Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  Good morning everyone. What a shift in the weather from Saturday to this morning! My dear husband made a first pass at the leaves on Saturday while I was at the pantry, and this morning it looks like he did nothing. Fortunately, he is very philosophical about this, knowing that both yard work and house work are never-ending. Which is the same way we've learned to think about the pantry. Certainly this past Saturday seemed to be never-ending, as our line continued almost until closing, and then picked up again just at noon as we were ready to close. We were tired!! Thank you to all of you who make it possible for us to provide food for our neighbors: we passed out 120 bags of food, and had 6 first-time guests along with the guests we know well. Thank you also to Laurie S and our wonderful Cookie Brigade...those homemade cookies made everyone feel loved  💕 I'm excited to tell you about some visitors we had this past week. Thanks to our friend Heidi C, we were ...

  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 salisbury steak with various sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Also, visits with our friend Nurse Maureen Scott will be available today! 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 (remov...

Good morning friends! When the world is so crazy and dark, like right now, I need more than ever to think about things that are uplifting, and I'll bet you do too. So for just a few minutes, please set aside the endless and depressing news cycle, and join me for a few good stories! When you think that no one cares and nothing is being done to help anyone, look harder. They won't usually be the loudest voice in the room. I heard from our friend Janet P last week that the Police Union has decided to help our community for Thanksgiving by providing gift cards for turkeys and fresh foods for us to pass out. We have no space for turkeys on-site, so this was welcome news. At the same time, our friend Lin M has been gathering the funds to buy all of the pantry items that we need for the special Thanksgiving bags to go with these cards. What a blessing! We've just learned that the church where we are located, Living Water Fellowship, will simply not be able to do a Thank...

  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 baked ravioli 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 ...

  Good morning friends! Wasn't it nice to finally have a weekend without constant rain? We were so happy to be able to put everything out on our “take it if you want it” table this Saturday, as the boxes were beginning to overflow :-) We had a great week, and I want to get you all caught up on what's happening.  Dr Lydia McClure came to visit us on Tuesday evening, and we had a wonderful time together learning about how really simple it is to get the right nutrition, even if we don't like cooking! We had time to share tips with each other about different ways we streamline our own meal preparation during the busy weeks, and still make sure we get the nutrients that we need. We learned that it's much easier than we thought, and doesn't require any fancy supplements to do it. We are grateful to Dr McClure for giving of her time to come and meet with us. We also had our Crafts Gathering on Saturday, and Debbie E demonstrated how to do scratch art, using the ...

  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 barbecue and mac 'n cheese 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...

Come and enjoy the fun this Saturday, October 14 from 10 to noon at Stone Soup Kitchen in Ayer. All materials, tools, and stencils will be provided for the featured craft, scratch art. Or you are welcome to draw, color, or paint using our materials, or bring your own project to work on with friends! No registration required, no fees ever, and this is a family-friendly event. Refreshments provided.  Stone Soup Kitchen, 41 Littleton Road, Ayer Image: Canva

  We had an amazing presentation and discussion with Dr Lydia McClure last night! She shared practical and medically sound information on everyday diet, and talked with us about all of our questions. And did we ever bring the questions! We discussed our daily nutritional needs, healthy foods, meal planning, and getting variety through seasonings to avoid boredom. Some of us love to cook, others hate it, but there was something for everyone and we learned a LOT!  Thank you, Dr Lydia!!

Good afternoon everyone! I started to write “morning” and then figured out that there was no way I was going to be done by noon :-) After helping to get the pantry open on Saturday, I was kicked out by our crew so that Mike and I could start our trip to Maine a little earlier. I'm so glad we did, because we were driving (and staying) right in the path of the tropical storm. You know when the rain comes down sideways? Yeah, that's what we were in this weekend. But it was a beautiful time with friends, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything! Before I get too carried away, I need to remind you that Dr Lydia McClure is coming to see us this evening from 7 to 8pm, to talk about nutrition, and how to get what you need from real foods rather than from expensive meal replacements and supplements. Since we are simultaneously working to get our pantry bags more healthy, we're really excited about her visit. No need to register...just come. There will be plenty 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 chicken cordon bleu casserole 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 here. ANYone is w...

  When online vitriol and accusations hit social media, it's time to focus on the tiny victories that we see every day.  Recently, a group of migrants/immigrants/refugees/human beings (pick your term) were settled into the town of Ayer's only motel.  It's a spot that is often used by people in transition or who cannot come up with enough money to rent a place.  For a tiny town, this was a big blow, and some people who were staying at the motel a week at a time were told to vacate.  This is happening all over the state (all over the country), and in Massachusetts, the towns don't have any choice in the matter.   There is actually enough to go around if we would all work together instead of fighting about who is more worthy of help and who ought to be doing the helping.  The total number of people we are now housing is not overwhelming...it was just a surprise that hadn't been communicated by either the State or by the coordinating organization....

We are looking forward to a visit with our favorite local doctor, Dr Lydia McClure!! She is going to walk us through how easy it can be to hit all the nutrition high points...quickly, easily, and on budget, with no costly supplements or gimmicks! No registration is required for this FREE workshop, and there is plenty of parking space.  Yes, refreshments will be served (but they will probably be healthy!)  Image: Canva

Humility is refusing to reduce another person's humanity simply because you disagree with them.  ~Rev. Ben Cremer

  People before paperwork. People before paperwork. People before paperwork. (My new mantra) What do you do when you've got a newsletter to write, all the paperwork for the end of your fiscal year to collect and organize, and 9 homeless people in different locations to get emergency food for? You get the food together for the people. And you pray that one of your amazing volunteers will be free to make one of the food runs. Thank you Rich and Alison...you are appreciated more than I can ever tell you. Normally, we do not deliver, but these are just not normal times. Last night, I took a run to a laundromat, and today Rich took a run to a Motel 6. God knew what we were going to need, though, and provided enough. More than enough, including two social workers who know what they're doing (unlike me), enough food to share with all who needed it, resources to share with those searching for housing, and enough community members who were able to cut through all the noise and...

  Call us SJWs all you want...it's a compliment. This is for all of our friends in the Ayer/Shirley community. It's time to think this meme through again. Like many towns throughout Massachusetts, our small town has been (saddled/chosen/gifted...what verb would you use?) with a large group of immigrants.  This has caused some folks to be displaced from the motel which was chosen for the shelter.  Some residents are acting like this is an unsolvable problem, and they are using every platform available to scream their complaints rather than to help.  Their vitriolic comments tangle up the posts so that the person asking a question about how to help cannot even find the answers.      Either help, or at least get out of the way.