Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  Good morning! It's such a gorgeous day, and not too hot for my taste, so Mike and I are going to go see if we can find a nice spot outdoors to hike a bit and then sit and read. I hope you'll each have a chance to enjoy the outdoors this week and to decompress from all that is negative around us. We had a very productive week at Stone Soup Kitchen, and there are a few things to catch you up on. Even though it's almost two months away, I want to let you know about an event that we are planning with our Ayer Police Department: Cops and Cones! Do you like ice cream? Do you like chatting with our police officers? Would you be interested in helping out with this event by scooping some ice cream and chatting with people? Email me back and we'll get you on the volunteers list. We are looking at the 3rd week of August, probably the 19th or 20th. More on all of this when we get a firm reservation. This past Wednesday, we delivered a stack of Stone Soup books to t...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer. **For Friday dinner, you must park in the lot off of Newton St and walk up to the first blue door unless you are disabled** For the Saturday food pantry, please come to the parking lot on Cambridge St. It is open from 10 to noon. * * * * * Dinner is open to ANYone who wants a good hot meal and some company...no need to bring anything but yourself unless you want to! From 4 to 5, we are open for those who want to get together and socialize in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. Our potluck this week features sweet and sour pork with various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Come...

  Good day! I only have a few things to catch you up on this week. The first is a reminder that our friend Rachel K will be going to speak to the Ayer Select Board tomorrow evening, Tuesday June 2, about her Garden Gleaners. The meeting starts at 6pm at the Ayer Town Hall, and the Public Comment agenda item is near the very beginning, so please drop in if you can! Next, our friend Jin H has offered to do a drop-in workshop on Saturday June 20 during our regular pantry hours, 10 to noon. She will be assisting people in learning how to balance bank statements...and your checkbook if you still use one (I do!). She will help you make sense of all those numbers the bank sends you each month. No registration or appointment is necessary: just stop in, have some coffee and a donut, and get your questions answered! Everyone is welcome and there are no fees. Parking is next to Shepherd of the Valley Church, on Newton Street. Walk up Washington St to the first blue door and come ...

Good day! A scam email dropped into my box this morning and I want to warn you about it. No, I didn't click on it, so if you are on my email list, you don't have to worry *at this time* about getting this particular scam email "from" me. However, that doesn't mean that I won't fall for a scam in the future, as scam artists seem to have evermore clever ways to fool us. If you think you can't be fooled, that's when you're vulnerable! Because we are a relatively small organization, I haven't worried too much about it up until now. However, in addition to the fake party evite I got today, I also received a request for gift cards "from my pastor" a few weeks ago. It wasn't from her, of course. So here's the details on these scams: Take a look at the screen shot above (don't worry, it's just a picture, not a live link to the scam site). See how non-specific it is? I'm invited to a "Special Party"!!...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer.   **For Friday dinner, you must park in the lot off of Newton St and walk up to the first blue door unless you are disabled** For the Saturday food pantry, please come to the parking lot on Cambridge St. It is open from 10 to noon. * * * * * Dinner is open to ANYone who wants a good hot meal and some company...no need to bring anything but yourself unless you want to! From 4 to 5, we are open for those who want to get together and socialize in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. Our potluck this week features chicken pot pie with various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Com...

Do you know where your money goes each month?  Stop in and learn how to balance your bank statements -- and your checkbook if you still use one!  Our friend Jin H will be on hand Saturday morning, June 20, from 10 to noon to help you make sense of all those numbers the bank sends you each month.  No registration or appointment necessary: just stop in, have some coffee and a donut, and get your questions answered!  Everyone is welcome.  No fees. Stone Soup Kitchen, 21 Washington Street, Ayer Parking is next to Shepherd of the Valley Church, on Newton Street.  Walk up Washington St to the first blue door.

  Hello all! I'm late with the letter this morning (afternoon), because I wanted to go to our town's Memorial Day gathering at the Town Hall. It was beautiful, moving, and meaningful, as I fully expected it would be. It was a great reminder to me how much I love this country that I was blessed to be born in, and how much I want to work to make it a better place. We were really fortunate last Friday to have our friends Cindy, Angela, and Laurie cook dinner for all of us. Winner winner, chicken dinner! The dinner crowd has swelled, and we are extremely happy to find that we have some Veterans and some more folks who just need some company coming each week. If you would like to help with the cooking sometime, just email me and we'll talk about what it entails! We have a couple of topics that we would really like to be able to offer as workshops. Do you have any of these skills and would you be willing to share with others? **check balancing, avoiding scams, usin...