(From the 8:00am worship service on October 20, 2024)
Hi, I’m Donna Gresh. Those of you who get our blog posts in your email (ask me later how to do that) may often see my name, as one of my activities here is managing the website and blog. But today I’d like to talk to you about my experience of volunteering at our Food pantry.
On the Monday after each pantry, I’m in charge of inventorying our remaining stock. In Room 5 at the far end of our building are several tall aisles of neatly arranged canned fruits, vegetables, and beans, as well as huge cardboard boxes of pasta and rice. We run a choice pantry for the shelf-stable goods. Since Saturdays are too hectic for us to keep track of what people are choosing moment by moment, conducting an inventory soon afterward is the only way we can determine what will need to be ordered for the next pantry. It is daunting to see how much food is held in that room, and to know that a good portion of it will go home with people at the next pantry. It is a very tangible reminder of how much need there is right here in our community. I encourage you to poke your head in Room 5 sometime so you can experience that for yourself.
I’m also part of the “Friday Setup Crew”, which prepares for the next morning’s pantry. Some of us set up the shelves of canned food for clients to choose from, and some pack bags for those who are unable to “shop” at our pantry. A job in which I often take part is the produce prep.
We receive large amounts of fresh produce from the Green Thumb program of Feeding Westchester, as well as donations from local farms. It typically comes in large crates or 50 pound bags, and needs to be divided up into individual bags for our clients. Four or five of us set up an assembly line, and an hour or two later the wall along the side of Room 7 is full of boxes of bagged vegetables ready to give out. For a recent pantry, we packed over 160 bags with sweet potatoes, apples, potatoes, onions, corn, and cucumbers.
Why do I do this?
One reason is that it’s a great opportunity for fellowship. It gives our crew of volunteers a chance to check in with one another and share in each other’s lives while performing highly labor-intensive work in service of our community. It feels wonderful.
Another reason is that it makes me much more aware of the great need that is present all around us even in our affluent community — something that might otherwise be invisible to me in the ordinary course of my life. There is little that is more humbling than putting together a bag of produce for a person who is making this trek to our pantry because they struggle to feed themselves from their low wages or minimal post-retirement income. I am an avid cook, and I have the ability to go to the grocery store and buy whatever I need for the recipe I have in mind. While occasionally I might decide not to buy artichokes this week because of their price, it is never a matter of going without; I’ll buy broccoli instead. For the people coming to our pantry, our fresh produce, augmented by the other goods we offer, makes a huge difference to their family. All of us who do this work are constantly reminded of how fortunate we are, and we do it knowing how important it is to the people who will line up the next day.
Doing something that matters for other people. Isn’t that what we are called to do — to engage? It’s a few hours of my time, every two weeks, but the sense of accomplishment I feel when Room 7 is ready for the next day with an abundance of food, is real.