January 13, 2025 newsletter/annual report

 

Dear Friends of Stone Soup Kitchen,

The big news this year is the elephant in the room: we have to move by the end of January. Living Water Fellowship, the church in Devenscrest, Ayer MA, has been our home since June 2019, and we are very sad to see it close. But we are delighted to have a brand new home to look forward to in the years to come, at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church on Washington Street in Ayer. For now though, let's look back at 2024!

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Thank you to all of you for your faithfulness this past year in supporting our community! We had a very good year, full of new initiatives designed to bring people together for food and fellowship. Our mission is two-fold: to help alleviate food insecurity and hunger, and to bring lonely or marginalized people together with other community members, helping them to form more relationships across the typical divides that keep people from socializing. We try to remove as many barriers to this as possible, by never asking for ID, proof of residency or income. And we appreciate all of you, who have chosen to give whatever you could to the Soup, including your time, perhaps the most valuable gift of all!

Our Friday night dinners continue to be the centerpiece of our mission. Each week, our guests have the option to come early to our social hour, from 4 to 5. We gather and talk, do puzzles, and enjoy occasional presentations by community members who want to share their expertise. We also fit in hair cuts and wellness visits during this time. Dinner runs from 5 to 6, with the last half including our support group. That is optional, and not everyone stays for it, but some people come specifically for it. Overall, we feel that the Friday evening community we've built is a warm and welcoming place for everyone.

We also continue to focus on our community-building programs, and we are always looking for good ideas that are sustainable. For the first half of the year, we continued our monthly Craft Gatherings, but they ended up being replaced by a new Coffee Bar, which seemed to appeal to a wider number of people. We sponsored several informative workshops, including basic first aid and a cooking class, and our guests continued to receive support from the reading and math tutors, the homemade cookie bakers, and from those who created encouragement and holiday cards for our pantry bags. All of the programs that we provide have to be fully funded so that anyone in the community can attend at no cost. Sometimes that means we look for a grant or a dedicated donation that will cover the expenses, and sometimes it's due to the kindness of our volunteers, who donate their own time and money.

The Saturday morning food pantry continues to be open every week from 10 until noon. Our guests have greatly enjoyed the addition of the Coffee Bar! Whether they grab and go or stay and chat, it's been very very popular. And serving Ruby Donuts doesn't hurt either! During the growing season, we have partnerships with the Boston Area Gleaners and the Community Harvest Project, regular donations from local gardeners and the Ayer Community Garden, as well as year-round help from the Merrimack Valley Food Bank to keep the produce bags full. Along with Shop 'n Save grocery store and your help, we've been able to up the nutritional value of all the pantry bags. And very little goes to waste, as our friends who have taken charge of deliveries make sure to distribute our excess to other small pantries further west. Between their help and the help of our friends who focus on recycling, we've greatly reduced our waste from what it was originally, and have been able to be a blessing to those who are guests of pantries further west.

We have seen the trend that started last year continue, away from younger families (which we saw during the height of covid) and towards seniors who thought they had saved enough for retirement but who are now challenged by inflation. That's not to say that there are no young families still coming... there are still plenty of people in our community, unfortunately, who are one paycheck away from disaster, and we appreciate your help in supporting them. We also still have specialty bags that we make up for our guests with special dietary needs and for those who have no cooking facilities. The Ayer Police Department contacts us when they learn of local or transient folks who need emergency food, and we're very grateful for that. We distributed well over 5000 bags of groceries this year, which includes shelf-stable items, fresh produce, breads, milk/eggs coupons, meat, and specialty items (like coffee, juice, baking supplies, and holiday treats). The homemade cookies are the most popular part of the pantry! 

We are so grateful to our community for the donations of food and/or money to buy food, and the physical help in keeping the pantry, dinner, and programs running! Local kids are an important part of our support, through food drives organized by families and the Ayer Community School, gift bags and cookies from the Girl Scouts, lemonade and hot chocolate stands, and birthday bags from the Cub Scouts. Many many thanks to the Boston Area Gleaners, the Community Harvest Project, Merrimack Valley Food Bank, the Ayer Police Station (especially for the food drive and the Thanksgiving gift cards), National Grid's Ayer office crew, Greater Lowell and the North Central Massachusetts community foundations, New England Grassroots Fund, National Grid USA, private grantors, Ayer Shop 'n Save, Bake'N Joy, Catania Oils, Advanced Vacuum Systems (AVS), Theo's Market Gardens, local Churches, Rotaries, Civic clubs, ICFederal Credit Union, NABH, Pepperell VFW Post, APAC, Little Bee Bookstore, the Ayer Library, The Cannon Theater, VividCloud, West Main Thrift, the Ayer Community Garden and local gardeners, bakers, knitters, food and money donors, transporters, packers, shoppers, servers, recyclers, workshop leaders, craft leaders, tutors, hairdressers, support group leaders, grocery store workers, and every other donor, both anonymous and known.

I'm sure I've forgotten someone, and I hope you will forgive me. Planning this move with only a month notice, over the holidays, has been a bit stressful. We are dependent on all of you and are so grateful for your kindness, generosity, and faithfulness to the communities we serve. Thank you, I love you all!

Cyndi Lavin, director
Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

As of January 20, our new address will be: Stone Soup Kitchen, 21 Washington Street, Suite C, Ayer MA 01432