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 it would be harvested and offered to the Stone Soup Pantry, I reflected on the story that inspired the “appropriate” name for this shared work. As I understand it “Stone Soup is a European folk tale about the use of wit and ingenuity to get something to eat. Different versions are told across Europe, but they all contain a stranger passing through a village, and soup made from an inedible object belonging to the stranger and ingredients added by villagers.”
But I see it as so much more than this tale. As I read each week of the stories shared I have watched how this grew from reaching out with a need to so many trying to each add a small part to a greater good. My own contributions seem but a small cog in this wheel of need. But a wheel that moves along each week with the power of generosity. I am moved by this generosity of small things from food drives, to the cookie brigade to those who buy a bit extra at the market to share in the cart they set up. Even those of us who find our love of earth and growing things to be a way to say; “I could add something.”
It is that which I reflected on. This creating of a fertile ground so a harvest can be shared. A giving of bits and pieces to make a whole in a time of need. In a time when many are at odds with each other, this becomes a parable of what could be if we all just cared a bit more about the other.
It is moving indeed.
So, some of the small things, and the not-so-small things that happened this past week:
Our friends from the Sandy Pond office of National Grid came to help us again (thank you Mich, Jim, and Ben!). Besides their usual physical help with date checking, sorting, stocking, and packing, they also brought us a heavy-duty set of shelves and a very generous monetary donation from the office's personal fund. We will be using that donation to make sure those shelves they gave us continue to flow with food for our guests!
We began distributing our second recipe leaflet. The first was well-received so we've decided to keep going with it. Each leaflet contains about 6 recipes that use typical pantry foods. My thanks to Mich H, Amy M, and Cathy C for the recipes we're using so far.
Fresh produce is starting to appear in more abundance and variety each week as the farms and gardens are overflowing. Thanks especially to Alison + Rich E, Boston Area Gleaners, the Community Harvest Project, Shepherd of the Valley, the Ayer Community Garden, Andy + Angela G, Nicole T, Patrick H and other anonymous gardeners, and Ayer Shop n' Save. Alison + Rich have also figured out some places that they can take any excess from the Gleaners after we close on Saturdays so that nothing goes to waste.
I was able to attend a zoom workshop on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) for non-profits. This is a topic that we will have to think about some more. Nothing immediately came to mind for policy changes, but we want to remain open to the possibilities that some things could be done differently at SSK to make it a better, more equitable experience for everyone.
More good news: the Ayer Police Station is holding their 3rd annual Food Drive for us in August (thank you John M and Chief Gill!). We really appreciate this, as food donations typically drop off in the month before the return to school. If you can shop for us this week, we will gladly take anything from our complete list, and you now have the option of dropping it in the Police Station lobby as well as at Ayer Shop n' Save. We will also be at the pantry as usual on Wednesday from 10 to noon, Friday from 4 to 5:30, and Saturday from 9 to noon for drop-offs. If you use one of the other two locations, would you please leave us a note in your bag so that we can thank you?
I love you all...I hope you have a wonderful week!
Cyndi
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