November 11, 2024 newsletter

 

Good morning! Continuing with the theme of thankfulness today, I want to thank all of you who have served our country in the armed services or who have family members serving, whether you are currently active, in the reserves, or retired. As the cartoon that I've attached indicates, at Stone Soup Kitchen, we tend to focus on helping the one person at a time, but you have been in the unique position to help many many people, and we are grateful for your sacrifices and your service. Thank you.

We have a number of other things to be thankful for this week. First, we are working on our plans for Thanksgiving, and once more, the Ayer Police Union has bought gift cards for us to give away to each of our families so that they can buy the turkey or other centerpiece of their choice for their Thanksgiving meal. Please thank any of them that you run across for this incredibly generous thing they do each year! And our friends Lin and Vinny Miller are at it again, putting together bags of the supplies needed to accompany the turkeys. Here's the information if you'd like to help them:

It is our 3rd year collecting for our Thanksgiving bags…I am again looking to my friends, family, and acquaintances to help me feed our community. Each year most of us have large Thanksgiving meals when so many around us cannot. Most of us are just one paycheck away from needing help, so if you have the extra money, would be so kind to donate to this cause? $15 gets the bag filled, as we have already been given gift cards for turkeys at our local grocery store. My goal is to help 30-40 families this year, I appreciate any amount donation (even if 3 people donate $5 each, that is one family that gets to have a Thanksgiving meal!)

Another wonderful thing that happened last week: we were informed that the New England Grassroots Environment Fund approved our grant application for the money to keep our Coffee Bar going for a year! We are grateful to them for the decision that our small project has the type of impact they want to support. And I am grateful to Sue C, Debbie E, and Lin M for running the Coffee Bar. If you'd like to volunteer to help them, please email me and I'll get you in touch!

Another volunteer opportunity for people who would prefer to be behind the scenes...I would love to be able to put encouragement cards into the pantry bags between Thanksgiving and Christmas. These would be seasonal cards to express the support of the community for our neighbors who are going through a rough patch. Any type of card is fine – handmade, store-bought – with an upbeat message of support. You can sign it, or simply write, “from a friend”. Similar to the homemade cookies, these cards are something that people mention really appreciating.

Stone Soup Kitchen is not a political organization, and campaigning, endorsing candidates, etc is not part of our mission (nor are we allowed to, as a 501(c)3). No one knows what the future holds, and that is especially true when we have a presidential transition. We don't know how new policies will affect our guests, but we know that there is always a time of uncertainty and unease, no matter which way the political pendulum swings. And we know that we will still be relying on all of you to help us continue to be peacemakers and servants of our neighbors, loving all of them.

If you can shop for us this week, we will gratefully take any food items from our full list that you might find on sale. If you need the list, please let me know. 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 love you all...have a wonderful wonderful week.