Spring 2007 - Volunteer Newsletter

“Let us not be stopped by that which divides us but look for that which unites us.”

Attention All Volunteers

A Sad Goodbye

It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to Reverend Bill Lovin who will be leaving our community this spring.  He has served on our board of directors and has gifted us with his insight.  Bill has left an impression on the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries, he will not be forgotten, but he will be sorely missed.

We wish him and his family peace and joy in their new life in Iowa and know they will bring their blessings and goodwill wherever they serve. Keep safe!

A Sad Closing

Our Old Saybrook St. John’s Roman Catholic Church meal site has closed. It fed many people every Wednesday evening since 2003. Please let our clients know that they are welcomed on Wednesday evenings at our United Methodist Meal Site, 12 Commerce Street in Clinton. It is open from 5 to 6pm.

SSKP Family Forum: Who Do We Serve?

Garden

          We're starting our fifth season in the soup kitchen vegetable garden kicking off our efforts with a well-attended potluck breakfast for volunteers where we unveiled our new cookbook, "Vegetable Cookery.''
         The little book is a compilation of recipes supplied by garden volunteers for the vegetables we grow for pantry clients. All the recipes are easy to prepare with basic, inexpensive ingredients; most are quick and some don't necessitate a stove. The book was put together and fabulously illustrated by volunteer Marianne Pfeiffer and underwritten by the Old Saybrook Garden Club and Ciel printing.
          We plan to have the four pantries distribute the cookbooks free to recipients and will keep printing them until everyone who wants one has one.
We have some new plans for the garden this year to make it more productive and more pest-free but as always we need all the help we can get. So if any of you
want to stop by now and then on a Saturday and/or Tuesday morning starting April 21, please do. It would be helpful to you and to us if you sent your name and email address to Claudia Van Nes, claudiavannes@aol.com. Thank you and hope to see you in the garden.      

National Hunger Awareness Day

June 5^th, 2007 is National Hunger Awareness Day. Did you know that there are over 350,000 Connecticut people that are hungry or food insecure? Please help by sharing that fact with a friend.  The more aware the community is of the situation, then the sooner we can all work together to eliminate poverty.

Pantry Letters of Appreciation

The following note was attached to a beautiful plate of cookies and given to the volunteers at a pantry at Christmas time…

            “My family and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. We appreciate all of your time and hard work and volunteers who help my family throughout the year. Please enjoy the Italian cookies and Hungarian cookies form my kitchen to your tummy with all our thanks.”

Good Job Westbrook Pantry

Nina Pae, Development Assistant from the Connecticut Food Bank, volunteered at the Westbrook Pantry for Community service week. She wrote in a CFB publication that she was impressed with how well organized the entire process is, the great variety of choices offered to clients, and an absence of any sense of “charity” in the process.  She also stated that the atmosphere was warm and social.  Great job Westbrook Pantry!

Board Member Profile

Robert (Bob) F. Hester, Esq.

SSKP Board of Trustee Member

Let me tell you about myself.  I am a recent arrival in Old Saybrook, April of 2005.  Before moving to Old Saybrook, we resided in Northport, New York for forty years, a north shore Long Island community. 

In Northport, I was a member of the Rotary Club serving on its board and as president.  As a Rotarian, I involved myself in many fund raising activities and community projects, often serving in a leadership role.  I held elected and volunteer positions in our local civic association.  For many years, I was a coach / manager in local youth athletic programs. 

Since arriving in Old Saybrook, I have been volunteering for Connecticut Legal Services, conducting legal clinics at senior centers in north east Connecticut.  During tax season, I volunteer for AARP as a tax councilor, preparing tax returns for seniors. I serve on the board of Sheltered Cove Condominium Association.  I am also on the boards of the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries and the Old Saybrook Rotary Club.  I hold memberships in the Old Lyme Country Club and the North Cove Yacht Club. 

My employment career includes thirty years as a senior manager (Division Plant Superintendent) with Verizon and its predecessor companies. In this role, I supervised a large and complex New York City operating division, which averaged over two thousand skilled employees with a combined capital and expense budget exceeding $100 million dollars. In addition, I served in diverse staff positions in corporate finance and operations.

Upon retirement from Verizon, I enrolled in Law school.  Upon graduation, I took a position as Chief of Employee and Labor Relations at a large U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital.  My office handled all matters relating to employee discipline, union relations, grievances and the application of labor and employee practices.  Following five years of government service, I retired to private law practice.  I concentrated in the areas of real estate law, wills, trusts and surrogate’s court practice.

During law school and my subsequent legal career, I represented pro bono, senior citizens on a variety of legal issues including elder law issues, Social Security Disability appeals and acted as a court appointed guardian.  I am licensed in both New York and Connecticut to practice law.

