Good morning. I don't know about all of you, but I find myself feeling sad on this anniversary, worrying that our world seems to have learned so little. It upsets me to hear 9-11 politicized. But, as is so often the case, I can't do anything about it, so I just pledge myself again to do what I can to increase the total amount of love in the world. All of you who have donated time, food, money, and talents to us are doing that as well, and I thank you for it.
I have even more reason to be grateful today as I sit here at my own computer in my own home typing this. It took us all day yesterday to fly from Cleveland OH to Boston. All because someone didn't do their job. By the time their mistake had been fixed, bad weather had grounded the planes in Boston. It turns out we would have gotten home sooner if we had driven :-) But our niece's wedding was wonderful, and it was equally wonderful to know that everything at home was in good hands. Extra thanks this week to Melanie P, Elaine S, Debbie E, Lin M, Cyndi D, Tina S, Kathleen O, Sonja C, Alison + Rich E, Mike G, Jess R, Laurie S, Maria V, Cathy C, and Janet P for making sure everything ran smoothly. I truly hope I haven't forgotten anyone!
Debbie E and Melanie P made sure the Craft Gathering had fun on Saturday! They came up with the idea to make “stained glass” style tea lights for the guided project. As usual, folks could also work on whatever project they brought or wanted to do from the materials and tools that we have available. You can see an example in the attached picture, modeled by our own Cyndi D. Thank you guys for making it a great morning for everyone!
The big news is that we are in the process of “cleaning up” our pantry bags. During the peak of covid, we were desperate to provide food, any type of food, to people who had lost their jobs and were hungry. Whatever was on the grocery store shelves, we would find a way to use it. Recently though, we have been working through how to make the shelf-stable foods in the pantry bags more healthy. Yes, we know that most people like the rice-a-roni that we include, but the nutritional value is low and the sodium and additives are high. We are very happy with the fresh and frozen foods that we're able to provide each week, so we want to get our shelf-stable foods to match!
We have come up with ten of our pantry items that we plan to replace with healthier versions over the coming months. We're not going to waste the food we already have...we will simply begin to replace it as we run out. As for continued donations of those items, they will not go to waste either: we will just put them out on our big table for self-selection. We are not trying to force anyone into changing their diet, but instead are trying to follow best practices for pantries when they are too small to accommodate patron self “shopping.” In a couple of weeks, I'll send out a new master list of all the items we'll be including in the bags, and I'll continue to ask you for the couple of things we need each week...they just might be some slightly different things than you're used to!
For this week, if you can shop for us, these items are running low on our shelves and we will be keeping them on the new list: canned chicken, spaghetti pasta (especially whole grain if you can find it), small bottles of oil (canola or olive preferred), ramen noodle packets (yup! these have been determined to be a necessary evil, but we're cutting back on how many we give). We would also love to continue to recycle your relatively clean plastic and paper grocery bags if you have any to spare :-) We'll be at the pantry on Wednesday from 10 to noon, Friday from 4 to 5:30, and Saturday from 9 to noon for drop-offs. And the bin is always available at Shop n' Save if those times don't suit. Please leave a note in the bag with your name so we know whom to thank!
Blessings to all of you on this memorial day...I love you all
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