The Community Food Shelf

     Photo courtesy of apium on Flickr

      Hennepin County Community College recently opened
      a food shelf on its facility. It’s manned completely by volunteers.

Ever work in a food shelf, dispersing the donated food that sits upon the shelves and in the refrigerators and freezers to hungry families? Believe me, it ain’t fun! It takes some sense of control and steadiness.
by Charlie Leck

It’s easy to kind of fall apart when you see the need. It hurts even more when you see the sense of pride that these hungry folks have. They don’t want free food. They don’t want to be visiting food shelves to ask for free food. The problem is, they’re hungry and they have hungry children. They realized they must swallow their pride. It hurts to look such a person in the eye, but you do it. You smile and greet them as equals, friends, members of the community; and you give as graciously and generously as you can.

Only seldom is there some blame to place on those seeking help. The blame goes mostly to the system (the organized government both local and national). Many who are willing and able to work, can’t – for one reason or another. It isn’t that they won’t. They can’t! Jobs are still scarce in America – especially jobs for the untrained.

And, as a food shelf worker, you often have to look into the eyes of hungry children – damned hungry children who are cuter than all-get-out and have no responsibility for any of this. Zero!

At a minimum, a third of the people fed by food shelves are hungry children – minimum!

A lot of the adults served by food shelves are disabled people and senior citizens with retirement income that won’t stretch far enough to handle housing, energy costs, clothing and food.

Some of these people get food stamps. Those government stamps just don’t stretch far enough to get a family through an entire month. Have you looked at the price of groceries lately?

Now Congress is in a debate about severely reducing the number of food stamps provided to low-income Americans. This debate is a god-danged shame! We’re talking here of only a relatively few pikers who take advantage of the system. Who we’re feeding are children, the lowest income families, the disabled and seniors with very low retirement benefits.

Please, for God’s sake (and I mean that), contact your Congressperson and Senators and tell them not to reduce the food stamp benefits provided to unfortunate Americans. A vote may take place any day, so make sure you speak up and speak out against any reduction in food stamp benefits.

Don’t know how to make contact with your Congressman?
Go to this list of Congresspersons! Select your representative and click on the name. All the contact information (address, email address and phone numbers will come up). Sending an email is probably the best and easiest thing to do. Tell them not to reduce the budget for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is commonly known as food stamps. Tell them there are too many hungry people in America. Tell them, if they don’t believe it, they should volunteer to work for awhile in a community food shelf.

Find your local food shelf!
The second thing I’d ask is that you find your local food shelf. If you can’t volunteer time, please give generously. Either provide food for their shelves or just give them money so they can buy what they need.

I decided, a few years ago, with the help of our handy computer, to keep track of every penny I spend on groceries and beverages (including wine) and on dining out. Then I determined that I would give 10 percent of that amount to local food shelves and the food shelf downtown in my church. I give most of it to the local organization. If you do this, you’re going to be surprised about how much you spend on feeding yourself. I also make sure that this amount I give doesn’t impact the amounts I already give to charities and my church (in other words, doesn’t take away from those amounts of regular giving).

And, I decided to give some volunteer time to the food shelf; that is, stocking the shelves with the foods donated by various neighbors and grocery stores. I also help distribute that food to the families that come, searching for help.

I ain’t braggin’ my dear readers. I’m askin’ you to think about some kind of commitment to hungry people. No one should be hungry in America, but, unfortunately, there are many hungry people who need our help.

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Organizing for the Hungry

     Library of Congress photograph
 

Congress, under  constant, unrelenting pressure from the conservative wing, will turn its back on the poor and hungry in America this week.
by Charlie Leck

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me...”
                                                                [Matthew 25:35]

Congress will vote, in the next couple of days (and likely today in the House) on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). We have known the program as food stamps. The proposal that will probably become law will drastically cut the food stamp program and will desperately hurt the poorest among us and many of them will be fellow senior citizens. Families with very low income, trying to adequately feed their children, will also be desperately hurt.

Congress has received significant and trust-worthy reports that food stamps kept as many as 4 million people from falling into poverty last year. Under the new law, according to the trusted, non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, more than 4 million people will become ineligible for future assistance.

Hunger in America is about to become a more significant problem than it has been in the a long, long time.

Providing assistance through food stamps has been a bi-partisan effort in Congress over the last several decades. With the restructuring of Congress under the influence of the Tea Party that is about to change. This has been our nation’s most effective way to fight hunger ever since the end of the depression.

As Jim Wallis, of the Sojourners organization, has recently said, food stamps are “the nation’s foremost tool against hunger and hardship, particularly during recessions and periods of high unemployment.”

This is a fight in Congress between those who believe we have something of a responsibility to care for our fellow-citizens who have fallen on hard times and those who don’t. Now that’s blunt and cold; however, it is the absolute truth.

If you can, communicate with your U.S. Senators and ask them to defeat this bill that the House of Representatives is about to send over to them. We must not allow hunger to become brutally real in America again.

