Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  And just like that, September is over. It makes me sad, but October is a beautiful month too in New England, and there is much to look forward to! At the dinner and the pantry, we had much to be thankful for. Not only did we have beautiful weather for getting together, but we also had some friends stop by with fun things to share. Our friend Lyna T came on Friday late afternoon to give haircuts to those who needed some sprucing up. She is such a bright light and a generous soul, and she always makes us feel good about ourselves. I really appreciate that after a long day of work, Lyna is willing to come and do just a few more cuts! For the food pantry on Saturday, our friend Laurie S came and dropped off kits for sprouting seeds (as in, sprouts for salads) for our guests. We didn't know if they would be popular or not, but we decided to give them a try. Well, they were very popular! To say that Laurie and I were delighted is a bit of an understatement! That just goe

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located 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 tetrazzini, 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 welcom

  I don't know about you, but for me, September is just whipping by at top speed. Generally, September and October are my favorite months in New England. I love the cooler crisp air and smell of wood fires. And football. I love the return of football. I always want fall to last just a little bit longer, especially knowing what's coming next: stick season, when all the leaves are down and the daylight hours are short. That's a really hard time for our homeless friends too, and for those who are living in sub-standard apartments and rooms. We are getting ready for that at the pantry, making sure that we have enough peel-and-eat foods for those who don't have kitchens and some cold weather sleeping bags and coats on hand. We had a wonderful visit from our friends at the Ayer office of National Grid a couple of weeks ago. We enjoy it so much when their crew comes to help us pack, sort, and stock. I didn't tell you about it then, because there was a 

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located 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 sweet + sour pork, 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...

  Good morning everyone! Last week I shared with you all about the large amount of food we had to throw out, and how we had already seen monetary donations come in that would cover repurchasing the items, from people who had no way of knowing what had happened, mailed to us before we had even discovered the problem. Well, blessings continued to flow throughout the rest of the week and the weekend. Many of you reached out when you heard, and asked what you could do to help. We appreciate each and every one of you, and I want to reassure you that we are going to be fine. And so are the people we serve, which is the most important. Other positive news: We received word that we will be awarded one of the grants we wrote this summer. More on that in the future!  Local superstar business Catania Oils, well known for their generosity, donated cooking oil for us to give out at the pantry (thank you Lisa!).  Our coffee bar is going so well that we are going to add tea, decaf, and maybe

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located 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 ham, mac + cheese, 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.

  Ahhhh...the crisp cool mornings of (almost) Autumn! It makes me so happy, all except for the dwindling daylight hours. But you can't have everything, and I love Autumn. Before I launch into the meat of what happened this week, you are all invited to come join me at Pirone Park in Ayer this Friday September 13, at around 7:00ish pm. At 7:15, the movie ET is going to be shown on a big screen! Bring a chair and a thermos full of something hot or cold, depending upon whether the forecasters are right about the weather. Also bring some cans if you'd like...they are taking up a collection for us at SSK. We had a really rough week, but one in which we saw God's provision in ways we could never have anticipated. A large amount of food we had purchased had to be thrown out. It was devastating and obviously unexpected. We work so hard towards being zero-waste. And then later that day, we were turned down for one of the grants I wrote this summer. Double shot. But

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located 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 white chili, 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 que

Happy Labor Day to all, and “happy” (meteorological) end of the Summer! I'm sorry, to all of you heat-lovers out there, and of course the arrival of Autumn is always bittersweet. But I'm sure we'll have at least a few more beautiful warm days ahead of us. When I think about Labor Day each year, and what it's really all about, it saddens me that so many people in this great, wealthy nation are no longer able to cover all of their own basic expenses by working 40 or 50 hours per week. I know that all of you who read this letter each week understand that, but there are those who don't. I had a discussion with my hard-working husband this weekend about some of the sadness I feel about this state of affairs. I told him that I was constantly trying to figure out how we at Stone Soup Kitchen could advocate more effectively “upstream”, to help to change the systems that keep the poverty cycle in existence. I further told him that I felt we were just putting a band