3 Important Things We Can Do To End 50+ Hunger
“Hunger and income inequality is probably the single biggest issue facing this country”. – Susan Zimet
Ending hunger is a huge task…so big it’s scary, even. But, it’s okay to be scary. It’s doable. And, besides that, anything that’s really important is probably a little scary. Right?
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?
Hunger in general and 50+ Hunger in particular are buried issues. In other words, unless you’re the one shopping at the pantry, you haven’t got much of a clue. If you’re standing in a grocery line with 5 cotton tops, statistics tell us that 1 of them is struggling for $$$ to get the food s/he needs.
Food insecurity happens with 50+ citizens when the retirement income is insufficient to meet day-to-day needs.
Not all 50+ people are retired. It’s not unheard of to see people visiting the pantry, men mostly, who have been fired from jobs they’ve held for many years. After a worker crosses the line to being 50+, getting another job is pretty impossible. So, the challenges are great. What I saw most of them do is desperately figure out how to get some sort of aid: SSI, disability, that will last until the social security kicks in.
I’VE SEEN MY SHARE OF MEN IN THIS STRUGGLE. Some were successful. Others just finally got seriously ill and died. This seems tragic, I know. But, think about it for a moment. What else are they going to do when the $$$ is gone and there is no chance of any more $$$ coming in?
One such pantry shoppers came into the basement of the Woodstock Reformed Church angry. He was one of the angriest men I saw in the pantry the whole time I worked there. Frightened reality covered his face.
“I’m finished” he said. “They fired me today! I’ll never be able to get another job again. I’m too old!”
I didn’t say a word. He didn’t look or act as if he was going to hurt anyone and I felt he needed to release some of his anger. He didn’t try to punch the walls or the other shoppers or the volunteers. And, since the wait was over an hour, I felt he would quiet down before he finished shopping.
HE WAS CORRECT ABOUT 1 THING. He was probably not ever going to get a real job again. I just hoped his unemployment was going to hold out until he could figure out how to get something more permanent:
SSI
Disability
SNAP
It took him a year to calm down. Every time he came to the pantry, I saw the anger. We all just left him alone. It was all we could do for him.
Time passed.
Now, in 2015, I saw him again – calm, maybe at peace with his situation. He lives in his truck, sort of semi homeless, I suppose. He has places to bathe, etc.
He’s a talented musician, this man. He has found places to play and he is looking okay. What more can we all ask for anyway?
Anyone with income that doesn’t include $$$ for food is, in my book, in crisis..
50+ seniors routinely decide between food and transportation, food and medicine, food and clothing.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
One thing we need to do is understand, really understand, what keeps seniors from getting enough healthy food. The 50+ population is growing, not shrinking. we have a continually increasing number of seniors facing
food insecurity
rising food costs
availability of healthy food
shrinking Government funding.
FOOD PANTRY WORKERS DO WHAT THEY CAN. Volunteers in many cases keep people from dying of hunger on the streets. But pantries are, with 50+ hunger, a small effort. Can people seek more important ways to address the problem? Can we develop some long-term and short-term solutions?
WE NEED TO DO 3 THINGS:
UNDERSTAND WHAT STANDS BETWEEN THE 50+ HUNGRY AND FOOD
EDUCATE THE PUBLIC
HELP THE 50+ POPULATION GET THE FOOD
Educating the public has its own challenges. Food is such a hot button issue in our country. People immediately go into denial. They want to believe that the shoppers in the pantry lines are all wealthy and drive Maseratis and Corvettes.
Of course, this will never be true. I’ve been working in the food pantry industry for 10 years and I’ve seen very few free loaders. And, honestly, the free loaders I met all had mental issues.
The number of people shopping in in food pantries who don’t belong is very small.
The number of people who need to shop in food pantries is large.
The number of 50+ people who need to shop in food pantries but don’t is way too large.
WE NEED TO KEEP THE EDUCATIONAL EFFORT GOING. That’s why I work in a food pantry, write this blog, and speak about hunger at pretty much any place I’m invited.
Helping the 50+ population get the food is a challenge. It’s difficult to learn that you worked all your life, paid your taxes, participated in social security, and now …when you need it…it’s not enough.
What happened to our dream?
