Full, Colorful Bowls

February 24, 2016JeniferLeave a comment

empty bowls ticket

This past Saturday, Feb. 20th, was the Empty Bowls luncheon I wrote about a few weeks ago. The fundraiser was sponsored by our local arts’ alliance organization and benefited one of the local food pantries. Local restaurants and caterers provided several different soups and chili for the fundraiser. Rolls, beverages and honey buns were 4 bowls also available. Students from a local private school had decorated colorful placemats for the tables and music students from the arts’ alliance music programs provided musical entertainment for diners.

My family arrived about half way through the event and found our bowls among the many other wonderfully decorated bowls. The event hall was lively with people and music. A group of senior citizens from one of the local retirement communities had just arrived. We chose our soups–wonton, chicken noodle and chili–and sat down to eat, while enjoying the music of local budding musicians. While there we waved to and chatted with some friends and acquaintances and enjoyed the small town ambience.

As we were leaving I spotted the director of the organization in which the food pantry is chick noo soup housed. I went over to say hello and while we were talking I asked her about the success of the fundraiser. She said that the arts’ alliance ran out of the 140 bowls purchased for people to decorate. People who did not wish to decorate a bowl or were not able to because the bowls sold out, were still able to purchase tickets and come to the luncheon. While at the luncheon, I saw several people using disposable bowls, indicating more than 140 people participated in this fundraiser. I do not have a definite count of tickets sold or money raised, but the community services director seemed very please with the outcome, indicating it had grown substantially over last year.

Our bowls are currently on display on my dining room table. I leave them there while we eat dinner as a reminder to be grateful for what we have and to remember that those who are hungry exist in the United States in unacceptably high numbers.

dining room table

Nothing For Us, Without Us

February 18, 2016JeniferLeave a comment

The title of this blog post makes reference to a Latin phrase, Nihil de nobis, sine nobis (Nothing about us, without us) that has its origins in Central European map poland political traditions. This motto aided in the creation of Poland’s 1505 constitutional legislation, which transferred political power from the monarchy to parliament. It also sounds very similar to, and perhaps inspired the creation of, the American Revolutionary War demand “No taxation without representation!” More recently the phrase was used the 1990s in the disabilities rights movement. The ancient phrase expresses the equally age old notion of self-determination, that people want to control their own lives.

I just recently encountered the phase in a report entitled, Special Report: American’s Food Banks Say Charity Won’t End Hunger. The report is the result of a collaboration between WhyHunger and food access organizations that participated in the 2015 biennial Closing the Gap “Cultivating Food Justice” Conference. This conference, started by the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, brings together emergency food providers, who currently engage the entire community, including clients, to solve that community’s specific hunger problems. The Closing the Hunger Gap network’s stated purpose is “to engage food banks and their constituents in expanding their efforts beyond food handouts, toward community based empowerment initiatives that effectively network with broader food security work.” They envision a time when:

food banks measure success, not by the increase in the number of people they help or the amount of food they distribute, but in how many people no longer need a handout.
people, who now view themselves as recipients of food handouts, will be able to determine their own futures.
low income people, food banks and community leaders work closely together to establish food security efforts that are not only national, but local and regional, in scope.

To accomplish their vision, these emergency food providers seek to move beyond being an organization that just distributes food (charity), to an organization that engages all of the community, including the poor, to work toward reducing poverty by addressing its root causes (social justice).

To aid in this shift, we must understand that the narrative we use when we speak about poverty is flawed. Mia Birdsong, in her TED Talk entitled, The Story We Tell about Poverty Isn’t True, actually suggests it is false. Toward the end of her talk, which highlights the innovative ways several people who are poor have solved problems facing them, Birdsong states,

I’m tired of the story we tell that hard work leads to success, because that allows…those of us who make it to believe we deserve it, and by implication, those who don’t make it don’t deserve it. We tell ourselves, in the back of our minds, and sometimes in the front of our mouths, “There must be something a little wrong with those poor people.” We have a wide range of beliefs about what that something wrong is. Some people tell the story that poor folks are lazy freeloaders who would cheat and lie to get out of an honest day’s work. Others prefer the story that poor people are helpless and probably had neglectful parents that didn’t read to them enough, and if they were just told what to do and shown the right path they could make it.

