer at a homeless friendly pantry or soup kitchen.
Communicate with Persons of Influence by contacting elected officials about homeless issues in your area and encouraging them to make ending homelessness a priority.
Get organized by cleaning out your food pantry and donating the healthy items to the food pantry. Donate clothing and bedding in good condition to places where you feel the homeless will have access to some of the items.
Understand that returning vets have special needs and they often begin their separation from the military homeless.
Know that people being released from prison often are homeless. They no longer have contact with their community. They have no job. They have no place to go.
Help set up a pocket pantry in a church, synagogue, or school.
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
Hunger Blog – Hunger is Not a Disease at the Food Pantry.
In March, 2011, Mark Bittman of the New York Times wrote an opinion piece entitled “Hunger is a Disease.” The following post is my response to his story.
HUNGER IS NOT A DISEASE
Hunger is many different things to many different people…depending on the conditions they live in.
Because I’m the coordinator of a food pantry in Ulster County, New York, I see the many faces of hunger every week.
I see the hunger of the line as people stand outside the building, sometimes for as much as an hour, to get a three-day supply of food which must last seven days. I try to “pad the bill” as they say, by bringing in as many different kinds of fresh produce, dairy products, and bread into the pantry weekly as I can. My policy here: take as much as you can eat for three days.
The three-day limit is a Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) guideline. And, it’s a practical one. The fresh produce really isn’t going to last much more than three days. So, everybody gets to take all they can eat in three days.
I see hunger in the condition of people coming to the pantry weekly with absolutely no money for food. These people, while receiving a three-day supply of food which will last for seven days, are doing without MUCH: salt, pepper, sugar, flour, fresh milk, cooking oil, coffee.
Often these people, like the members of the Flores family, are working 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. Period. No insurance. No food. No clothes. Thank God for the free clothes at the Family Clothes Closet.
When I think about it, I realize that everything they get is recycled: the apartment they rent is old and rundown. The family pickup is definitely used. The clothing is brought over to Family by people who no longer plan to use it.
The food, likewise, is recycled: the produce, dairy, and bread was definitely on its way to the landfill when it got diverted and sent to the Food Bank.
The canned goods were all diverted at the grocery store from the landfill. The cans are dented. Many are outdated. Some have no labels anymore.
The boxed goods are the worst…especially the crackers. A box of crackers is really a box of cracker crumbs.
No matter, the people are grateful for what they get. It’s better than nothing.
For the most part, the people shopping at our pantry are what the survey labels resource poor. Resource poor routinely choose between food and utilities, food and housing payments, food and medicine/medical care, food and transportation, food and gasoline.
And, of course, people in the resource poor category are also food insecure. They lack, at times, enough food for an active, healthy life for the household members.
It’s physically challenging to work three jobs on insufficient food. Hungry school children have a much harder time learning than their well fed classmates.
There are many articles, books written about global hunger. For me, global hunger is not a focus. What DOES exist is the hunger in my pantry, my neighborhood, my community.
Hunger is a condition. It accompanies malnourishment.
As Mark Bittman of the New York Times says: “Hunger can lead to starvation; starvation to death.”
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
There’s Always More…The Refrigerator, Cont’d
“Hunger is not an issue of charity. It’s an issue of justice.” – Jacques Diouf
The refrigerator in the barn worked fine. We brought eggs into the pantry, put them on the shelves and served the food to the shoppers.
Slowly, over the months, other refrigerators and freezers appeared. We finally ended up with four. They came from Barry Motzkin, Barry Greco, Rite Aid, and Ralph Goneau. They were filled to the max with food all the time…except right after a pantry day when they were totally empty.
More and more shoppers came to the pantry. The census kept rising and rising. FINALLY, we reached the point where we had outgrown the small storage closet in the hallway which served as our storeroom. We needed a real storeroom, couldn’t function anymore without one.
I went to Pastor Bode, “I need space Pastor Bode. If you can’t spare a room for the pantry, I’ll just have to ask the caravan guys to bring the next shipment to my home. That’s it. I have no choice. The food is coming in.”
Pastor Bode, God bless him, went to his Consistory, and the building committee. Many meetings followed and I finally got, somehow, permission, maybe, to use the room at the end of the hall for the storeroom. I got provisional permission for this room because a large monthly shipment was coming in. This was our biggest shipment yet: 3,000 pounds.
Everything coming into the pantry up to this point had totaled less than 2000 pounds per shipment.
The monthly shipment arrived and the men put the food in the room at the end of the hall.
While they were bringing the food into the storeroom, I looked around. There was no one else in the building. “The universe is on my side”, I thought.
This event will be concluded in tomorrow’s blog post.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Woodstock B&B on the Green to the Rescue!
