Dear Neighbor
THIS WEEK WAS GLORIOUS IN THE RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY. Although the pantry was so cold that the pens froze at the sign-in book, we didn’t even mind. After all, I’m experienced with working in a cold space. The Woodstock Reformed Church was never heated either. So what. It’s better for the produce, don’t you agree?
But, back to the glorious part…our first ever mailer went out this week. Or, rather, the whole project was completed on Tuesday when I took the last load of letters to the Kingston Post Office to the Bulk Mail room.
What a wonderful feeling that was! We’ve been working for months on this mailer. Robyn Daugherty addressed envelopes on many pantry afternoons beginning about last March.
Bonnie Lykes and Felice Castellano took up pen and envelope throughout the summer months. Then, other people joined in at the table and we finally finished the job this week.
Finalists included Louise Cacchio, Garrett O’Dell, Susanne Traub, and Barbara Freisner.
Prasida and I signed the letters.
The entire project was a huge leap of faith. After all, the Reservoir Food Pantry only opened in September, 2013, on Route 28 in Boiceville, when volunteers delivered food to 21 homebound households.. With little to no fanfare, we’ve been growing steadily. The need for a food pantry in our area was great when we opened, and it’s even greater today.
WE SERVE OVER 900 PEOPLE MONTHLY. 40% of those served are homebound residents in the area unable to come to the pantry. Families and individuals visiting the Reservoir Food Pantry weekly come from many different circumstances. Some are single parent families. Some work more than one job and are still unable to buy food after they pay the rent and get the gas to go to work. Some have lost their jobs, their homes. Still others are struggling with life-altering circumstances, be it a health issue, an accident, the loss of a family member, or other personal disaster.
The Reservoir Food Pantry was founded by local residents, Sean Bigler and Bonnie Lykes. We’re fortunate to have the support pf volunteers from the community. There are no salaried employees. We nourish the hungry, both in our pantry and by delivering food to those unable to visit the pantry. We offer canned, packaged food, bread and fresh produce regularly. We also offer a limited amount of items of dignity.
THE PANTRY NEEDS YOUR HELP. Your generosity is appreciated and your gift will be used to directly help neighbors. Please make your check payable to the Reservoir Food Pantry, and mail it to P. O. Box 245, Boiceville, NY 12412.
If you prefer to donate by credit card, please visit our website at www.reservoirfoodpantry.org/donate.
Reservoir Food Pantry, Inc., is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit charity and your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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Kingston has a new Farm Stand!
How long has it been since –
you bit into a juicy, delicious peach?
you ate a gorgeous red apple?
had a piece of homemade apple pie?
had a serving of home cooked beets?
Wait no more!
Fresh fruits and vegetables (picked on Monday), are now distributed Tuesday mornings in the parking lot of People’s Place Food Pantry and Thrift Store at the corner of St. James and Broadway in Kingston, New York.
This is the new paradigm at work! Anyone can get the food. Just be there when it opens at 10 on Tuesday mornings. No questions are asked. No identification is necessary. Take this delicious, nutritious food home, prepare it how you want, and eat it.
A new project of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, People’s Place was chosen as the first Farm Stand in Ulster County because
it’s got that generous parking lot,
it’s in a grocery store desert,
it’s in Kingston.
Last week, the first week ever for the Farm Stand, brought 565 people to enjoy this gorgeous food. It was, every bit of it, fresh food, grown in our own Hudson Valley.
Our tax dollars at work in the 21st century.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greo
Food Pantry Blog – The Fat Lady Sings
“The past, with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be.” – Lillian Hellman
MIRIAM’S WELL, THE PANTRY TRUCK, BECAME A MIRACULOUS EVENT FOR ALL IN THE PANTRY. The shopper census in the building dropped by one third because of the food being distributed in the yard at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, in the parking lot at Woodstock Commons, and outside the Community Center in Woodstock Meadows.
IN THE BIBLE, MIRIAM’S WELL SUSTAINED THE JEWS IN THE DESERT. In the modern day Woodstock food pantry, Miriam’s Well, the pantry truck, sustained both shoppers and volunteers as we fed the people. The environment offered in the back of Miriam’s Well encouraged dignity and community. Volunteers craved the dignity and community as much as the shoppers.
“Today was a day right out of a Bible story. I’ve never experienced anything like this! We were almost traveling back in time to the age old gathering at the well.”
“Today at Woodstock Commons was absolutely fabulous! When that little boy ran around the community telling every one we were here, everyone was so happy.”
