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Summer 2008 | |
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The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries Volunteer Newsletter Summer 2008 Give without remembering Receive without forgetting Unknown Volunteer Appreciation Party Mark you calendar! There is going to be a party on September 10th from 6-8pm at the Old Saybrook Point Pavilion (between Dock & Dine and Saybrook Point Inn). Details to follow soon! Dinners at the Farm The Shoreline Soup Kitchen Garden behind Grace Church is one of four sites chosen this year for the
popular and sumptuous Dinners at the Farm, hosted by the River Tavern and
Feast Market. The dinners, which will take place under a tent on the
portion of the church lawn close to North Cove, will be July 11,12 and 13
and will feature as much locally grown and raised food as possible. The
meals are prepared on site and some of the produce from the soup kitchen
garden will be used. Food Pantry Abuse Excerpt from, "Charity Food Programs That Can End Hunger in America" by John M. Arnold What about scammers? People scamming food pantries to get food to sell to buy drugs or whatever is one of those urban legends that just will not die despite overwhelming evidence that it simply doesn’t happen. There simply is no market out on the streets for a can of this and a box of that. And no drug dealer is going to take a bag of groceries for a fix. And most drugs cost too much anyway! In the Jewish and Christian traditions, aid provided to someone in need is an interest-bearing secured loan from the giver to God, and a gift from God to the needy person (Proverbs 19:17). So what the needy person does with the food isn’t your concern. It’s God’s. Leave it there. Lemonade Anyone?? Eight year old Christine Martin of Old Saybrook, decided she would like to play a role in helping her neighbors. With this in mind, Christine set up a lemonade stand in front of her Main Street home on a Saturday morning. The result was astounding...$41.42 which was forwarded to the Shoreline Soup Kitchen along with her Mom’s matching $40. Together they helped purchase over 800 pounds of food from the East Haven Food Bank! That makes one-third of a weekly distribution at the Pantry! Thanks Christine! Did You Hear about the SSKP Challenge? Several people celebrated Hunger Awareness Day in June by accepting the SSKP Food Stamp Challenge. Their stories are fascinating! The challenge was to live on food purchased with the present allotted food stamp amount in Connecticut, which is currently $3.30 per day, per person. Participants were asked to keep a journal of their experience. Here is an excerpt from one of the journals... Marge & Marshall Monday June 2, 2008 I must admit that accepting this challenge is a bit daunting to me. My reason for participating in this experience is to better understand the daily frustrations of our clients who visit the Old Saybrook Pantry. In sharing Patty's blog as she travels through Michigan with Emmet, it takes me back to my Michigan heritage. In the 1940's when I was growing up on a 40 acre southern Michigan farm, we also would have lived below the median income (although we didn't have these terms for our style of living then.) We did have access to a large garden, berry bushes, cows that gave us fresh milk and that we slaughtered once a year for meat, chickens that gave us fresh eggs and we cooked on Sunday, many fish from the streams, and squirrel and rabbit in the woods which my father hunted to subsidize the food budget. Much of our summer work was "putting by for the winter". We would "can" vast amounts of fruits and vegetables, which was our way of preserving them for the off-growing season. As the next to the oldest in a family of eight children, I had a part in gathering food for the table. I grew up liking the challenge of deciding what we would have for dinner, what needed to be added to the weekly grocery list (that wasn't on the basement shelves). I remember the wide-eyed pleasure of visiting my best friend from the city and seeing all kinds of treats on her table that never were a choice in our house. Part of this challenge, now, 60 years later, if that my husband Marshall and I, have included many of these "treats" in our weekly diet. Because he is diabetic and I struggle with rheumatoid arthritis, our favorite foods are fresh fruits and vegetables. Somehow over the next week, I will need to figure this into our daily $3.30 x 2 and try to carve out a little piece of our $6.60.a day for fresh produce... To read more visit - http://shorelinesoupkitchens.blogspot.com/ Food For Thought "Food for Thought" Is a column where volunteers can share their views on hunger and poverty. Being an Outreach Associate for the CT Association for Human Services has been one of the most exciting and rewarding positions I have held thus far. When I first answered the advertisement for the position and received a call to come in for an interview, once I was hired I had no idea how my life was going to change, but I had least of an idea on how I was going to touch and impact the life of others.There are five outreach associates at CAHS which we all are assigned to specific regions; and having been the newest addition to the team at the time of my hire, I was assigned to Lower Fairfield County, Middlesex County and a few towns in the Northwestern sections of the state. Learning a new job within an agency is hard in itself, let alone learning a total different job with a whole new agency. I had to do a lot of reading about the Food Stamp program which seemed to have gone on for weeks without end. I’m glad I did though. I can truly say that as I travel throughout the state spreading good news about the program, I am confident and knowledgeable enough in the presentations as well as the information I give out to possible