Finally, I realized there might be hope at the end of the parking lot. There was a barn down there with a dirt floor, a long, unpainted rattlety trap building that nobody paid attention to. Several times I’d observed that this old, unnoticed structure was filled with treasures. The guys at the Woodstock B & B on the Green stored seasonal decorations they hauled out at appropriate times of the year to dress up their B & B: wreaths, lights, statues, furniture. Occasionally, I’d gotten a peek at what appeared to be antique furniture: chairs, tables, accent pieces. If I could get a corner of that place, I could put a refrigerator on a pallet and we could use it there. Dare I hope?
Dare I hope!
I didn’t know those two guys from Adam, as my grandmother used to say but there just weren’t any other options left. I’ll call them!
“Hello. This is Thurman Greco from the Good Neighbor Food Pantry. How are you and Larry doing today? I’m wondering if we can rent a little corner of your barn for a refrigerator. I’m desperate for a place to store eggs. I’ve asked everywhere and no one in this town has space to spare. You are my absolute last hope.”
“I’ll ask Larry and get back with you. But we can do this. And, there won’t be any charge.”
“Thanks. You guys are going to go to heaven for this.”
I might be able to pull this one off, I thought. When the inspectors come, I just won’t mention the barn. If they see the refrigerator out there sitting in the mud, it’s all over. They won’t have a choice…What the hell.
I took a real chance on this one. However, the inspectors all knew how the town was treating the pantry. The people in Latham were getting tired of the phone calls from the Woodstock pantry deniers. I just had to trust the Food Bank people to look the other way…and not ask about the eggs that I’m buying from the Food Bank.
It worked!
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In the next post, we get a storeroom for the refrigerator!
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog: Guidelines for a Successful Pantry Visit
“But the most careful lives can be derailed – by cancer, a huge medical bill, a freak slap of weather, a massive failure of the potato crop. Virtue cannot prevent a “bad hand” from being dealt. And making the poor out to be lazy, or dependent, or stupid, does not make them less poor. It only makes the person saying such a thing feel superior.” – Timothy Egan
Try to arrive an hour or so before the pantry opens. This makes for a long wait but there’s a better selection right when the pantry opens. Also, while you’re waiting in line, you have an opportunity to make new friends and learn a few new survival skills if you’re new to the pantry experience.
Bring your own shopping bags. Some pantries don’t have enough of these necessary items.
Bring some ID. Some pantries require a lot: picture ID, proof of address, proof that other family members exist. This can be a bit of a challenge if you’re homeless. Two things you need to know: No one can ask to see your social security number. Some pantries require no identification.
Be prepared to wait in a line. Use this time to meet your line neighbors. They can be helpful if you’re trying to navigate your way through Department of Social Services, if you’re being foreclosed on, need your car repaired.
As you wait in line, try to learn how the pantry works from those around you in the line. You’ll want to know how long you’ll be in the shopping room, what foods are usually found on the shelves, what other pantries the people shop at, etc.
Don’t be afraid to let people know you’ve never been to a pantry before.
Once you find a pantry you can use, go every time you’re allowed. With luck, you’ll have a pantry in your area allowing weekly visits. Because pantry shopping takes so much time, shoppers sometimes just don’t go if they still have SNAP card money or if they have a few bucks remaining from a paycheck. Your best bet is to visit a pantry as often as you’re allowed. Most pantries have different food every week and you may miss out on some real savings by not shopping regularly.
Pantry shopping requires a totally new approach to cooking. So does cooking with only an electric skillet or microwave. Some pantries have periodic visits from nutritionists. Don’t be shy about asking him/her for any tips you might be able to use to help this adjustment easier for you. The nutritionist knows a lot about the food you are trying to cook with and s/he can answer any questions you have.
You may see fresh fruits and vegetables you don’t recognize. Be open to new taste experiences. Take the food home, find a cookbook at the library or go on the net and learn how to prepare the food. If you take one new food home each week, your kitchen skills will be vastly different in a year from what they are now.
Be open minded about this experience.
You’re going to be interacting with people you never thought in your wildest dreams that you would be around.
Know that most people in pantries, both volunteers and shoppers, are in a reconstructing and healing mode. We may not know it yet, but life is finally getting better for all of us.
Try to volunteer at your pantry. Volunteering at a pantry or soup kitchen offers you an opportunity to give of yourself. Giving away food and sharing smiles with those around you opens up opportunities you never thought possible. Your life is changing, healing. Give yourself the opportunity to go with this journey.
Sometimes people cry in the pantry. Well, it’s okay. Everyone cries at one time or another in the pantry, including me. This tells us all that the pantry is a safe place to be.
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