“Being at St. Gregory’s was so much fun! That tree we park under seems magical.”
“The people at Woodstock Meadows are so happy to get the produce. Many of these people really can’t make it to the pantry.”
MIRIAM’S WELL, THE PANTRY TRUCK, WAS THE PRODUCT OF VOLUNTEERS WORKING TOGETHER TOWARD A COMMON GOAL. The success was 100%.
WE HAD DONE MUCH FOR THE PEOPLE OF WOODSTOCK. Pantry systems were in place so solidly that they were a “lock”. The pantry was “running on autopilot” and going to function perfectly well without my services.
There were volunteers who wanted to move up in the pantry world.
There were volunteers who wanted to be the coordinator.
There were volunteers who wanted to take over pantry management.
There were volunteers who wanted to make more decisions.
The Building Committee was certainly ready for new management.
I had a book that I’d been putting off for several years. It was calling to be finished. I’d dreamed about taking writing classes.
Peggy was the best take out manager on the planet.
Guy Oddo had been “living” the pantry for several years.
They would make a wonderful foundation team for the new pantry management. They were well known, well liked, and respected by both shoppers and volunteers. They were active in their local congregations so they would represent the Interfaith Council faction well. They were both knowledgeable of Food Bank policies, guidelines, rules. They both believed in following the rules and they were both honest. They would be acceptable to the Food Bank.
The shopper population at the Woodstock Reformed Church was significantly reduced. Pantry deniers were going to have a difficult time complaining about extreme overcrowding in the building with significantly fewer people in the halls.
EVEN WITH THE REDUCED NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE BUILDING, MORE AND MORE PEOPLE WERE BEING SERVED.
A NEW PANTRY OPENED IN BEARSVILLE WHICH WOULD FURTHER REDUCE PANTRY CROWDING IN THE BUILDING. Fr. Nicholas was opening the pantry at the Holy Ascension Monastery 7 days a week. He had a plan for controlling the lines: call ahead to tell him you’re on the way. His number: 845-679-0600. Dignity, caring manners, a smile and the best food Fr. Nicholas could bring to the monastery pantry.
THAT WASN’T THE WHOLE STORY. People from surrounding communities were asking about starting pantries in their communities. Along Route 28 there are no pantries from Phoenicia to Margaretville. People were asking.
One evening, I was taking a rare moment to enjoy a perfect Woodstock evening. The temperature was cool. The sky was indescribably beautiful. I couldn’t help but stop for just a minute to sit on a bench on the Village Green.
A nice young couple came up to me and talked about the need for a pantry in Boiceville. Sean’s pitch was convincing. I bit.
ON SEPTEMBER 6, 2013, THE FAT LADY SANG.
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Thurman Greco
Grandpa Woodstock
I’LL NEVER KNOW WHY THEY THREW HIM IN THE SLAM LAST WEEK. I MEAN…WHY NOW?
Father Woodstock, Grandpa Woodstock, or whatever you called him, showed up here almost 20 years ago. The story goes that he was homeless. At least, that’s what he told me in the pantry one day. “I’m the luckiest man in the world Thurman. I lived a homeless life all these years until I found the lovely Lady Estar. And, here I am now, married to a beautiful woman with 3 houses.”
Father Woodstock, Lady Estar, and their beloved dog Hector, visited the pantry every Wednesday afternoon right according to schedule. Hector waited outside the door in the colorful cart Father Woodstock had made for Lady Estar. Hector had a special little seat in the back of the cart. As far as I know, he never tried to jump out.
The only time they missed a pantry afternoon was when they took the bus somewhere and went on a vacation to get out of the heat in Woodstock. Maybe THAT has something to do with why he was arrested. He and Lady Estar didn’t go anywhere this August. Our summer this year was just too cool and too wonderful.
BUT, THAT’S GETTING AHEAD OF THE STORY.
Father Woodstock came to town and became the most colorful of the colorful. Everyone loves him…especially every woman he comes in contact with. I, personally, loved him more than the others when he came into the pantry carrying his walking stick with the horn attached.
“YOU LOOK LOVELY TODAY!” he always said with feeling as he tooted the horn for emphasis. “Toot. Toot.” My heart melted. Because, in reality, working in the pantry was tough with watchers counting the minutes, checking the hallway lines, complaining about the cardboard, and me feeding the unworthy hungry. For the few minutes that Father Woodstock came in the pantry to shop, none of it mattered.
