Hunger Is Not a Disease

Abundance 2: LeAnna, Catherine, and Jane – Women, Mothers, and Hunger in the Food Pantry

Abundance.  LeAnna volunteered in the pantry.  She had a business degree, a house, two adorable children and a spouse with a fancy career post somewhere in Europe.  He decided he wanted nothing to do with her anymore.  No money came across the ocean for her and the children.  There was no money for taxes she owned on the house, or anything else for that matter.

LeAnna was happy to take the vegetarian items available each week.  Her children loved fresh vegetables so there was much to choose from.  The girls saw yogurt as a treat.

Catherine had a house full of children including two so close together, I thought they were a set of twins.  She couldn’t get it together to work.  And, I doubt if she could have gotten employment in our area anyway.  This lovely lady had two advanced degrees.

There weren’t many, or possibly any, jobs available in Ulster County in her career field.  And, of course, once a woman gets an advanced degree, the lower level jobs aren’t open to her unless she hides the education.  Sometimes education can be hidden.  Sometimes not.  It all depends on the situation.  The main thing is to get it off the resume.

Catherine was open-minded about the food she selected.  She took anything not tied down.  Because she qualified for cases of USDA, Catherine left the pantry with a case each of pasta sauce, canned corn, green beans, vegetarian beans, refried beans.

When she finished shopping, ten-year-old Robert Allen, our next-to-youngest volunteer, brought out the flatbed metal wheeled cart, put her groceries on it, and wheeled them to her car.  Little toddler Mikey, our youngest volunteer, ran along behind.

I saw Jane, the young mother who couldn’t work because her husband threw her up against a wall, injuring her back.  She had an eight-year-old child she was trying to raise without the luxury of child support.

Jane chose items from shelves where bending and stretching weren’t  necessary because she couldn’t do those things.

And, to return to the beginning of Abundance, these three families and referenes to the critics about  shoppers all owning upscale cars – Catherine, LeAnna, and Jane owned fairly late model SUV’s in good condition.  They invited the criticism of the pantry naysayers when they drove into the parking lot to shop.

Here we had three households, single-headed households in need of food.  If not for a couple of years, then for several months.

For some, feeding hungry people means we fed freeloaders.  Not all hungry people look needy.  Some of the best-dressed people in Woodstock never spent a dime on their clothes.  They had no money for clothes so they shopped at  Family of Woodstock.

Neither of these households was homeless, although they could be when the tax collector came to call.

Neither of these households was without transportation although they could be if the SUV needed expensive repairs.  Nobody in these households looked poverty-stricken although they could be if the car needed repairs.

For the moment, neither LeAnna, Catherine, nor Jane looked poverty-stricken although, they would in time with no child support from the spouse to help with expenses.

These three women had several things in common.  They were divorced.  They had children.  They received no money from the ex-spouse even though each one had a lucrative, influential employment career, money, and a bright future.

There was not a job among them.

There was little or no money for a food budget even.

LeAnna, Catherine, and Jane each lived with abundance on one hand, a large box of unpaid bills on the other hand, and hope, dreams, and fears somewhere in the middle.

The children were eligible for school breakfast and lunch programs.  But, that didn’t give them enough food to eat at home.  And, there was no lunch program for the mothers.

So, it was off to the pantry.  This was a life-changing decision.  Using a pantry requires commitment, endurance, and effort.  Attitudes about food in particular and life in general change.

Pantry shoppers are often self-disciplined, self-controlled, determined to do what is best for the family.

Freeloaders?  What do you think?

Every week when these women shopped I saw myself as a young woman returning from Mexico with my two daughters and nothing but the clothes on my back.  There was no way anyone, just by looking at me, would have known how little I had.

Whether we come to the pantry as shoppers, volunteers, or both, all of us are asked by the pantry to leave; the past behind.  And, of course, that’s different for everyone.

How can we move forward into a new life if we never give anything up?  For some, giving up the past means letting go of the job we lost, the home, the furniture that went in the home, maybe the family, self-esteem, the car, good health.