I am married.  My wife, Jean, is a retired Registered Nurse. We have five children and four grand children.  Two of my married children live in this area.  In addition to a law degree, I earned a M.B.A. in finance.  I served in the United States Marines from 1954-1957.

In summary, I bring to the SSKP Board a great deal of experience in the private as well as the public sectors, as well as a strong desire to serve my community.

Meal Site Profile

Essex Meal Site

St. John’s Episcopal Church of Essex     

Tuesday’s 5:00 to 6:00 pm

23 Main Street, Essex.

St. John’s Episcopal Church of Essex Mealsite

It never ceases to amaze all of us at St. John’s, how for sixteen years this large wheel of volunteers has turned so smoothly in feeding the hungry and providing fellowship to the lonely of our community on Tuesday nights. 

In 1991, our St. John’s Soup Kitchen Mealsite was the second to be founded after the original site at the First Baptist Church.  Many of our 40 members on the eight rotating teams were members of the founding teams and are still at work in the kitchen at St. John’s on Tuesday nights.

A visiting team from St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Old Lyme is one of the eight teams.  Other teams are comprised of parishioners or friends from the community who want to reach out to help in the effort of feeding the hungry.

A generous and giving spirit is permeated by our volunteers who set up, prepare and sit down to share with our approximately 18 guests each week.  The meals are thoughtfully prepared to include favorite dishes that our guests request.  It is a labor of love and joy that keeps our volunteers signing up year after year.

The Mouse Story

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. “What food might this contain?” the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

            The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.” The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.” The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn’t concern you, remember – when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

Statistics

2003 – 263,000 total meals were served by the SSKP.

2004 – 309,770 total meals were served by the SSKP.

2005 – 356,467 total meals were served by the SSKP.

2006 – 480,431 total meals were served by the SSKP.

History of the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries

            During the winter of 1989, the First Baptist Church in Essex, led by Pastor Erica Wimber, had a “vision” day. People in the church were asked to “dream” and share their “dreams” about all the things they would like to see a church doing in their community.  One of the things discussed was that they would like to do more for local missions.  Several of the members had heard stories of people in the area that were in need, and believed there was a hidden problem. One church member knew of an elderly couple that was picking garbage out of a dumpster. Many phone calls were made, but to no avail. The response from local social service departments was always the same, “There is no poverty here”. The church members disagreed and looked at soup kitchen programs in other towns.

They decided to serve one meal as an experiment to find out for themselves if anyone would come. They put signs up on dumpsters, in stores, and publicized on the radio and in the newspapers. They put the first $5.00 donation, by the late John Pullen, in a little purse carried by Ruth Adams. On March 25, 1989 the Saturday before Easter, they opened their Fellowship Hall for this experimental offering. People were invited to donate food, and volunteers prepared a hot meal from food the committee collected. Residents were welcome to eat – whether they were in need or just lonely and in need of company. They waited with deep anticipation. A woman walked in and handed them a $50.00 gift certificate for a local grocery store and she began to leave. They said, “Wait, we don’t know if this will really work, we don’t know if anyone will come.” The woman turned and said, “Ah, ye of little faith” which became the volunteers favorite saying whenever spirits or that little purse ran low.

Eleven people came that first day and touched their hearts. The group knew they were doing the right mission when they served people like the three children whose mother was too embarrassed to attend. They opened the following week for a second trial. The second meal brought 14 people. On that basis they decided to serve meals every week.

One of their primary goals was to reach local residents before they were forced to move to cities. Pastor Erica felt strongly that communities should take care of their own people. She believed that people in rural areas who found themselves in need, must travel away from their homes, extended family, communities, and support systems at a time that is already a crisis period in their lives. She said that once these people arrive in the city where they are in a foreign environment, statistics show that they are at a very high risk for becoming chronically homeless.  She believed that the solution was to keep people from entirely bottoming out and the groceries and hot meal would give people some help, some sense of dignity, and hope while they tried to solve their own problems.

          That first year certainly had its’ ups and downs. While waiting for the word to get out, there were days when 2 or 3 or even no people came to the soup kitchen. Volunteers quit, saying it wasn’t worth their time. There were days when they questioned the loaves and fishes principle. They had shown the need, would the food continue to appear?  They remember their little purse getting so low one time that Ruth left a note for a guest preacher at the Baptist church saying how finances were desperate. By afternoon of that day the purse was full. They never closed; they kept saying “Ye of little faith” and hung in there.

But it wasn’t easy. Much of the community did not like what they were doing. There was extreme controversy, and the group was told that they were encouraging indigents to move into the area, and that they were attracting the wrong element.