Neither story is correct and both prevent us from tapping into what Birdsong calls our “most powerful and practical resource. . .people who are poor.” Poor people are the experts on their problems and they probably see a solution to fix those problems. What is missing are the seed accelerators or venture capitalists, found in Silicon Valley and other places, who are willing to invest in the ideas of poor people. And I don’t mean just money. They need mentors, collaborators and people to open the right door. They need someone to listen to them and believe in them.

Let’s circle back to food banks and apply the new narrative that poor people quite often can create solutions to their own problems, provided they are offered the same help and encouragement that is offered to other segments of the population. What if the people helping hands who run food banks invited some of their clients in to talk with them and other community leaders about the problems they are facing? And not just food related problems, but all of the problems they face. What if emergency food providers and other community leaders listened to them as they discussed their problems and believed they were the experts on their problems, including the solutions? What if after that meeting, clients, emergency food providers and community leaders collaborated, using the ideas of the clients coupled with the resources of the community, to address some of these problems? I think all parties involved would be surprised at what might be accomplished. I also think we would see stronger communities, as divisions decrease and understanding and respect grows.

Empty Bowls

January 20, 2016JeniferLeave a comment

Just recently I became aware of a really creative and innovative fundraising effort for food banks, pantries, soup kitchen and larger organizations that give aid to those suffering from hunger. The Empty Bowls Project is the major project of the non profit, Imagine Render, whose mission is to “create positive and lasting change through the arts, education, and projects that build community.” This program is an international effort to raise money and awareness in the fight against hunger. Each empty bowls fundraiser varies from community to community as organizations adapt this program to suit their group and community.

empty bowls ticket

Here in my community a local food bank is partnering with the local Arts’ Alliance organization to sponsor this event. People wishing to participate can go to the Arts Alliance building during a series of Saturdays. After paying $20, they receive a blank ceramic bowl which they sign and decorate any way they choose. The Arts Alliance organization will fire all the decorated bowls. On the day of the event, participants will go to the local fire hall, find their bowl and use it to be served a simple meal of soup and bread. For those people who wish to participate in the fundraiser, but not decorate a bowl, some decorated bowls will be me decorating bowl available the day of the event as long as supplies last. Once the soup has been consumed, the bowl is yours to take home to serve as a reminder that hunger exists in our world.

I love the creativity of this fundraiser, both in the uniqueness of the fundraising activity and in the fact that participants get to be creative and create something to take away. I also like the idea of coming together as a community and eating a meal together. I live in a small town, so chances are I will know several people as I sit down to eat my soup and bread. Finally I like that the meal is simple, because for people experiencing hunger, simple is how they eat, when they eat. I am often torn by the large gala fundraisers, often featuring celebrity chefs, that are thrown to raise money for organizations fighting hunger. I guess that may be what is needed to get some to give money to fight hunger. I just like that this event not only raises money for those who are hungry, but it helps to raise awareness of what someone who is experiencing hunger might eat.

Kevin Finn bowls This past Saturday my family went to decorate our bowls, some more enthusiastically than others. (It’s hard to get enthusiasm out of teenagers sometimes!) We got our bowls, chose our color palette and got to work. We all had different styles and ideas. I had been stressing over what to paint, as I am not artistic at all. In the end, I decided it was best to keep it simple and went with stripes and polka dots. When these bowls are fired the colors will darken a bit. Since finishing our bowls we have all mentioned how excited we are to see our finished products. Check back after February 20th and I will have pictures of the fired bowls! There are two more Saturdays left to decorate bowls, so if you live in my community and are looking for a fun, creative, socially aware event to do with your family or just on your own, head on down to the Arts’ Alliance building and get a bowl of your own!