LONGTIME RESIDENTS RECALL THAT FATHER WOODSTOCK PACKED UP HIS WORLDLY POSSESSIONS AND TOOK OFF FOR BIXBY, ARIZONA EACH WINTER ON THE BUS. Boy, that must have been a trip! I can just see Father Woodstock now, entertaining everyone with stories, peace sign salutes, and telling all the women how beautiful they were. I think I would’ve loved the trip. There never would have been a dull moment, that’s for sure. Toot. Toot.
ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO, FATHER WOODSTOCK AND LADY ESTAR FELL IN LOVE. What a pair! They’re perfect for each other.
As they wwere out in public, he and Lady Estar were always beautifully dressed. They both wore silk…flowing silk skirts and beautiful silk kimonos. They had a nice selection of lovely silk jackets. Their wardrobes consisted mostly of floral prints in their favorite color: red.
BOTH FATHER WOODSTOCK AND LADY ESTAR WORE THEIR DRESSES AND SKIRTS LONG. Their toenails were always painted. They wore Teva sandals. They both had long flowing silky silver hair and beards.
Father Woodstock liked to come to the small pantry weekly and choose foods he and Lady Estar could serve to the homeless people they entertained. As he chose apples, oranges, carrots, he commented to other women shoppers how beautiful they were. “Toot. Toot.”
THE MAN MAY NOT HAVE MEANT A WORD OF IT…HE PROBABLY DIDN’T MEAN A WORD OF IT. Now that I think about it, Father Woodstock was probably the best actor in town. But, nobody cared. For the moment, life was beautiful.
So, here we have a scene…a pattern…a reputation. Father Woodstock conducted himself in a certain fashion all these years in Woodstock. Everyone knew him, residents and tourists alike. He trained us all to smile when he came around. He trained us to gather around and ooh and aah when he posed for photographs with a peace smile and sign. “Toot. Toot.”
IN HIS OWN WAY, FATHER WOODSTOCK WAS AN AMBASSADOR FOR THE TOWN OF WOODSTOCK. People came from far corners of the globe as well as just one or two towns down to catch a glimpse of him, his colorful cart, and his peace sign. In his own way, he brought much money to Woodstock because when the people came to see him, they also bought a cup of coffee, a meal, a “find” at the flea market, a pair of shoes at Pegasus, or a necklace at Gwen’s Gems.
AND, NOW, HE’S IN JAIL IN LIEU OF $50,000 CASH OR $100,000 BOND BAIL.
So, if he’s been possessing and selling drugs, paraphernalia, and pharmaceutical equipment for the past twenty years, why did they wait until the full moon in August, 2014, to throw him in the slam?
Oh well, that’s Woodstock for you.
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Thurman Greco
Treasured Belongings in the Food Pantry
IT HANGS ON A WALL IN MY LIVING ROOM, MY DAUGHTER’S SELF PORTRAIT. .
Larger than life, the piece shows one eye, her nose and mouth.
Just beginning her studies at the Corcoran, Jennette wasn’t comfortable painting an entire face.
A photography major, she was painting for the first time in her life.
Sometimes I sit in my chair with my three Chihuahuas and just look at the painting for several minutes when I come home from the pantry. So much of this painting is relevant to what I’m doing now, what the pantry shoppers are experiencing.
As people travel the path to a pantry, they lose things. One shopper recently gave me three paintings. He was offloading personal possessions and just didn’t want to see them go to the dumpster.
I ALSO HAVE PAINTINGS GIVEN TO ME BY OTHER SHOPPERS. If I stay in this business long enough, I’ll end up with a whole gallery. That actually happened to Dr. Wayne Longmore, the absolute best physician in the area.
THERE’S A MORAL IN THIS STORY SOMEWHERE FOR ME. I’m just not sure what it is yet.
Dr. Longmore, an Emergency Medicine specialist, was a Woodstock physician. He practiced by himself, without the help of a receptionist or nurse. He was favored by artists, writers, musicians as well as many other people from around here. Many felt he was the best physician in the area. The artists went to him with their health issues and he treated them with dignity and respect, whether or not they had money. Most of them had no money so, when he worked to make them well, they brought over paintings.
DR. LONGMORE FINALLY HAD THE BEST LOCAL ART COLLECTION IN THE AREA. Then, the paintings and sculptures, given to him over the years by artist patients with no money, disappeared from his office after he was arrested. I never learned the real story of what happened.
The public story was that he prescribed too many painkillers…too much Oxycodone. The FBI Report referred to the product as hydrocodone. Well, the public stories in the papers aren’t always the whole story or even a piece of a story. I know that from personal experience.