Was it ever real?
Did we get bilked?
Were we all just kidding ourselves?
OUR PARENTS AND OUR GRANDPARENTS WORKED TO BUILD A NATION. We worked to continue the American Dream. Now, we find that it doesn’t really exist. For some, the belief is that this dream never did exist. For many, the most important thing is to just not let anyone know how bad things are for them.
Hunger in the 50+ community today is where being gay was prior to 2000.
If you can talk just one 50+ senior into getting SNAP, you will be doing a wonderful thing.
Thank you for reading this blog.
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Thurman Greco.
“What’re You Doing?”
“What’re you doing?” she asked. For a minute, I didn’t understand what was happening. We were all crowded into the pantry. I was trying to make sure the shoppers got through the tiny shed with all the groceries they needed (and qualified for) without anybody getting squashed.
“What’re you doing?” she asked again. Then, I realized she was trying to talk with me about something in the midst of this chaos. Sometimes people do that. They decide to have a conversation…to get to know the people in the room better possibly. Often, they want to know more about a product or maybe get a recipe.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, I’m thinking about 2015. This place has changed so much over this past year. When I first started coming here, there were only a few of us. Now look around. There’re people everywhere. You open the pantry now every week about 2 hours early. The boxes are piling up outside. We’re all so happy you’re here and we’re all so grateful for the food. I know you can use some more help.
“Can you give anything away? What do you have to do to get a little freedom? How can you get a lighter spirit?”
WOW! Talk about God in the pantry! I thought a minute as the people moved through the tiny shed choosing a can of soup, a gallon of vinegar, a small bottle of water, a box of crackers.
But, I only needed a minute. What do I have to do to get a lighter spirit? Well, in order to lighten the load, I need to give something away…
Cardboard!
Every week our pantry is totally overrun with empty boxes at the end of the pantry day. By 4:00, everyone is tired, grumpy, winded, bushed, fatigued…you name it. And, what do we look at?
We look at a mountain…an actual mountain of cardboard.
When I thought about giving away those empty boxes, my heart began to sing. I felt as if I was as light as a feather.
What a wonderful opportunity this shopper had given to me…to everyone at the pantry, actually. She gave us the gift of vision. Once a vision exists, reality can follow. So, I began to visualize a pantry with 0 discarded boxes at the close of the pantry day.
I was energized by this vision. I realized what needed to happen was the reality of the vision. The energy needs to follow the intent to create the reality.
So, 2 thoughts came to me.
The first thought was to give away the boxes…1 by 1. That’s how they do it at the Food Coop in Great Barrington. When a shopper goes to the Food Coop there, s/he chooses the cardboard boxes needed to carry the groceries out of the building.
So,that’s what we’re doing now. Beginning just a few minutes after the shopper started talking to me, I asked everyone to take home a box. That, of course, didn’t get rid of all the boxes.
But, it did make a huge dent in the pile.
I’m also asking everyone I meet at the pantry “Who can haul off the boxes at the end of the pantry?” I’m sure as sight that someone will surface to take the empty boxes to a dump somewhere.
There is someone out there who wants to volunteer at the pantry, who has a pickup or SUV, and who knows where a convenient transfer station is.
Maybe you know someone. Maybe you can do this. If your answer is “yes” please drop by the pantry on Monday afternoon about 4:00 or call 845-399-3967.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
A Food Pantry is a Thing – a Place – a Process
In the case of the Reservoir Food Pantry, its a collection of canopy tents up the hill behind Robert’s Auction House on Route 28 in Boiceville, NY.
But, more importantly, a pantry is also a process.
When a person (group) applies to be an Agency with the Food Bank, the first thing that happens is, essentially, a mountain of paperwork. Included in this paperwork is several pages of rules – guidelines – to be followed.
Examples:
The food only goes to the hungry.
The food cannot be given, bartered, sold traded with another Food Bank Agency.
The food cannot be served at a pantry or other social function.
The food cannot be sold.
The shoppers are to be treated with dignity and respect.
This list goes on and on and on. And, every rule makes sense and is easy to obey provided nobody is out for a scam.
More than the rules, is the process occurring as we, the new pantry volunteers and shoppers, get to know one another. Time and pantry visits are needed by us all to build a pantry community.
