Hunger Is Not a Disease

Did your landlord reduce your rent?

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I got an email survey question yesterday.

“Did your landlord reduce your rent?”

Somehow, I can’t get this question out of my head.  It just keeps grabbing my attention at every opportunity.  What a question!

The answer is “NO!”

No landlord has lowered anyone’s rent in this area.  Rents are going up, up, and up.  In fact, rents are disappearing.

My landlord is evicting my neighbors.  They live in  one half of the duplex next door.    The other side is air bnb…or maybe vrbo…or any one of several other vacation rental apps so popular on everyone’s computer and phone.

Until last year, both sides of the duplex were vacation rentals.  Then, the town supervisor cracked down on them so the landlady  made one side a monthly rental.

Immediately, a lovely young couple moved in.  They are the perfect tenants.  No noise, no clutter, no smells, no noisy children.  Their footprint is the smallest they can manage.

Well, small footprint or no footprint, their days are numbered.

I see them packing up their possessions and driving them away – a few cartons every day.  The boxes are going to a storage unit until they can find a new place to live.  So far, they’ve had no luck.

They want to stay in Woodstock because this is their home town.  Growing up, Gaby skated and bicycled on every street in this town.

Well, there are no places to rent in this town.  Woodstock is a vacation rental town all the way.

This lovely young couple seeks shelter in other communities:  Palenville, Catskill, Athens.

Meanwhile,  the landlord eagerly advertises both units as vacation rentals.  The young couple must go.  His list of eager vacationer applicants  is long.  He’s sorry the young couple has no home.

But, life must continue.

Thank you for reading this article.

Please refer it to your preferred social media network.

Thurman Greco

Woodstock, New York

 

No Fixed Address

“No Fixed Address” is dedicated to those in our country with no roof over their heads.  See your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, in new ways as they describe their daily lives in their own words.

The people in this new book reveal themselves to be both brave and fearless as they go about their activities:  work, laundry, children’s homework, appointments.  Mostly they live like the rest of us.  They just have no roof over their heads.

“No Fixed Address” is my newest book in the Unworthy Hungry series.  It’s easy to read and understand.  You won’t be bored, not even for a minute.

I hope you’ll order it today.  Get an extra copy for a friend!

This book has an extra surprise.  When you get a copy, you’ll be making a donation to a good cause.  You’ll be fighting hunger and homelessness.

It doesn’t get much better than that!

Thank you for reading this article!

Please forward it to your preferred social media network.

Thurman Greco

Situational Poor

SITUATIONAL POOR – A person fits into a situational category of poverty when s/he lands in a situation created by an event such as a hurricane, fire, flood, pandemic,   or other disaster which destroys the home, job, car.

Food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens are overworked in today’s pandemic world.  The line of hungry people grows every time the place opens.

It’s bad enough that the line grows weekly.  But, worse, many people in the line are confused, afraid.  The never thought they would find themselves in a food pantry line with hundreds of other hungry, confused, afraid.

How should they act?  What should they do?

What do they do with the food, once they get it home?  It may be good food – both delicious and nutritious.  However, it may not be anything recognizable.  More often than not, pantry food doesn’t come with recipes.  Super markets carry thousands of items.  Food pantries carry maybe 50 different items and the labels on the cans and boxes aren’t even recognizable.  The fresh produce may be organic but not be labeled as such.

So, now that the pantry food is in its new found kitchen, there is a big adjustment period involved in getting it to the table.

We are not so far removed from those people in the food pantry.  They are our neighbors, friends, co-workers, relatives, classmates.

And, truth be told, we are all confused, and afraid.

Even though you may not be in the line, there are definitely things you can do.  For starters, send a check to a food pantry, soup kitchen,  or food bank in your area.  If you don’t know where to send the check, look up an organization called:

Feeding America.

Feeding America is glue holding the food pantry world together.  If that doesn’t work for you, search out:  Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York.

The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, along with the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, do an amazing job of making delicious, nutritious foods available to those who need it most.

These two food banks are only two in a large network of food banks located throughout the country.  If you seeking a feeding facility in another part of the country, these organizations can guide you to one in the area best for you.

If you are uncomfortable sending money, this might be a good time to organize a food drive.