my bowl from top my bowl from side

Pennsylvania Budge Update

January 6, 2016JeniferLeave a comment

Happy New Year and welcome to day 190 without a state budget here in Pennsylvania. If you are keeping track, and I am, that is just over half of the 2015-16 fiscal year without a budget and almost that long without any funds being released at all. Governor Wolfe’s refusal to approve of any stop gap funding in lieu of a passed budget came to an end just before 2015 did. On December 29 the Governor announced he would line item veto the state budget sent to him by the legislature. This action allows for $23.4 billion in emergency funds to be released. These funds will flow to school districts, human service agencies and county governments. Of that $23.4 billion, $18.4 million will go to the State Food Purchase Program. Through this program cash grants are awarded to lead agencies in each county, allowing them to buy items in bulk, which are then distributed to smaller emergency food providers–food pantries and cupboards–within the county.

These funds are desperately needed by both the lead agencies and the smaller emergency food providers. Right before Christmas I talked with a friend who had toured the Chester County Food Bank, our local lead agency, the week before our meeting. She said they showed her group a large warehouse room with literally tons of food waiting to be distributed to the small providers once the funds were released. The warehouse was running out of space and staff wasn’t sure how they were going to get the excess food out to the pantries and cupboards. Only so much food can fit on the truck. Additionally, the pantries and cupboards only have so much storage room, and can therefore only handle so much food being delivered at one time.

Now that some of these funds have been released, the delivery logistics for this food will have to be addressed quickly, because the need at the smaller pantries and cupboards is great. Yesterday I returned to empty shelves volunteering at the local food pantry after having taken last week off. I was shocked at how empty the shelves were. We were down to just three types canned vegetables from our usual five or more. We had only one type of cold cereal or oatmeal instead of several selections of cereal, oatmeal, and pancake mix from which clients can choose. We had no spaghetti or dried beans and were almost out of rice, both white and brown.

Luckily the crisis caused by the lack of funding occurred just after the holidays, a time of increased food donations to food pantries and cupboards. A staff member and I were able to unpack 10-12 boxes of donated food to augment the food items still on our shelves. Although very helpful, relying heavily on donations to provide food often leaves recipients at the whim of what people choose to donate. As a result of the holidays, we unpacked several cans of cranberry sauce and black olives, both tasty as an accent to your holiday meal, but neither something you want to eat a whole can of by itself! We also found numerous cans of soup in these boxes, and while soup may seem like, and is, a good thing to donate to a food drive, canned soup contains an outrageous amount of sodium. Giving a client several extra cans of soup to make up for lacking items which could be used in meals clients prepare, like dried beans, means they are most certainly eating a more unhealthy diet this month.

I asked when we could hope to see some relief, in the form of food shipments, that these released funds promise. I was told we will get at least one food shipment in the next week, but how big it is, is anybody’s guess. Only so much food will fit on the truck and it delivers to multiple food pantries and cupboards each trip. I am hopeful that when I arrive to volunteer next Tuesday I will see evidence of the funds Governor Wolfe released in the form of fuller shelves. In the meantime, I hope our elected officials take seriously the job they have been elected to do, for which they are still being paid, budget or not, and work in earnest to reach a compromise leading to the passage of a state budget.

Thanksgiving

November 25, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I just wanted to take a few minutes to wild-turkey reflect on that for which I am thankful. I have so much to be thankful for, as do most Americans. I am thankful for the big things–my family and friends, health and home. But I am also thankful for little things that make each day a gift, like the bird that comes to my feeder or the beautiful full moon that greeted me as I took the dog out early this morning or a funny story from one of my sons shared at the dinner table.

