Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  A wonderful good morning to you all! I am so so so happy this morning, not just because the weather is more to my liking, but also because I heard back from many of you that the stories I shared last week touched you and made you feel even more a part of Stone Soup Kitchen. It's important to me that you know how much your involvement with us impacts our community. There is no donation or gift of time/talent that is too small to matter. In fact, I was speaking with my friend Robert P last week, and he said that it's important not to try to boil the ocean! I had never heard that saying before, but it really stuck with me (obviously!). You may think your gesture is small, but that one person you affected doesn't see it that way. To them, your kindness is everything. My friend Patrick H sent me these thoughts, and gave me permission to share them with you: Stone Soup Reflections As I prepped the ground in my vegetable garden this spring, knowing that much of i...

Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings at Living Water Fellowship in Devenscrest, Ayer. It 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, do puzzles, or play games in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our support group. The open support group meeting with Teri T runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. This week, the potluck will feature chicken salad with various sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Email any questions to stonesoupkitchenministries @ gmail . com (remove the spaces) or leave us a private comment here. ANYone is welcome...no questi...

Jim M, Mich H, and Ben L came today from the Ayer office of National Grid to deliver a really sturdy set of shelves to us. Here's our Sonja C, modeling how tall it is 🙂 See that shelf at the very top? It's usable too!  Thank you to all the lovely people from this office who donate their time, funds, food, support and encouragement...and now...shelves!

Another Saturday without rain during the pantry hours! What a treat for us, and for our guests. When it rains, we set up a pop-up canopy, which helps a bit with food distribution (except when the wind blows the rain sideways), but it does nothing for our table of extras. We just have to skip putting out the books, art supplies, and extra food items. After a few weeks of that, we are desperate for a sunny day! I promised you a newsletter of stories, and that's what you're getting today, right after one housekeeping matter: we will gladly take anything from our complete pantry list if you can shop for us this week. The need has been high, and we really want to stay ahead of it as best we can. If you need the list, please just email me back and I'll send it to you. Thank you! On to the stories: the names are changed, for obvious reasons. Many of the best stories are those which impacted both the giver and the recipient. There are two really hard things that we see...

Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings at Living Water Fellowship in Devenscrest, Ayer. It 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, do puzzles, or play games in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our support group. The open support group meeting with Teri T runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. This week, the potluck will feature chicken with various sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend.  Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Email any questions to stonesoupkitchenministries @ gmail . com (remove the spaces) or leave us a private comment here. ANYone is welcome...no questions asked...

  Fast If you were to ask me about hunger I would tell you it's like being held  in empty arms for too long, purse strings tightened at the parched mouth drawn closed on unmet needs.  Thirst is a dry river bed, a dead cricket's leg,  trough of dust, fat snowflake  uncaught by young tongues. And after the deep well  no longer cares what it might hold, at the first bite, the first sip the animal need to take all not to taste, but to fill, not to quench, but to flow. But what do I know of real hunger, true thirst? If I could pack it up, I'd send it– the wasted corporate buffet, the bottled waterfall.  I swear, I would send it to you. Fast, I'd fast. Ellen Rowland is the author of two collections of haiku/senryu as well as the book Everything I Thought I Knew, essays on living, learning and parenting outside the status quo. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and in several poetry anthologies, most recently The Path to Kindness: Poems of...

Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings at Living Water Fellowship in Devenscrest, Ayer. It 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, do puzzles, or play games in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our support group. The open support group meeting with Teri T runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. This week, the potluck will feature pulled pork with various sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend.  Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Email any questions to stonesoupkitchenministries @ gmail . com (remove the spaces) or leave us a private message on our facebook page. ANYone is welcome....

  Thanks so much to Debbie E, Lida, and Donna for their gallant work yesterday cleaning, organizing, culling, and sprucing up our Craft Gathering area!  We had quite a lot of donated supplies that we know we won't be using, and so we decided to put them out for local craft-enthusiasts to take...kids or adults, come one come all!  During our regular food pantry hours, 10 to noon on Saturdays, starting July 15, we will have boxes and bags full of supplies for you to take, every Saturday until it's all gone  💕   Stone Soup Kitchen is located at 41 Littleton Road in Ayer Massachusetts Image: Canva

Popped up in my facebook "memories" from 5 years ago: I have to tell you all a story that happened last week at the Kitchen where I cook dinner for Friday nights. One of my regular guests came in a bit late and told me it was because someone had stolen his girlfriend's shoes overnight from their campsite, but she was also on her way and had told him to go on ahead. Could they have dinner even though they were late? Of course. She came in a few minutes later with her feet filthy and cut. But. The day before, a good friend had given me three gently used and freshly washed pairs of sneakers. Well, ok. No one's ever given me sneakers before for the Kitchen, but whatever. Guess who they fit? Perfectly. God is good. Image: Phulvar

This adorable group, the Ayer Class of 1973, just had a big reunion! And do you know what they decided to do? They made a donation to Stone Soup Kitchen 💕 Oh my heart!

When I think about how undeservedly blessed I am to be able to do the work of Stone Soup Kitchen, it reminds me of this quote from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.  I am not a member of the Methodist church, but I deeply appreciate a lot of Wesley's writings.  In a world as crazy as ours, my personal tendency is to want to retreat and just form a little enclave with a few good friends and family.  I don't want to put myself out there and risk having people be angry at me for my public decisions, suspicious of my motives, or scornful of what they view as my privileged activism.  Because yup, I am extremely privileged, but that's a story for another time. This quote reminds me that time is short.  It seems that I blinked and now I'm in my 60s.  Wasn't it just yesterday that I was growing up IN the '60s?  But my formative years were more in the '70s, with their out-of-control inflation and the death knell to any kind of automatic respect for authori...

  Our monthly Craft Gathering was a wonderful time this past Saturday morning.  The air conditioners were pumping away, and the creativity was flowing.  A couple of items were brought from home to be painted.  Other participants enjoyed a relaxing morning of coloring, drinking coffee, eating cookies, and chatting! The next Gathering will be August 12.  Put it on your calendar now so that you don't miss out!  All of our events are free, no registration is required, and they are family-friendly.  

Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings at Living Water Fellowship in Devenscrest, Ayer. It 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, do puzzles, or play games in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our support group. The open support group meeting with Teri T runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. This week, the potluck will feature tacos (!!) with various sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend.  Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Email any questions to stonesoupkitchenministries @ gmail . com (remove the spaces) or leave us a private comment here...it won't be posted. ANYone is ...

Don't miss out this month💕 All materials and tools are supplied for our Gatherings, or you are also welcome to bring your own project to work on at this family friendly event.  We will be meeting in air-conditioned splendor for crafts, coffee, cookies, and conversation!  There is never a fee to be a part of our programs! Stone Soup Kitchen, 41 Littleton Rd, Ayer MA.         Saturday July 8, 2023 from 10 to noon