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If You Spend Yourselves in Behalf of the Hungry

     An old penny postcard shows our church (Plymouth Congregational Church)
      as it looked many years ago.

I found myself both touched and deeply interested in the scripture reading at my church on Sunday. I carried the words about with me for most of the day (that is, in my mind), thinking about them. I continue to think about them this morning.
by Charlie Leck

After church on Sunday – a hot and sunny day here in Minnesota – I asked my wife to walk with me the block to the Starbucks, where I wanted to get a latté. She spotted a drugstore across the street and told me to go ahead and she’d meet me after making a couple of purchases. Outside the coffee shop a fellow was trying to bum people up for some coin. He looked hungry and I still had the morning sermon and scripture ringing in my ears. I gave him a fiver even though our church suggests not doing that and giving instead (under the heading “Give Real Change Instead of Spare Change”) to more significant programs for the homeless.

Scripture ring in my ears...
Even if you are not a regular reader of scripture, it does make sense to, once-in-a-while, allow one’s self to be challenged by these ancient words. It happens to me on occasion. It certainly did this Sunday when the pastor read the following words from Isaiah (58) so very beautifully…

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
    and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

I am deeply concerned about the amount of hunger we have in America. It doesn’t seem right to me that a country so advanced, prosperous and capable should have hungry people in such abundance. Then, there is the greater world in which there is still more hunger. It seems so basic that we should be certain that no one is hungry – no one in the entire world. We solve such massive and highly technical problems. Why can we not solve this one?

Food shelves in your community (perhaps in your neighborhood or at your church) need you to support them. These programs have had a staggering few years of hard work.

_________________________

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Feed the Hungry in Your Own Backyard

Carlson Meats, in Grove City, does the processing work
for my wife's farm. They recently celebrated 100 years of
business in their community. We admire the Carlsons a
great deal. I took this little photograph last week at their
big anniversary party. 

You probably have a food shelf in your community. If you do, I hope you know where it is and what it’s doing to feed the hungry; and, I hope you’re involved and helpful.
by Charlie Leck

I don’t do actual work anymore in the local food-shelf, but I still stop by occasionally and I am always saddened to see the number of people who need to use the service. I’m thinking about this because I had a wonderful dinner last night – splendid and perfect in every way.

“Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.”
[Proverbs 22:9 ]

This morning, I was going through our pantry shelves and found so many, many things we’ve stored there that will probably never get used. I began to pack these things up, to take over to the food shelf on Thursday. When I see volumes of food like this it makes me wonder and think about the hungry. How can I have so much? How can I not share what I have?

We must never allow our neighbors to go hungry. It’s a rule I have. I worry about the world’s hungry also, but, at the very least, here at home I can do something. Here are some rules I have about local hunger…

Know where your local food shelf is! There’s a good chance it’s in a church – or maybe a community center. Wherever, know where it is. If you don’t, check it out (make a real effort to find out).

Visit the food shelf
and talk to some of the volunteers about how you might help. Ask about the kinds of foods they most need. Find out how and when you can drop off donations of food.

Find out what your local grocer is doing about local hunger!
One of my local food stores (Coburns) has a hunger bag program. I buy a hunger bag every time I shop there. I pay $6 for the bag that contains more than $10 worth of groceries. There’s a spot in the store to drop off the bag. The local food shelf comes around and picks up the bags. Wholefoods is famous for its community support program. The one where I shop has good connections and relations with the local food shelf.

Check your pantry or food closet regularly for items you are not consuming.
Make sure you do this at least quarterly. Clean it out and take appropriate items over to your local food shelf. Donate them and, while you’re at it, pull out a few of those cobweb covered dollar bills from your wallet and donate those, too.

Find out if your local food shelf needs more help!
If it does, help it find volunteers to staff its services. Volunteer yourself if you’re able. Chat with neighbors about people they might know who could help.

Encourage your church or place of worship to be active in feeding the hungry!
If you go to church or to any kind of place of worship, try to get your fellow worshippers to get involved in feeding the hungry. Have a place where food can be gathered and then transported to the local food shelf. A lot of churches have food shelves right within their building. Make sure they have plenty of volunteers. Get involved yourself or recruit volunteers to work there.

Find out about the extent of hunger in your own community!
How much hunger is there in your town? I am amazed to see how many people here are struggling. It just shouldn’t happen in a remarkable nation like our own.

Don’t moralize!
Don’t get your head spinning trying to figure out all the reasons for hunger. And don’t moralize about it. You can’t worry about why that mother spent two dollars on a Powerball lottery ticket instead of on food. Wasting money is not very common among those who are hungry. Remember your own little and big addictions and foibles and don’t think about those of other people. Just don’t allow people to be hungry. There are all kinds of pulls and tugs in this world that work on the minds of all people. Get past that! Instead, get involved in making sure families are not hungry.

Well, those are my simple little rules. I try to follow them myself. Be generous and give to your local food shelf as generously as you can.

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Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.