eligible persons and agencies assisting these persons. My immediate supervisor Mr. Tracy Helin sits on the board of the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and it must have been in conversation that Lin Smith approached him and requested a food stamp outreach worker to visit one of the sites. When I finally came in contact with the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries, I was so well received that there aren’t enough good things for me to say about all of the coordinators who made it possible for me to come into their pantries and talk with their clients about the Food Stamp program. The first one I visited was the one located in Old Saybrook. Marge was (and continues to be) a great help in introducing me to the folks that she sees and serves on a weekly basis. As with anything new, the clients were hesitant and they checked me out for a few weeks before approaching me and asking questions. I made it a point to attend that pantry on a weekly basis. One was to do my job efficiently by being consistent. This proved to the clients that I was not there just for the time being but was really committed to their needs and wanted to offer the best help I possibly could and knew how. The other reason was to get to know the clients. As they began to see me on a more regular basis, they warmed up rather quickly and I believe the bond began to form at that moment. It got to a point where they now waited for me, knew my name, (although I was given a nickname by Marge: Gloria the Food Stamp Lady) offered me snacks and we began conversations. I was able to help numerous people get on the program and then come back and thank me. Then I found out that there were three more pantries run and operated by the same agency. Wow, this truly made my day because now I could spread the word even more and further. That’s when I got hold of Ed and Anita who run the Westbrook site. Oh my gosh, what a couple! They too received me with open arms and as a matter of fact, word had spread around that I would be coming to their site soon. They set up a table for me in a nice area; private enough for me to talk to someone if they needed that privacy, but visible enough for me not to feel isolated. The ladies in the front doing the intake, Joan and Marge (this is a different Marge) introduced me to the clients and it took off from there. So now as I continued to implement my work, it worked out to my advantage and because of the hours each site operated, I would go to Westbrook first and then head on down to the Old Saybrook site. At times I would carry left over produce to the Old Saybrook site that the Westbrook site did not distribute that day. What a great working relationship. Then I met Louise (operating the Old Lyme site) on a couple of occasions and had the opportunity to work with Lin (operates the Clinton site) as well. Problem with these two sites are that they open on Saturday’s and as much as I would have loved to be there on a consistent basis, it was impossible for me to do so as I was attending college on the weekends. I was invited to the annual meeting at the Old Saybrook Inn & Spa and was made to feel special. It’s been two great years of working in this field and getting to meet wonderful people as I continue to travel about. If I had a misconception of the people working in these towns, that was changed a long time ago. So, with so much more to say but not enough time or paper to write it on, I leave you with these thought: "There is so much more to life than just living, it’s the impact that we leave on the people whom we interact with and touch every single day." Gloria C Beltran/Outreach Associate Connecticut Association for Human Services~~ Generous Young Man! First Holy Communion Gift to SSKP Matthew Lisatorti, son of Tom and Pamela Lisatorti of Old Saybrook, decided he would celebrate his First Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church by asking for donations to the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries. His family and friends opened up their hearts to his request. Matthew visited the Old Saybrook Pantry on a Tuesday distribution day and proudly presented $500.00 in checks and gift cards. He could readily see that his donation will fill the tables for two weeks and ultimately feed 200 families. Board Member Profile David Shumway I grew up in Deep River with a mother who taught 6th grade in Old Saybrook and a father who did accounting at Pratt Read in Ivoryton. I graduated from Valley Regional in 1965, and went on to earn a BA from Washington College in Chestertown, MD, in 1969, and an MA from Goddard College in Vermont in 1976. Although I held positions in business and higher education for many years, I have been involved in the effort to end homelessness since 1988. At that time I left Dartmouth College to become Director of Headrest in Lebanon, NH, an agency that housed homeless single adults with substance abuse issues, among its many programs. Seemed like a perfect job situation for a now-aging hippie at the time. Before returning to Connecticut in 1994, I served as Executive Director of the NH Coalition for the Homeless and got used to the idea that some folks in the Granite State governmental hierarchy were often not happy with what I had to say. After I moved back to Deep River, I became director of the 60-bed ACCESS Emergency Shelter in rural Northeast Conn. My employer is now the Middlesex Central CT Chapter of the American Red Cross. Since 2000 I have been program director of three homeless assistance programs that you normally would not associate with the American Red Cross: our Family Shelter, which is the only shelter in Middlesex County serving families who are homeless; a Transitional Housing Program for families; and the new Beyond Shelter program. I became a board member of the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries 6 ½ years ago, joining the same day my friend Joan Breindel joined, and was immediately asked to chair a the Board’s new Development Committee. We were heading into a new year facing a substantial operating deficit, and I spoke up at my very first meeting about the need to get organized and start planning to solve the problem. The Board’s response to this new upstart (read: loudmouth) board member sounded like "Ok, smart boy… why don’t you start the new committee?" And through the efforts of many, many wonderful people, we did solve the deficit problem so we can continue to feed people in need. The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries seems to me to be the most accessible agency of its kind in Connecticut, and that is what compelled me to get involved as a board member. I have always felt that someone who needs to ask for food, as difficult as that is to do, must need food. I love that the only criteria for getting help with food at SSK&P is simply that a person or family needs food. I think that is something we can all support! Pantry Profile Tuesdays 3:45pm – 5:00pm Manager – Marge Schofield Old Saybrook Congregational Church 366 Main Street Every Pantry and every meal site under our Shoreline Soup Kitchen umbrella has its own personality which is determined by its participating families and team of volunteers. The Old Saybrook Pantry is distinctive because of the number of families attending with young children. Our toy corner is a popular spot on Tuesday’s from 3:00 – 5:00 when one can always find a group of young children enjoying an after school snack and clustered around the toy box. Currently we have 214 children under 18 enrolled in our pantry. We try hard to keep a good supply of baby products and lunch box items on our tables to fill this large need. Our visiting nurse, Tina Belmont, takes blood pressures while our families wait for their number to be called, but often Tina also answers parenting questions or reads a story to a child while their parent shops. Three teams of volunteers help us unload the truck on Mondays, set up tables on Tuesday mornings and also help with carrying out groceries and with the tables during distribution on Tuesday afternoons. Altogether our volunteers number 40 willing workers. We enjoy a team of girl scouts and also a team of employees of Godiva chocolate who each come once a month on Monday afternoons to help. One other special blessing in our Pantry is the number of children who celebrate their birthdays by requesting gifts for the Pantry in place of personal gifts. The birthday girl/boy proudly brings in their food gifts to weigh, sort, and place on the tables so that they can clearly see that their sharing makes a difference in the lives of their neighbors. ~ A Baby’s Hug ~ We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, 'Hi.' He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment. I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map. We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. 'Hi there, baby; hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster,' the man said to Erik. My husband and I exchanged looks, 'What do we do?' Erik continued to laugh and answer, 'Hi.' Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby. Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, 'Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo.' Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk. My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence; all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments. We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. 'Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik,' I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby's 'pick-me-up' position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man. Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love and kinship. Erik in an act of total trust, love, and submission laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled my baby's bottom and stroked his back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms and his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, 'You take care of this baby.' Somehow I managed, 'I will,' from a throat that contained a stone. He pried Erik from his chest, lovingly and longingly, as though he were in pain. I received my baby, and the man said, 'God bless you, ma'am, you've given me my Christmas gift.' I said nothing more than a muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly, and why I was saying, 'My God, my God, forgive me.' I had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking, 'Are you willing to share your son for a moment?' when He shared His for all eternity. The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, 'To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children. Sometimes, it takes a child to remind us of what is really important. We must always remember who we are, where we came from and, most importantly, how we feel about others. The clothes on your back or the car that you drive or the house that you live in does not define you at all; it is how you treat your fellow man that identifies who you are. *** How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. -- George Washington Carver ***************************************************************************** How to Help For any information, be it volunteering or donating or any other information about the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries, please call or email Patty Dowling. Also, if you have ideas or comments about this newsletter, please contact our Partnership Coordinator, Linda Smith.
The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries P.O. Box 804 Essex, Connecticut, USA 06426 pdowling@shorelinesoupkitchens.org 860.388.1988
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