For me, a successful pantry offers food as well as a safe haven for everyone, both shoppers and volunteers, where healing begins and continues.
The Reservoir Food Pantry is developing an every-week rhythm that people appreciate, even need.
We gather under the canopies. People walk among the food: apples, oranges, onions, potatoes, carrots, greens, canned soup, canned vegetables, Bread Alone Bread. They choose a three-day supply of food which will last them seven days.
Offering food with respect and dignity and a spirit of community and sharing is essential to this whole process.
More than the food, we all take home a spiritual gift we receive on Monday afternoons. The gift of sharing of oneself feeds the spiritual hunger experienced by mankind.
And, for me, what binds this whole experience together for everyone is the food.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Food Pantry Blog – Peggy’s Take Outs – Guy, Rich, Jamie, Prasida, Father Nicholas, the Anderson Crew
Peggy organized delivery teams. Guy Oddo delivered food to four clients. Rich and Jamie Allen had a delivery. Prasida Kay had three deliveries. Laura Rose had two deliveries. Father Nicholas had three deliveries. The Anderson Crew had six deliveries.
Andrea from the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley came out one day and spent over two hours conferring with Peggy and answering all her questions.
Peggy had special food sources for her take out clients. Anyone who donated food to the pantry was donating to Peggy’s Take Outs. (So many people were using the pantry that only case lots were used in the pantry room itself.)
Peggy had absolutely no problem calling up a church and asking for food.
“Hello, this is Peggy Johnson. Can I talk with your pantry representative?”
“Hello, this is Peggy Johnson. We’re really short of toilet paper for our shoppers this month. Can your congregation get some toilet paper for our take outs?”
“Hello, this is Peggy Johnson. It’s your congregation’s month at the food pantry. Can you organize an Items of Dignity drive for the pantry? We really need toilet paper, tooth paste, and razors.”
Nothing stopped Peggy.
Not rain
Not sleet
Not snow
Not 100 degree afternoons
Not power outages.
On a couple of occasions when there wasn’t light in the storeroom, Peggy used a spelunker’s flashlight hooked to her head.
Every Tuesday morning, promptly at 9:01 a.m., Peggy walked into the Woodstock Reformed Church hallway and set up long tables along the wall on which would be placed donated food from the Hurley Ridge Market.
By 9:15 a.m., Barry Greco brought the food from Hurley Ridge Market over. There were usually six to ten boxes in his Jeep: fresh vegetables, fruit, bread, and baked goods.
Peggy, Jamie, Prasida, Laura, Amy, Marvalene, and Leticia went to work immediately, working as fast and furiously as possible. By 11:00, every bit of this food would be sorted in bags for delivery to homebound households. The bags had to all be packed and loaded in cars by 11:30 for delivery because the fresh produce had to be removed from the building by noon.
Hallway tables were total chaos on Tuesday mornings. The Take Out team was stationed in front of the tables packing bags with produce, bread, while the Anderson Crew, along with other volunteers, were moving up and down the halls with carts filled with cases of canned beans, cooking oil, mayonnaise, canned fruits, canned vegetables, crackers, cereal, pasta, etc. Leticia worked quickly to get as much food into the pantry room as possible before the Anderson Team arrived but there was always food which still needed to be brought out by the team.
“Look out behind you Prasida!”
“Hey Jamie, here comes a cart!”
“Where are the oranges? My client loves oranges. I know I saw some earlier!”
Empty cardboard boxes piled up. It took several volunteers working together to break them down. Tony Cannistra, Marcos and Jonah from Anderson, Richard Allen, Guy Oddo, Dr. Tom Dallow, and everyone else we could get to do it, broke down boxes and then, finally loaded them into Vanessa.
The fact that there was never an accident with all the commotion in the hallway on Tuesday mornings proves there are guardian angels and they don’t sleep on the job.
By 1:00, we all changed hats. The pantry shelf stockers in the morning became the afternoon take out crew and packed next Tuesday’s bags with cans and boxes.
Peggy supervised every item that went into these bags. It was no easy task.
It didn’t matter to this crew.
This was a very cohesive, dedicated team of people who realized that if the food didn’t go out the recipients wouldn’t eat.
The food went out.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