I am thankful that I have spent this past year volunteering in our local food pantries, helping others and learning about the reality of their situations. I am glad I was able to volunteer yesterday, as the pantry was busier than usual. The morning was full of smiles, thank yous and wishes of “Happy Thanksgiving!”. I left with a wonderful feeling knowing that I helped to make a few people’s Thanksgiving better.

pumpkin pie

If you have been following me, I am thankful for your interest and time. Although the comments here have been few, I have received personal emails with comments and had local readers stop me and share a thought or ask how they can help. Each time I get feedback I feel bolstered and encouraged to press forward. Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Struggle Continues

November 12, 2015November 18, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

Over a month ago, on September 30th, I wrote a post about how the Pennsylvania budget impasse was impacting one of our local food pantries. Well it is 43 days later and we still do not have a budget in the state of Pennsylvania. Today is day 135 without a budget, and while I have not been back to that particular food pantry, I can only imagine their situation is even more bleak. Food banks and pantries across the Commonwealth, in places like the city of Carlisle and Juniata, Bucks and Carbon County, are struggling to meet the needs of the numerous people in their communities who rely on them to make their food ends meet.

According to the PA Department of Agriculture website, Pennsylvania leads the nation in the amount of food assistance it provides to its residents under the State Food Purchase Program (SFPP). Actually, only a handful of states even provide state revenue for an emergency assistance food program for low income residents. This program serves PA residents with an annual income at or below 150% of the poverty line ($27,795 for a family of three). Through this program cash grants are awarded to lead agencies in each county, allowing them to buy items in bulk, which are then distributed to smaller emergency food providers within the county. These food purchases are made at wholesale or competitively bid prices to further stretch the funds available.

This week the struggle to continue to assist people needing emergency food, while dealing with the lack of funds resulting from budget impasse, hit home once again. Tuesday is my usual day to volunteer in the other local food pantry in my neighborhood. When I arrived I was informed about the new guidelines for distributing food we had to follow as a result of the lack of funding from the state. Basically we are having to ration what we have, because we do not know how long we will have to go until we receive food from the lead county agency that receives SFPP funding. For smaller households, 3 and under, the reduction in the amount of non-perishable food they received was not that noticeable, but for the larger households, and on Tuesday we packed food for two households of 6, the non-perishable food allotment was almost cut in half. Luckily we have a wide variety of produce in stock and because it is perishable, must be moved in regular quantities. Between the produce and donated items, like bread, we were able to augment the diminished supply of non-perishable food the clients received. But winter is coming and the produce supply will dwindle and the amount of donated bread varies from week to week, so some weeks we will have little with which to supplement the non-perishable food.

The approach of Thanksgiving and Christmas causes further concern for many food banks and pantries. This is a time of year when utilization of emergency food services surges, as people who may not regularly frequent emergency food providers turn to them for the food for their Thanksgiving and Christmas tables. Without the necessary state funding, meeting this extra demand will be a challenge for many food banks and pantries, like King’s Kettle Food Pantry in Shippensburg, who has already had to draw on extra funds they had set aside for their annual Thanksgiving turkey dinner baskets, just to keep the doors open these past few months. Similarly, Project SHARE (Survival Help and Recipient Education) in Carlisle wonders if their Thanksgiving meal boxes will be able to be distributed if they do not receive their state funds. They currently have less than 100 turkeys, but expect 1500 families to turn out to receive these Thanksgiving meal boxes.

Thanksgiving is my youngest son’s favorite holiday. He loves turkey and all the other side dishes that adorn our Thanksgiving table. I can’t imagine looking into his expectant eyes and telling him that we will not be able to have Thanksgiving this year. Even more difficult to imagine would be having to tell my family on a daily basis that we will have to eat less in order to make our diminished allowance from the food pantry last for the month. If you live in Pennsylvania I strongly urge you to contact the Governor’s office and your local members of the General Assembly to insist they seriously work on reaching a compromise to get the budget passed. These are real people who are being affected by this stalemate.

http://www.governor.pa.gov/contact/

http://www.legis.state.pa.us

Additionally, I urge you to seek out your local food pantry and ask what their current need might be. Many food pantries have a list of their most needed items if you want to donate food items. If your local food pantry is distributing turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, you can also give them the grocery store coupon you may have earned for a free turkey. Cash donations are always appreciated as well. Food pantries may have the ability to purchase items at a discounted rate, further stretching any monetary donation.