I wrote three action guides which list suggestions and options which are easy-to-understand and read.  You can get these action guides free.  Email me your mailing address and I’ll get your copies in the mail right away.  I’m not even charging postage and handling.

Email me your mailing address to thurmangreco@gmail.com.

The guidelines and suggestions are practical.  I feel confident you’ll discover practical things you can do to help on one of the action guides.

Thank you for caring.

Thanks for reading this article.  Please refer it to your preferred social media network.

Thurman Greco

Woodstock, New York

 

Hunger, our Planet, and the Winter Solstice

On this Winter Solstice  please take a moment  that fits into your day to focus on our world and how we fit into it.

Visualize a world where all beings know they are connected and live in the comfort of this connection.

Focus on a planet where everyone works together with mutual respect, honor, and  harmony.

In your spirit, see a world in which no one goes to bed hungry.

Understand in your heart that hunger and homelessness are not categories.  They are situations which can happen to anyone.

Create a vision of peace and food for all.

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

Thurman Greco

Writing this Blog Post was Risky

Writing this blog post was risky.  In the early days I worried about peoples’ opinions.  I wrote my first blog entries with skeptics in mind.  On some level it was important to me for pantry deniers to understand that there are, indeed, hungry people around us

One day I saw clearly  that some people aren’t going to like me or my work.   Nor are they going to believe what I write, no matter what I say.  Once I realized that truth, I knew I’d been wasting  energy on other people’s opinions.

I’m no longer interested in convincing anyone about what it means to go to bed hungry.

I’m okay with people saying anything about me because I know the chapters I write are true.  The words I write make a difference in peoples’ lives.

This blog is about people creating better lives for themselves while not having enough to eat and lacking proper healthcare, housing.

This blog is about healing and creating new opportunities in one’s life.  This blog is about people changing their lives – against all odds.

While I tell this story, I know some people  won’t believe a word.  It’s okay.  I have my story and they have their story.

Food and sex and money are three words and issues more concerned with a person’s core beliefs, emotions, and spiritual attitudes than anything else.

These three words offer rules for everyone.  We each have core beliefs around them  with opinions about what is okay and what isn’t okay.  We have attitudes about food, sex, and money based on what we were taught by family members and peers when we were children.  We live our lives based on those experiences.  Reduced to their lowest common denominator, these words – food, sex, and money – are the same.  They touch  core beliefs in ways going straight to the heart and soul.

The food pantry was all about food and money.  The sex part was limited, but still there.  Sex happened in the pantry hallway line when a shopper suffering with mental illness, a handsome young man who lived in another world, masturbated in the food line.

Our attitudes, opinions, feelings about feeding hungry people are or are not based on facts, statistics, or reality.  Nor will facts, statistics, information, change  attitudes.

Finally, we all have beliefs about who it’s okay to feed and who it’s not okay to feed.  My beliefs are based on life experiences, facts, statistics.  Their beliefs are based on the same.  I may have taken classes, gone to therapy.  And, they may have also.

Their reality about what is okay and my reality about what is okay differ.

In the food pantry hallway, we all looked at the same people and saw different things.  This situation is proof positive we each create our own reality about hungry people.  Nothing changes either reality.  We each see hungry people through lenses shaped by separate life experiences.  Hungry people don’t live in two realities.

As the lines got longer, we looked at people in the line.  I saw hungry people and they didn’t.  I interacted with people weekly who dumpster-dived to feed themselves as well as their children, parents, housemates.  Occasionally I read articles about the ethics of dumpster diving.  I didn’t think we could explore the ethics of allowing people go hungry because they couldn’t make enough money at their jobs to buy the food they needed to live and work.

People coming to a food pantry can take a three-day-supply of food home each week.  The other four days, they’re on their own.  That means they can buy more food if they have a SNAP card and if they can get to a store selling food.  If they don’t have the money or a SNAP card, they get creative or go hungry.  This involves panhandleing, borrowing money or food from friends, relatives, neighbors.  They can steal, dumpster-dive, drop in at someone’s house at mealtime, and skip meals.

“Thurman is out of control over at the food pantry” described the local vicar because of the number of people shopping at the pantry and the amount of food they took home.

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

Thurman Greco