DR. LONGMORE AND I KNEW A LOT OF THE SAME PEOPLE. He healed them. The pantry fed them. Without even trying, I knew more or less who was on what. How could I not know? I saw them every week under fairly intimate circumstances.
I ONLY KNEW TWO PEOPLE ON OXYCODONE. And, one of those two was trying to sell the stuff. So, they can’t blame Dr. Longmore for that.
He was sentenced to six months house arrest, three years probation, two hundred hours community service, and fined $200,000.00. The real punishment went to the poor in Woodstock who now have nowhere to go for a doctor. It puts a lot of pressure on the Healthcare as a Human Right group.
HIS OFFICE, JUST DOWN FROM LORI’S CAFE, SITS EMPTY…the office at 104 Mill Hill Road. I think of Dr. Longmore every time I pass by. I remember his beautiful art collection, all the down and out people he served, all the good the man did for Woodstock.
The place has a for sale sign, a monument commemorating those in Woodstock who unfailingly give of themselves. Frankly, I don’t care if they ever sell it.
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A SUMMER STORM AT THE GOOD NEIGHBOR FOOD PANTRY IN WOODSTOCK
“Although hurricanes can form as early as May and continue into December in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, the official Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1 and ends November 30.”-www.Theweatherchannel.com
WEATHER WAS ALWAYS AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION AT THE PANTRY. Winters were important because of the cold, cold, cold waits in front of the building before the door opened.
Summers were another matter altogether. Storms confronted us several times throughout the season. They ranged from gentle showers lasting a few minutes to hurricanes of historic proportions.
Always a concern in these summer events was the stream running next to the side of the church building. Actually, the building was constructed right into the stream with the parking lot on the other side of the stream. Drivers crossed over a tiny bridge to park.
Often when the rains came, the little stream rose. On several separate occasions I feared for the pantry. I didn’t fear for the building. Built many years ago, it weathered many storms and high water events. I feared water would enter the pantry room which was right on ground level.
Luckily this never happened. At one point, we were distributing food and watching the water level at the same time as it rose to within two inches of the building.
“PLEASE SHOP QUICKLY. THE STREAM IS RISING. I want us to get our food before I have to close the pantry.”
I repeated those sentences over and over and over. (As if the people could have shopped any faster. They were already being pushed to their very limits regularly in an effort to get as many people through the pantry as we could during shopping hours.)
Then, in August, 2011, Hurricane Irene blew through. The seventh costliest hurricane in U.S.History, Irene landed at Coney Island on August 28 as a category one storm and then moved through New York State on its way over New England.
Irene caused many floods described as five-hundred-year-floods by The Weather Channel. Disastrous floods occurred in the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley.
ON THE NEXT PANTRY DAY AFTER IRENE VISITED, PEOPLE FLOCKED IN. They had no power in their homes, apartments, rooms. Some had lost everything. Others were just inconvenienced by what was to be over a week without power.
All were grateful for the food they received at the pantry.Some in the line were visibly upset. It was painfully obvious that some were never going to spiritually, emotionally, and financially recover from Irene.
One couple, renting a place out near Boiceville, lost everything in the cabin they rented, including their car. Someone they knew had a room in a shed further up the road on a hill. They moved in. They’re still there. They still don’t have a car. They walk to the Reservoir Food Pantry and get what food they can carry to their home each week.
Within a very short time, the Food Bank was making Clorox available as well as water in gallon jugs. These two items had never really been on our order schedule before.
THE LESSON I LEARNED FROM IRENE WAS to be prepared in the summer. Now, I order cleaning supplies throughout the year whenever they become available at the Food Bank. We try to keep bars of soap and toothbrushes on hand in the Items of Dignity section of the pantry.
I keep water available in the pantry throughout the year if at all possible. At a minimum, shoppers can take a bottle each time they shop. In time of crisis, they can take much more depending on what we have stacked in the back.
Having bottled water stacked in the storeroom caused both problems and criticism when people who don’t understand our ordering system saw case after case after case of water just sitting in a corner. This was particularly irksome to those who saw us allowing people to take only one bottle weekly throughout the year when we had so much in the storeroom.
When criticized, I simply refused to move off the dime. Two things with their own clocks: Food Banks and Hurricanes. I learned to work with both schedules.
WHEN SUPERSTORM SANDY HIT New York City on October 29, 2012, the volunteers at the Good Neighbor Food Pantry were more prepared than they were when Irene visited. And, it was a good thing. Sandy was much larger and deadlier.
