Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  Many thanks to the Ayer/Shirley Daisy Troop 63239 who donated boxes and boxes of Girl Scout cookies for us to give away at our next Saturday pantry session! Everyone loves a good Girl Scout cookie 💖

  Good morning everyone! My phone tells me that it's supposed to reach 60 today, but I'm having some serious doubts about that. That's ok though...I have so many things to tell you about today, my files are bursting out even if the flowers aren't exactly there yet. Last week, along with many of my friends at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Ayer, I learned about a college behind bars program. The specific program mentioned was through Tufts University, but many other colleges offer classes as well. Anyway, Tufts partners with an organization called Partakers, and volunteers there join teams to become mentors. These are not so much academic mentors as they are friendships and encouragers: people who will get to know an incarcerated person and encourage them on a monthly basis. I think it's an amazing program, and I wanted to share the info with you in case you find it intriguing: https://www.partakers.org/ Ken Burns, on PBS, did a documentary on the ...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer. Please park in the Newton Street lot and walk up to the first blue door on Washington Street. 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. This week our potluck features sweet and sour pork, 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 to the parking lot on Cambridge Street and follow the arrows. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Email any q...

Good morning everyone...yawn, stretch, try to get back on track...stoopid time change! I love having more light in the evening, but my body just hates the time change. Anyway, I hope you all had a good weekend and are looking forward to some milder weather this week! At SSK, we are moving ahead with our plans to form more partnerships in order to serve more people. This week and next, we have several meetings with organizations that also have the space and the desire to sponsor workshops, classes, meet-ups, and the like. Many of you know that in the past we have held these types of meetings in the building where we were located. That was fine, but we tended to mostly only see the same people that we were already reaching. We would like to help even more of our community to expand their relationships across the typical divides that can keep people from socializing (and help with their food needs, if necessary), so we are continuing to look for two things: Like-minded businesse...

Good morning, and happy beginning of meteorological Spring!  Under all that snow, wonderful things are happening, but in New England we know that there's more to get through before Spring comes for real real :-) I had a slightly different plan for this letter today, but late last night I came across the title of an article from Psychology Today that immediately caught my attention.  "We've Lost the Spaces that Foster Friendship."  I believe most of us are already aware of that.  For decades, people have been pulling back from joining clubs and other organizations, from church membership and from bowling leagues and community choirs.  Covid made it much worse, and so many of us retreated into our own little worlds, helped along by online "communities."   These gathering spaces outside our homes are called our third spaces (first = home, second = work), and there are fewer of them all the time.  When the great withdrawal began, lots of third spaces ...

Good morning (barely) everyone!  It's later than usual for me to get this letter out, but I have a good excuse...Mike and I stayed up to watch the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and mourned that it's over for another 4 years.  Happily though, the Summer Olympics will be along in just 2 years.  And then, of course, this morning we woke up late to Snowmageddon, and I turned over and went back to sleep! There are a couple of things to tell you about today.  Last week I was privileged to go and speak to the members of St Vincent de Paul in Westford (located at St Catherine's).  Some of the members of the Littleton chapter at St Anne's came too.  These are people who are deeply committed to serving our communities, and it was an honor to share some of Stone Soup Kitchen's history, philosophy, and current operations with them.  I wish I had thought to snap a picture while I was there! But I did remember to get some pictures when Kim and Mike P cam...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer. Please park in the Newton Street lot and walk up to the first blue door on Washington Street. 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. This week our potluck with feature a smorgasbord with various dishes, 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 to the parking lot on Cambridge Street and follow the arrows. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Emai...