Barely a Drop in the Bucket

October 29, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

The food pantry where I volunteer operates on an appointment basis. One client is scheduled every half hour. This method of operation ensures a manageable flow of clients receiving food and keeps the waiting area from becoming too congested. Unfortunately it also creates a backlog of clients waiting to receive an appointment for food, sometimes as long a two weeks. When a client is unable to keep an appointment, they go back into the line of clients waiting for an appointment.

The past two weeks, during my time volunteering at the food pantry, something unusual has happened. Clients scheduled to come and get food have not come in for their appointment. I volunteer from 9am-12pm, so usually only 6 clients can come in during that time to receive their monthly allotment of food. Often we have one client out of the six not show up, but this past week only one client came in for food. During that time we were also able to assist someone who came in without an appointment, but was eligible to receive food. The previous week only half of the scheduled clients kept their appointments.

At first glance clients not coming in for food may seem like a good thing. Maybe their situation has changed for the better. Maybe they are no longer food insecure. But after almost a year volunteering in food pantries I have learned this is probably not the case. In the past clients usually fail to keep appointments to get food because their ride fell through or their car broke down. They have missed appointments due to illness, either their own or another family member. During the winter months weather is a factor, particularly for the clients who walk. Sometimes clients schedule their appointments to coincide with a break from work, but for whatever reason that break doesn’t happen as scheduled.

My point in sharing my concern with clients not showing up for their appointments is not to complain about wasted time or denigrate our clients. My intent is to show how this situation perfectly illustrates one of the “Seven Deadly ‘ins'” of the emergency food system, as posited by Janet Poppendieck in her book Sweet Charity. The “deadly in” to which I am referring is inaccessibility. This particular food bank is open from 9am-4pm, 3-4 days per week, but only on week days. Furthermore clients must have an appointment to receive food. They must remember to call two weeks before their eligibility date because of the roughly a two week waiting period for an appointment. If they find at the time of the appointment they can not make it, as stated above, them must start the process all over again. Calling to cancel is helpful for food pantry staff, but usually the cancelation, if it comes at all, is last minute as the reason is usually unforeseen. Consequently, staff is rarely able to reschedule another client on such short notice; therefore, not only has the originally scheduled client not received food, but s/he has also kept someone else from getting an appointment. All of these clients are in need of food, but due to the limitations of the emergency food delivery system it is inaccessible to them.

This example of food pantry clients missing their appointments also highlights another of Poppendieck’s “Seven Deadly ‘ins,'” the inefficiency inherent in the delivery of emergency food. Not only does this method of delivery require a sizeable three tiered system (federal, state and local agencies) to distribute the food, but it duplicates the food delivery system already in place in society–the grocery store. In our rural community there are at least 3 large grocery stores which are open seven days a week, two of which are open 24 hours a day. Additionally, there are several markets in and around town and a weekly farmers’ market during the growing season. Wouldn’t it be more efficient and cost effective to just increase the monthly SNAP allowance and make sure all those who are eligible to receive those benefits are getting them, instead of funding this inefficient, parallel food delivery system? This option would allow those who are food insecure and need assistance to use the system already in place in society when it is convenient for them, given their daily commitments, instead of relying on a parallel food delivery system that is much less convenient to access.

In a chapter from A Place at the Table, the companion book to the documentary of the same name, Joel Berg compares the emergency food delivery system to the fireman’s bucket brigade of the past. Prior to the mid 1800s, when there was a fire in a city or town, bucket brigades would be formed to combat the fire. Citizens would line up from the town well or another water source and pass buckets full of water to the fire, with empty buckets returning down another line. The problem was that these bucket brigades, although well intentioned, rarely put out any but the smallest of fires. To remedy the inefficiency of the bucket brigades local governments stepped in to create fire companies with better fire fighting equipment. Today we would never think of trying to fight a house fire with a bucket brigade.