Sandy, affecting states from Florida to Maine was both the second costliest hurricane in U.S. History and the deadliest.
At the pantry, we didin’t skip a beat. As the shoppers filed in for food, we were savvy enough to ask each one about how they’d been affected by Sandy.
Probably half of the people coming through our doors in November were affected by Sandy. As with Irene, some Sandy victims in the line were unaware that food pantries even existed the week before. They just woke up one morning to discover life as they knew it to be totally different. To make matters worse, they soon learned they were in a new sociological category: situational poor. Not only were they homeless and scrounging for food, they were soon painfully aware they needed huge amounts of money to even begin the climb back to what they thought was normal.
“WE’VE LOST EVERYTHING, OUR HOME OUR CAR…EVERYTHING.”
“We’re doing better than some Thurman. Part of our house is still standing. Our car is not gone.”
“Everything is gone, our home, our car, my job.”
On and on the stories went. Standing in the hall waiting to get food was a calming experience for some people. Others were not so calmed during their first two or three visits. They looked around in the line and saw some people for what they were: alcoholics, artists, child abusers, children, 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, Woodstock’s colorful characters, volunteers.
THE FOOD BANK OF THE HUDSON VALLEY SHIPPED TRUCKLOADS OF FOOD to our community in the weeks after Sandy. In a short time, we served lines of people from the parking lot at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church off Route 375 in West Hurley. In all, trucks were sent out ten times. This was in addition to the food we distributed to people on regular pantry days.
AFTER IT WAS ALL OVER, I went to the Town of Woodstock Board on two separate occasions and tried to involve the town in our future efforts to feed the hungry when disaster strikes. I was never able to engage the Town Board in an effort to feed people in the event of a storm or other event inflicting damage to Woodstock.
The Good Neighbor Food Pantry had the backing of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. We had volunteers who were able to deliver food during times of emergency. What we lacked were community officials who believed that Woodstock would ever get hit. And, also, we had demonstrated that we could/would deliver large food shipments to hungry people without involving the community in any way. Why should they bother to participate? A free ride already existed.
What we did not have and what I felt we needed was for the Town of Woodstock to allow us to deliver and distribute large amounts of food to hungry people from a community property location if a damaging disaster struck our area.
When I asked for this, I MET GLAZED EYES, STARES, AND SILENCE. And, really, why should they cooperate? The Catholic Church was the site of these emergency mass food distributions now. Why change things? They simply didn’t see the need to get involved if they could shove the job off on someone else.
My argument was, and still is, that the community has a responsibility to offer a location. In the event of a future disaster, the parking lot of the St. John’s R.C. Church was simply not big enough. I argued that preparation for such an event would not hurt.
This chapter may or may not not have a happy resolution. To my knowledge, no one has stepped forward with a provision for emergency feeding for Woodstock in the event of a disastrous storm or other event.
Current plans are being formulated through Ulster County. These efforts may be strong enough to overcome the disinterest of the Woodstock Town government.
THE RESERVOIR FOOD PANTRY AND ITS LOCATION IN BOICEVILLE is now the focus of any disaster prevention efforts. Fortunately or unfortunately, the Boiceville residents are familiar with the aftermath of a superstorm.
Restoring normalcy to Upstate New Yorkers in the aftermath of both Irene and Sandy has been sadly lacking. Destroyed homes and businesses in our area are still not restored. A motel next to where we distribute food on Route 28 in Boiceville has been abandoned. Shoppers are coming for food who will probably never experience normalcy as they knew it before Irene and Sandy.
Sadly, mold and rot advance without any help but buildings and vehicles do not repair themselves. What we need to do is figure out how to facilitate the rebuilding of homes and businesses while preparing for the next disaster so this highly depressed area of Ulster County can begin to prosper again.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – Sue, Mary, and the Seniors Apartment Complex
Sue was a slender, older woman with long gray hair which she wore in an attractive up-do. Sue was a Wednesday afternoon regular. She lived in the Shady area about two miles off 212 on a side road.
So, every Wednesday she walked the two miles to 212 and then hitch hiked the remainder of the way into Woodstock. She left her home in the morning on Wednesdays to get to the pantry on time.
Her shopping selections were always careful because she could only carry so much going home. This translated to small, light weight items: protein bars, one or 2 canned items, packaged dates, Ramen soup, dried milk, pasta.
Then, as dark approached in the winter, she would take her few packages and head back home – hoping, praying for a ride.