What happens in the pantry, this shopping, this offloading, has the potential to be the greatest journey of one’s life.  The hungry person learns things in new ways, and sees things never noticed before.  And, finally, there is the knowledge that anything can happen.  When all is said and done, things will never be the same again.  Better off for the experience, thoughts change.

Beliefs and core values are found.

I’m sticking my neck out here to say this.

Being hunger in 21st century America is a spiritual journey involving miracles, forgiveness, endurance, and spiritual healing.  It’s all about discovering that it’s never too late to be who you really are.

That’s what this story is all about.

Thank you for reading this  blog post in two parts.  Please forward it to your preferred social media network.

Thurman Greco

 

Do you shop at a pantry? Do you work at a pantry? Do you donate to a Pantry? – Part 4

 

Pantry HND 3

PANTRIES OPERATE ON WHAT’S AVAILABLE, NOT WHAT WE NEED.

When  I think of the monthly food order…three words come to mind:

Donations

Surpluses

Leftovers

THAT’S WHAT WE GET.   The items are lined up on the form emailed to us twice weekly.  The form lists available foods in fine print.  If the email has fewer than 20 pages, I know I’m in  trouble.

For me, the most important section of the list is the USDA section.  This category usually takes less than a page.  No matter.  This is the free food  I can order each month.

At the Reservoir Food Pantry, we’re allowed 2 cases of whatever items they have on hand.  And, I go for it all.  This is what I order first.

Right now, USDA staples include small boxes of raisins, canned cranberry sauce, and canned beans.  We’ve had these items for about 3 months running.  The volunteers who haven’t been working in the pantry long wonder out loud why I keep ordering these items over and over.  What they don’t see, because they haven’t been doing this long enough, is that these items will soon be absent from the list and may  never reappear.

IN CONTRAST TO  GROCERY STORE ITEMS, WHEN STOCK GETS LOW, A PERSON SIMPLY ORDERS MORE.

SURPLUS FOOD IS AVAILABLE UNTIL IT’S NOT.  Surplus food, by its very nature, is only temporary.  Nothing is permanent in a pantry.  It’s not even long-term.  The moral of this story is that, in the pantry world, all good things come to a final end.

Even though I know all good things come to an end, what I cannot say is “when”.  The stuff will just, one day, no longer be available.

THIS GIVES THE WHOLE SYSTEM A FRAGILE TONE.

THIS ALSO HOLDS TRUE FOR THE GOVERNMENT FUNDING WE RECEIVE.   The numbers of hungry shoppers keep rising.  The unemployment funds and food stamps available to the hungry keep shrinking.  I  expect to wake up one day and read in the New York Times that some senators and congressmen just cut off all the food money for the hungry and homeless.

WE OPERATE OUR PANTRY ON DONATIONS.  No salaries are paid at the Reservoir Food Pantry.  We ask for every penny we receive and  hold food drives monthly to supplement our HPNAP food grant.

There is no funding for overhead, supplies, equipment, gas and auto repairs, insurance. The fact that we’re all volunteers gives the pantry effort a temporary feel.  People show up and do the job they do until they don’t show up anymore.

I’m happy with an all-volunteer army although some regular volunteers have questioned my feelings over the years.  Everyone working at the pantry is there for a reason.  Some don’t even know why they’re doing the job they are doing until later when they look back on that part of their lives.

WE ALL SEEK HEALING AND A PANTRY IS A WONDERFUL PLACE TO HEAL.    Volunteers tell me this is an important part of their lives.   People shopping at the pantry help out as well.  We  receive a sense of satisfaction from giving something to others.  Reservoir Food Pantry is in a gorgeous area.  The food is the best we can find.  What more can we ask for?

I’m not threatened by unpredictable funding, precarious food supply, and increasing demand.

We don’t turn anyone away at the Reservoir Food Pantry.  We know what it’s like to be hungry.

Peace and food for all.

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Thurman Greco