This week we returned to out friends at Common Pantry, where we have not been for a little while. As it turns out, we had volunteered to work on the busiest day of their year, the day before Thanksgiving.
As you would expect, donations were up in a serious way this week, and most of it had a Thanksgiving bent. Local Jewel stores donated 68 full turkeys to the pantry, and they also got a few more from private donors. In addition, they had lost of cans and boxes of all the necessary trimmings - stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, etc. It made for a very busy and very successful day of distribution.
Scott, the pantry's manager, told me that they had basically been distributing all day, which is not that unusual since they do an afternoon and evening session every Wednesday. What was unusual was the number of families they served, which was something the neighborhood of 110 families. Every family of three or more got a turkey and a holiday bag with stuffing, vegetables, and potatoes and gravy. They also got a holiday pie, either pumpkin or apple, along with the rest of the regular rations for the week. The smaller families still got the holiday stuff - they just got a different meat instead. It worked out just right so that the number of turkeys and the number of families who needed them was the same.
Jen got to the pantry first and got assigned to work on distribution, so she got to be a part of the frenzy. She was in charge of the meat and pies and gravy, so much so that she wound up with one tub of gravy dumped all over her. She is a trooper though, and kept right on going. I got there a little later due to some terrible traffic and, after fighting my way through the distribution area, spent the night cleaning up the back room of the pantry. This room is also the Sunday school classroom for the adjacent church while also serving as a makeshift warehouse area for the pantry. The room was full of food at the beginning of the day, but was down to a manageable level by the time I got there. We moved food around, re-packed it from boxes in to crates, (more stack-able) and generally cleaned the whole place. We spent a good deal of time going through huge boxes of donated plastic bags, trying to find the ones that were still usable and discarding the ones that were ripped, torn, or nasty. It was a very zen task - all hands and no mind, but my coworkers and I had fun making conversation while we worked. At the end of the night, it looked like a classroom again, which was very satisfying.
As always, we had a great night of work and really enjoyed the staff and our coworkers throughout the evening.
Before I sign off for the week, I do want to offer, as so many do at this time of year, a quick thought about thankfulness. This (almost a) year of work has shown us a few new things to be thankful for. The first and most obvious is the opportunity to help. We are blessed to have our own needs provided for well enough to be able to spare some time and resources to help others. This one is evident to us every day, and Jen and I are pretty constantly thankful for our good fortune. The aspect that is slightly less obvious is that we are also thankful for the people who need the help. It seems a little gruesome to be thankful for that, because what we really wish is that no one needed help - that everyone had enough. But we are thankful nonetheless. The people in need have gotten Jen and I out of our house and into the world, connecting with hundred of wonderful people we would not have known otherwise. Those people in need show us something wonderful in ourselves and in humanity at large. They give us the opportunity to help build the world up with our own hands, and get to see the good our hands have helped to make. As many have said before, they help us, in the most real way I know of, to see the face of God. I am not an overly religious man, and questions the nature and existence of god almost every day, but when I am least doubting is when I am looking at the grateful face of someone to whom I have just given their dinner. This work we do feeds our souls as much as it feeds their bodies, and so I am thankful for who need help. Their need helps us touch the divine.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
For more information about Common Pantry, click HERE.
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