Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  We are incredibly grateful to our local Ayer Police Station, along with the Shirley Police Station and the Rotary Club for kickstarting our month-long food drive. I don't have a final total yet, because there is technically one more day left, but I will estimate that we received around 140 grocery bags full of food, through the generosity of our community of big-hearted donors, along with those organizations I listed and the Shop n' Save grocery store. Thank you thank you thank you to all of you who helped us get ready for the fall! And just like that, the kids are back in school and August is over. Garden season is not over yet though...not by a longshot...and Rachel K is busy gleaning around town where people call her for help. Don't miss the story in One Small Thing below! Other things that are not over include all of the tasks that are done for the sake of our community each and every week of the year: Pauline picks up bread. Nicole, Rich, and Alison pick ...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer. **For Friday dinner, you must park in the lot off of Newton St and walk up to the first blue door unless you are disabled** For the Saturday food pantry, please come to the parking lot on Cambridge St. It is open from 10 to noon. * * * * * Dinner 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 in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. Our potluck this week features spaghetti casserole with various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Come to...

  Good morning! Did you see our pictures from Cops and Cones ? It was the most perfect summer evening, and we had such a good time. I hope that even more of you will be able to join us when we do this again next year. Clara and Chloe were our marvelous scoopers from West Side Creamery, and they are hoping for another invitation!  If you want to get ready for the next event, put it on your calendar now! Tuesday October 6, 5-6pm at Pirone Park, we will be hosting Franks and Firefighters . The Ayer Fire Department will be holding their SAFE program and Touch-a-Truck for kids of all ages (really, honestly...ALL ages!), and we will have a hot dog truck there. On a different note, my friend Heidi sent us information about a program for free workforce training if you know anyone who would be interested. Free workforce training programs are being offered this fall online through MWCC. To be eligible for the free training, students must be over 18 years of age, have a hi...

  **For Friday dinner, you must park in the lot off of Newton St and walk up to the first blue door unless you are disabled** For the Saturday food pantry, please come to the parking lot on Cambridge St. It is open from 10 to noon. * * * * * Dinner 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 in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. Our potluck this week features sweet and sour pork with various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Come to the parking lot on Cambridge Street and follow the arrows. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please com...

What a perfect evening for ice cream with friends!!   Thank you to West Side Creamery from Acton, Gerry from the Ayer Park Department, and the Ayer Police Department. And thank you for ideal ice cream-eating weather!

  Good morning! I'm so delighted that we're getting the rain early this week, and that it's nice and gentle so it can soak in. That means we should be all clear for our Cops + Cones event on Wednesday evening. Don't forget to come grab your free cone and enjoy some time with our local men and women in blue! Wednesday, August 19, 7-8pm at Pirone Park in Ayer 💕 The weather forecast is perfect and the ice cream is free...what more could you ask for on a beautiful summer night? Two other quick things I want to remind you about: RachelSunflower01432@gmail.com is our friend Rachel's contact if you'd like her to help you with harvesting/donating any of your excess vegetables and fruits from your gardens. We've been really blessed by the amount of local fresh food that has been passing through our pantry on it's way to someone's table! The Ayer Police Station continues to be a dropoff point for SHELF STABLE food donations through the entire mont...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer.   **For Friday dinner, you must park in the lot off of Newton St and walk up to the first blue door unless you are disabled** For the Saturday food pantry, please come to the parking lot on Cambridge St. It is open from 10 to noon. * * * * * Dinner 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 in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. Our potluck this week features tacos with various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Come to th...

  A very good morning to all of you! We had an amazing weekend, and I sincerely hope you all did too. To jump right into it, we received three full pickup trucks' worth of food yesterday as a result of the one day Fill-a-Cruiser event! The Ayer Police Department , the Shirley Police Departmen t, and the Ayer/Shirley/Groton Rotary Club joined together, in cooperation with Ayer Shop n' Save , to hold the event in the broiling sun and high humidity. For three hours they stood out there and cheered on our donors. One truckload for each hour! I hope they felt it was worth it, because I can tell you for sure that the food collected will help to refill depleted shelves from which we pack our weekly pantry bags.   Once the trucks arrived at the pantry, it took a little less than one hour to unload, sort, and pack everything into boxes, ready to start being shelved on Wednesday. What a great day! Thank you so very very much to all of the volunteers on both ends of the oper...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer. **For Friday dinner, you must park in the lot off of Newton St and walk up to the first blue door unless you are disabled** For the Saturday food pantry, please come to the parking lot on Cambridge St. It is open from 10 to noon. * * * * * Dinner 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 in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. Our potluck this week features chicken parmesan casserole with various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same ...

  We were blessed yesterday by a HUGE box full of lovely flowers, all arranged in little jars and vases. Our friend Becky J told the You've Been Flowered! group about our programs, and they created the beautiful arrangements as a special treat for our guests 💖  Thank you to everyone who was involved in this unexpected gift!

  Good morning, good morning, and happy August! The summer is flying by, and there is so much to share with you. Before I forget, I want to thank each of you who responded to offer help for our various events that are coming up and for some that are on-going. Thank you for being a part of our village, or more properly in this case, part of the Soup! We still have a couple of slots that have opened up for Saturday morning pantry volunteers. Email me back for all the details if you'd like to find out more. So, here's the news in brief: Rachel's Garden Gleaners are prepared to help anyone whose garden has gotten away from them. She will help you arrange donations, help you with harvesting, and give you advice on your plantings, both right now and for the future of your garden. ( rachelsunflower01432@gmail.com ) Our local Alltown Fresh is letting everyone know that SSK is an official Food Partner. Each week, Nicole T picks up sandwiches, salads, and snacks that w...