  In the fall of 1989, a local alcoholic and homeless man was encouraged by someone in the community to leave the area and go to New Haven where there were more services to help him. The local police knew this man and would seek him out on cold nights and let him sleep in a cell over night. Of course, in the morning they would let him go and he would liquor up again. He took the advice and went to New Haven, and on a cold winter night he went to a shelter. He was drunk like he always was, and the shelter refused him because of it. He died on the streets of New Haven that night. He had frozen to death. Everyone at the soup kitchen felt in their heart that he would not have died if he was where people knew him. Pastor Erica said in the local paper, “His blood is on our hands”. This was the turning point for the soup kitchen. The intense controversy ended, and many folks realized the soup kitchen was needed.

They named the meal site, the Shoreline Soup Cellar, An Interfaith Community Service. They started collecting funny, sad and sometimes inspiring stories. Funny stories like the day a young teen, sent to volunteer as a community service “punishment”, turned to one of the adult volunteers and said, “What did you do?”  Or inspiring like the day when a young girl walked in with a big bag of her Halloween Candy and donated it all and kept none for herself.  They formalized their purpose, formed and wrote organized job assignments, had meetings every 6 weeks, and set the ground work that still forms the SSKP today. Chip Adams, Ruth and Dicks’ son, designed the logo. Ruth Adams went to church after church, talking at Sunday Services, knocking on doors. She was relentless. She spread the word, gathering volunteers and donations and an enlightened public.  Eventually a very strong majority of local churches were on board and involved. Donations began pouring in.

They also set the seeds for the philosophy and guidelines that the SSKP uses today. For example, Pastor Erica had a rule, “When you eat, everybody eats, so there is no difference between who’s giving and who’s taking. You’re not taking the food away from the people. Just the opposite, you’re taking the pride away from the people when you don’t sit and eat with them”.  The original founders also had plans to expand the times, days, and locations of the soup kitchen, and develop work on providing affordable housing and a shelter.

The Shoreline Soup Cellar grew as the word got out. By 1991, the second year of operation, the soup cellar was feeding an average of 70 people, and giving out 60 boxes of groceries per week. They picked up people who needed a ride, and they delivered to ones who couldn’t get out. It had really expanded and the cellar had outgrown its first home. The Shoreline Soup Cellar moved to Saint Johns Church in Old Saybrook where the facilities were much larger. The meals were served at St. John’s on Saturdays in the then unused school building.

At this time there were approximately 60 volunteers that staffed the meal site on a rotating basis. They were funded by donations from churches, synagogues, community groups, individuals and businesses.  October 1991 another soup kitchen was opened at the Grace Episcopal Church in Old Saybrook on Wednesdays.

In 1992 Pastor Erika was leaving the area. She knew she needed to hire a staff person to replace her work and continue providing the management and general running of the Shoreline Soup Cellar, but finances were slim. She called a half dozen people that had once told her if she ever had a special need to call them.  In one afternoon, she had enough money to cover the salary. She then hired Denise Learned (presently Director of Camp Hazen) as the part time Executive Director.

            In 2007, the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries has increased to 8 soup kitchens and 4 pantries in an 11 town area. The program is staffed by a full time Executive Director, four part time Pantry Managers, and one part time Partnership Coordinator.  A large community garden program, and two heat n eat programs provide invaluable fresh produce and pre-cooked frozen meals to the clients of the pantries. The garden and meal sites and heat-n-eat programs are managed and staffed by community volunteers. The SSKP is governed by a Board of Trustees which sets the goals and policies and, through the Executive Director, directs and supports the affairs of the organization. The Board of Trustees may consist of up to fifteen members; up to five of whom may be clergy from among the local Clergy Associations. 

The urgency for help on the shoreline has grown tremendously, but food and funds always seem to keep up with the need. A common story that many volunteers often quote is the Christian story of the “Loaves and Fishes”. A recent quote from Pastor Erica says, “I have a whole new understanding of Jesus’ miracle after my experience with the Shoreline Soup Kitchens. Jesus fed people who were genuinely hungry – he revealed the need.  The miracle begins with Jesus confronting the need head on and not sending the 5,000 away to get food some place else. And of course, the food appears.”  And so it goes for the SSKP.  As the need is revealed and grows, the resources always appear to meet the demand.

The Shoreline Soup Kitchen & Pantries is looking toward a better future. They are constantly educating the community about poverty and bringing programs to the pantries that help people out of poverty. For the right reasons, they would love to put themselves out of business.  Can you “Dream” about a day when there is no need for the SSKP’s existence anymore?  You can’t?

Ah, ye of little faith.

How to Help

To volunteer, or to donate, or for any 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.

“Learn as if you were going to live forever.

Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.” – Mahatma Gandhi