September 4, 2023 weekly newsletter

 

Greetings, and I hope you are all doing well on this beautiful Labor Day! I have so many good things to tell you, I'm almost afraid that I'll forget something. So I want to dive right in this morning

Our food drive, run by the Ayer Police Department, was a fantastic success this year. Over the course of August, we received 76 stuffed-full large paper grocery bags-worth of usable food. The amount of expired and otherwise unusable food was almost nothing this year...maybe 1 or 2 bags-worth. We are extremely grateful to Chief Brian Gill for supporting this drive each year, and to our friend Sgt. John MacD for arranging it and Dispatcher Mark L for publicizing it and taking care of the bins. John reported that other folks who were instrumental in the drive were Officers George F and David L, and Det. Brent D. We have an amazing Department, full of caring people who really love serving our community. And of course, we also have an amazing community who donate whenever possible and help take care of our own. Thank you so much to all of YOU!

In other great news, a couple of days ago I learned that the birthing center at Leominster Hospital is going to be forced to stay open by the State, because their closure plans were deemed completely inadequate. The State threatened to close the entire hospital if they went forward with their plans. It's a shame that's the way the decision had to be made, and it's only a temporary reprieve, but at least it's been made very clear that the center is a necessary part of serving the community. You can read more about it here if you'd like.

This coming Saturday, our dynamic duo, Debbie E and Melanie P will be hosting the monthly Craft Gathering in the Stone Soup Kitchen dining room, during the same hours as our pantry: Saturday Sept 9 from 10 to noon. Debbie has been making a wide variety of projects available each month, providing all of the materials and instruction if needed. Some participants bring their own projects, others come to learn a new skill. Everyone has fun! This is a family-friendly free event, with no charge for the materials, so please let your neighbors know about it, and come yourself if you'd like to enjoy some coffee, cake, conversation, and crafts. There is always room for more!

There are a couple of things we are looking for this week which are not food: plastic grocery bags and encouragement cards. We have begun to discuss how we will transition to using all paper grocery bags eventually, but as long as there are still plastic bags out there that need to be recycled, if you want to get rid of them, we'll take 'em! Please don't buy them, though...we don't want to encourage the production of more, we just want to use up what's already out there. As for the encouragement cards, many of you have done this in the past, and it's always something that is really appreciated by our guests. If it's new to you, we are looking for cards...bought or handmade, either is fine...with a short message of encouragement written inside. You can sign it with your first name, initials, the name of your community group, or just “a friend”. We put these into the pantry bags a few times each year, and they are the source of much joy, especially for our senior guests. I've been told that they often end up on a guest's refrigerator.

If you can shop for us this week, we are in need of cans of coffee, boxes of tea, and family-sized bottles of apple juice. These are items that we don't put into the pantry bags automatically, but are available by request. We also will gratefully take anything off our our complete pantry list, along with the plastic grocery bags that you've got stored up at home :-) The paper grocery bags are welcome too, for that matter! 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!

I hope you're enjoying a day off, but whether you are at work, home, or off on an adventure, take good care of yourself...I love you all!