Hunger in the United States is a fire that we are currently trying to fight with a bucket brigade. Local citizens in food banks, pantries and soup kitchens across the country are trying to put out the building sized fire of hunger with a bucket sized solution. Just like when the government of yesteryear stepped in to create a more effective solution to the problem of fires, the government of today needs to reorganize how assistance for those who are food insecure is delivered into a more efficient, effective method. I enjoy volunteering in the food pantry and the good feeling I get from knowing I am helping someone, but I look forward to the time when the emergency food delivery system of food banks, pantries and soup kitchens goes the way of the bucket brigade. Once that happens, maybe the fire of hunger in America will begin to be extinguished.

Pennsylvania Budget Impasse

September 30, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

half dome — Image courtesy of porbital at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The first time I remember ever hearing anything about budget impasses or government shutdowns was during the fall/winter of 1995-96 when the Federal Government shutdown twice after President Clinton vetoed a spending bill sent to him by Congress. I remember feeling apprehensive at the thought of our government shutting down. How long would it last? What would happen? Once it was all over, however, what I remember most about these shutdowns was that Yosemite National Park was closed during the shutdown and people who had planned vacations to the park were quite upset. (I was living in California at the time.) Upon reflection, I’m certain there were other, more pressing problems this shutdown caused, like the curtailment of health and welfare services for military veterans, or the suspension of disease surveillance by the CDC, or the furlough of government workers during the holiday season.

Fast forward to the present where it seems that government shutdowns or the threat of a shutdown is a regular occurrence. Take for instance my state of Pennsylvania, where on June 30, 2015, Governor Tom Wolf vetoed the budget bill passed by the General Assembly. It is three months later and the state of Pennsylvania is still operating without a budget. Just yesterday (9/29) Governor Wolf vetoed a stopgap spending bill. While most governmental functions continue, billions of dollars are not flowing to public schools and other social services providers. Caught in this budget impasse are food banks, pantries and other emergency food providers who rely on food from the state food purchase program. Typically food banks and pantries participating in the state food purchase program receive a line of credit which can be drawn down to purchase food to be used for distribution at the food bank or pantry. Unfortunately, no emergency food provider has received their current fiscal year allotment.

Fortunately, not all emergency food providers are feeling the pinch as a result of this budget impasse, due in part to how they are funded. For instance Philabundance, which is funded mostly with private donations, is probably not feeling the loss of these funds, but at the small food pantry where I volunteered yesterday the effects of the lack of this state funding were readily apparent. The shelves that hold the state supplied food were only half full. The pantry had no milk and very little meat, most of which was ground beef. I have never seen the supplies so depleted! Clients left the pantry with a smaller supply of food. Each week that passes without a resolution to this budget stalemate will result in a dwindling supply of state food for this pantry’s clients.

The purpose of this blog post is not to point fingers or lay blame on one side or the other. Rather, I would like to make readers aware of the consequences resulting from the current unwillingness to compromise that seems to exist at all levels of government. These are real people, often children, senior citizens and people who are disabled, who are being impacted. I worry that as a society we are becoming complacent with our politicians’ unwillingness to compromise. Or even worse, that we view their actions as a virtue. Unfortunately, there are real life consequences when both sides are unwilling to negotiate. The time has come for all politicians to get back to the work of governing, and sometimes that means sitting down with someone who has political beliefs different from the ones you hold and working together through compromise to reach a solution.

Gleaning

September 9, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

Mention the word glean and most people will think of gathering information from various sources, because that is how the word is mostly used today. But glean has an historical definition, meaning to gather grain or other crops left in the field after a harvest. In some ancient cultures gleaning was encouraged as a method to assist those in need, an early form of helping the food insecure. The Bible and the Torah instructed farmers to leave sections of fields unharvested or to not pick up crops dropped during harvest. These crops were to be left for the poor or strangers.