There was a seniors’ apartment complex in the forest off Route 28 which we visited weekly. It was a beautiful facility but, boy…what a location. These people, all nineteen households of them, were really isolated from a community. There was no sidewalk to anywhere. And, not everyone had a car (or could even drive anymore, for that matter.) There was a post office about a mile down the road on Route 213. There was also a small Methodist Church near the post office. Boiceville, the nearest town sported an IGA and a pharmacy. These two stores were several miles from the apartments, clear on the other side of the reservoir.
We drove out to the apartments every Thursday afternoon after the pantry closed with fresh produce, canned goods, and some kind of something that we could label “special treat” (although, many times that label was a real stretch.)
I received a call one December 26th from a resident. Judith, one of the residents realized late on the 24th that Mary, her neighbor who no longer drives, was completely out of food. So, Mary went around to her neighbors and also dug in her cabinets for food. She put together a food package for Mary composed entirely of canned and boxed goods which had been brought to the complex and distributed in the weeks before Christmas.
“Thurman, I’m calling to thank you and your team for coming every week to bring food to us out here. It was such a relief to be able to get food together on Christmas Eve to give to Mary. Imagine being out of food at Christmas! Your trips out here mean so much to us. Our nutrition has improved so much in this last year..”
This story on the surface, has a profound meaning. But, the spiritual aspect goes even deeper when we realize that the lady calling me is wheel chair bound. Getting that food for Mary was a real challenge for her, I feel.
And, actually, Mary’s story is not unusual. As people age, they sometimes have difficulty carrying on daily life tasks that younger people take for granted. And, the older person is afraid to reveal the problems to others because s/he is afraid that a move to a nursing home is eminent.
So, the person suffers in silence.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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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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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Thurman Greco
food pantry blog – Father Nicholas
“Praise be to God.” – Father Nicholas
I first heard about Father Nicholas when a volunteer from St. John’s Roman Catholic Catholic Church asked me, almost in a whisper, if we had any extra food for some priests. Through the grapevine, I heard Heidi Motzkin knew some people (priests?) needing food.
HMMM. Then I heard another story about a group of priests needing food. Things were kind of quiet for a week or two. I didn’t act very fast because, in this business, it really takes a shout to get my attention. Anyway, I kept hearing little whispers so I got really curious. Who are these guys? Where are they? Do we know them?
So, Peggy Johnson, our Take Out Department manager at the Good Neighbor Food Pantry, and I got in the car and off we went! Out on Coldbrook Road in Bearsville is a very special place – The Holy Ascension Monastery. We drove out there and were greeted by a tall thin man with a full beard and pony tail, wearing a black cassock, a tall black hat, and black combat boots.
The story went that the monastery had, for a long time, housed three monks. Then, one day, several monks in the Boston area loaded a U-Haul truck and drove to Bearsville. Several other monks boarded a bus in Boston and rode to Woodstock. They increased the population at the monastery to twenty. The monastery needed extra people because they’re building a large, beautiful Church building on the grounds. I went to their website and saw what a beautiful building it is going to be.
In the confusion of the expansion, everything had been taken care of except, of course, the extra food needed for these priest/construction workers and volunteers.
Food? You need food? Peggy was delighted, excited, enthusiastic. She was on this job right away. A duck on a June bug had nothing on Peggy. Within days (hours?) the Holy Ascension Monastery staff had food. Peggy learned about their dietary considerations, as well as the number of people needing food.
Like a Supply Sergeant in a Mash unit, Peggy learned that the food bank had #10 cans of food. Nothing would do until our pantry storeroom had a whole shelf filled with them for Father Nicholas.
Fresh produce? Father Nicholas came by each week and got all the produce he needed.
Well, it wasn’t long until Father Nicholas and the Holy Ascension Monastery had their food needs straightened out and no longer needed Good Neighbor Food Pantry food. So, as smoothly as greasing a cake pan, Father Nicholas and his fellow monks became part of the volunteer pantry crew. He delivered food to homebound households every week. He brought yogurt to our pantry weekly.
And, as if that weren’t enough, Father Nicholas and the Holy Ascension Monastery became a food pantry for the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley serving food to anyone dropping by: pilgrims, homeless people, hungry people living in the area. The Holy Ascension Monastery is open seven days per week. People are allowed to take what they need and return as often as they need.
And, of course, while all this was happening, every one of us fell in love with the monks. Never in a million years would any of us have met these gorgeous men of God if it hadn’t been for the pantry.
The face of God is everywhere. All you have to do is work at a pantry, open your eyes, and look around.
Is that cool or what?