Today, many emergency food organizations have gleaning programs. Some programs, like FOOD (Food On Our Doorstep) Share in Oxnard, CA coordinate an extensive network of volunteers and growers. This organization harvests an average of 50,000-60,000 lbs. of produces each month, mostly from farms, but also from backyard gardens and fruit trees. Other programs may just have a handful of volunteers who establish a relationship with a few farmers or gardeners. Currently Chester County Food Bank does not seem to have a gleaning program, but they did at one time. When I first considered volunteering at food banks, gleaning was one of the areas in which I had considered volunteering my time. It appeals to me in two ways. First, gleaning helps to eliminate waste. America is an incredibly wasteful society, embarrassingly so in my opinion, and keeping any fresh produce from becoming part of the waste stream, particularly in landfills is a step in the right direction. Secondly, gleaning gets fresh produce into the hands of people who would otherwise not have access to it.

I often wondered how successful a gleaning program would be in our corner of Chester County. While we live in a rural setting, most of the farmers growing on any large scale are Amish. I was unsure whether they would assist the non-Amish community and give away the fruits of their labor. I wasn’t even sure if they would have excess produce to donate. I know many Amish farmers have produce stands and travel to local farmers’ markets, but maybe they would keep any excess produce to share within their community. Or maybe there would be little to no waste because they canned or otherwise preserved their harvest and gave any marginal produce to their livestock to eat. They are such a simple, plain folk, maybe they very conscientiously only grew what they could use, frowning on excess. I just did not know.

This summer I got my answer. Every Tuesday morning a van belonging to one of the local food panties would go to Amish farms to collect what they could not use or sell. During the latter part of summer, when the vegetable harvest is in full swing, the van would return loaded with corn, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers and more! Learning this brought me happiness on many levels. I was glad to see folks in need of food getting access to so much fresh produce. I was pleased to see that food was not going to waste. And I was happy to know that this connection existed between our communities. I am quite fond of the Amish farmer who’s produce stand I frequent, and while I do not completely agree with all of their practices, I do believe we could learn much from them.

The Journey Continues

September 2, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

Summer is coming to an end. My kids went back to school Monday, and I am left wondering where the time went. This summer didn’t quite go as planned, but not many have and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. At first I felt like I hadn’t made any forward progress with this endeavor of helping those who are food insecure. I didn’t write nearly as many blog posts as I had hoped and I wanted to catch up on a backlog of reading, which did not happen. But as the end of summer approached, I realized that progress sometimes doesn’t feel like progress, because you don’t always move forward in a straight line. Sometimes you move forward by zig zagging or meandering.

This summer was about meandering. At first I felt like I was slacking, but I came to realize that I needed to take some time to be still and look at what I had done thus far and assess what I wanted to accomplish going forward. Luckily for me, the circumstances of summer gave me that time. I determined that I wanted to change my approach to my blog. I had started to look at my blog as my mission, and while it is an important part of my mission, it is not the mission. I also decided that I work better with people, if only to have someone to whom to be accountable. Consequently I have decided to assemble a group of people in my area who share my interest in assisting those who are food insecure.

Concurrently with my decision to form this group, two local women who read my blog about the lack of summer feeding programs in our town approached me to express their concern over this issue and their desire to work to remedy the situation. Eureka, my first two committee members! I have spoke to a couple more people I know are committed to the cause of assisting the food insecure and have a couple more people I want to invite to participate. Over the coming year I hope to work with this group on a summer feeding program and on developing others ideas.

One thing I never stopped doing this summer was volunteering, which was a different experience than volunteering when I first started. I can’t quite say why. Maybe because I am more comfortable with my fellow volunteers and the clients. But I also think it had something to do with the availability of fresh produce, which changed from week to week and became more plentiful as the summer progressed. Sometimes I felt like Santa, handing out presents to a room full of 5 year olds. Just this week while volunteering, I picked 54 pounds of tomatoes. Clients were waiting for them when I put them with the other produce. When I left 2 hours later, only a few pounds remained! Supplying this produce and having the clients eagerly take it fills me with a sense of joy and helps keep me invigorated to continue my journey.

My Tomato Picking Buddy!