Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

Good day! A scam email dropped into my box this morning and I want to warn you about it. No, I didn't click on it, so if you are on my email list, you don't have to worry *at this time* about getting this particular scam email "from" me. However, that doesn't mean that I won't fall for a scam in the future, as scam artists seem to have evermore clever ways to fool us. If you think you can't be fooled, that's when you're vulnerable! Because we are a relatively small organization, I haven't worried too much about it up until now. However, in addition to the fake party evite I got today, I also received a request for gift cards "from my pastor" a few weeks ago. It wasn't from her, of course. So here's the details on these scams: Take a look at the screen shot above (don't worry, it's just a picture, not a live link to the scam site). See how non-specific it is? I'm invited to a "Special Party"!!...

The TL;DR version of a recent article.  Link at the bottom. Some 40% of Massachusetts households, or 1.12 million people, experienced food insecurity at some point over the past 12 months, according to a report released Tuesday by the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham.  Households experiencing food insecurity on average said they needed an additional $500 monthly to meet their basic expenses. The report found 46% of food insecure households had trouble paying for heat and electricity, and only about one in two households had stable housing. Nearly eight in 10 adults living in food insecure households had at least one chronic medical condition, such as obesity, diabetes, dental or gum disease, cardiovascular disease and mental health issues. Among those who had to forgo care, 67% reported skipping prescriptions and 40% skipped dental care. In food insecure households with children, 21% of people reported times when their child couldn't access medical or dental c...

  Many thanks to the Ayer/Shirley Daisy Troop 63239 who donated boxes and boxes of Girl Scout cookies for us to give away at our next Saturday pantry session! Everyone loves a good Girl Scout cookie 💖

  Stone Soup Kitchen will be closed from Wednesday, December 24 until Tuesday, December 30.  We will reopen on Wednesday, December 31, and our dinner and pantry will resume on January 2 and 3 as usual.

WCVB article

  There was a fire this morning at Shepherd of the Valley, caused by the workers who were repaving the Cambridge Street parking lot. The entire area around our gray door, the entrance to both the kitchen and to the Saturday pantry, was affected as you can see in the pictures. As much as we love to see all of you, please don't make any deliveries to us this week (and probably not next week either) as we are having to work around not having access to our door. Thank you for understanding!   Unfortunately, we will not be able to have dinner this week, and we will only be able to have a very limited pantry service on Saturday. We'll have to see about next week. The good news in all of this is that although our friend Martha and the preschool teachers were there, the children were off this week! Everyone was safe, and that's what matters most. Our entryway was destroyed, but our freezers were undamaged. I was told that if the fire department had been delayed by a m...

The entire team that is responsible for managing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which supports approximately 6.2 million people across the U.S. in paying their heating and cooling bills, has been fired.   It just keeps getting better and better.  At Stone Soup Kitchen, we have many friends who have received help from LIHEAP from time to time.  One person in particular, I'll call him George, came to us for help with food for his family, and said that he was behind on his utility bills because of his wife's illness.  Some of you may know that even if you have health insurance, it doesn't pay for everything, and if you are also an hourly worker... well, you can see how this situation could snowball.  No income from your ill spouse, no income from you as you take time off for their medical needs, bills pile up -- rent, electric, gas or oil, medical costs -- and then there is this pesky need for food several times a day.   We ...

  Sitting here at my desk to write this letter today, I glanced out the window and can't even see the house next door to us through the fog that's settled in our wooded back yard. Normally this time of year, still being part of “stick season,” it's easy to see our neighbors, but not today! It's slowly lifting as I sit here, but it strikes me that I have a choice: Is it gloomy or beautiful? Which should I focus on? I am not an unrelenting Pollyanna by any means (those who know me will attest to that), so I have found it necessary these days to grab onto any positive turn of events that I can in order to keep going. I am sorry to have to start with the “gloomy” news today so that we can then move on to the practical matter of what some of our supporters are doing about it. Hopefully you will find much of that to be very positive...and probably even beautiful 😊 Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) made a third cut to food that our food banks were expe...

  Happy Spring everyone! I know that it doesn't yet fully look like Spring out there, but there are some early signs, including some brand new winter irises (Iris Reticulate) that I planted last fall. A picture is attached...it's not great because the wind just wouldn't quit, but at least you can see the pretty pattern on the petal. They're really small, about 6 to 8 inches tall. And they make me happy. Other things that make us extremely happy... A fun event which is coming up soon is Lin and Vinny M's famous hot cocoa stand at the Ayer Shop 'n Save parking lot. Free hot cocoa and glitter tattoos for all, from 10 to noon on Saturday March 29th . Lin will have a list of food items that we are collecting, but there is NO OBLIGATION to buy or donate anything. Just come and have some cocoa, and hang out with some pretty cool kids! We had a great visit from our friends at National Grid, who joined the shopping trip for the migrant shelter's communal ki...

  Happy St Patrick's Day, the day that everyone is Irish! I'm not, but just for today, I'll pretend. Mike is, so I'll be making corned beef tonight :-) These days, we have to get our fun where we can find it. I'm going to start with the fun and upbeat news today: we received donated Girl Scout cookies from the Shirley/Ayer Daisy troop. Speaking of things that everyone loves! It was extremely kind of them, and of course everyone who received some cookies was thrilled. Thank you, Daisies and Leaders! Our friend Laurie S put together some more of her kits for sprouting seeds (as in, sprouts for salads) and some refills for those who had already received one. Last fall, when she first had the idea, we didn't know if they would be popular or not, but we decided to give them a try. Well, they were very popular! That just goes to show that you never know if your own passion or talent will be something that others want to share in until you try. The ne...

 

 

  This program is only for people living in Ayer MA or planning to move there. If you're not in Ayer, check with your Town to see if you have a similar program! Look to see if you have an Affordable Housing Committee or an Affordable Housing Trust in your Town, and advocate for one if you don't.

  I did not choose to speak last night, because I felt that the many who did covered everything that mattered very well. Here is the letter that I sent to the governor and commissioner of public health today: *****   My name is Cyndi Lavin, and I'm the director of Stone Soup Kitchen, a hot meal and food pantry program located in Ayer. We serve anyone, from any town, with no questions asked. I am an extremely privileged person. I have a car, a partner in life who also has a car, a roof over my head, food on my table, and the ability to drive somewhere else to get medical care. Not so with all of my friends who come to join me for dinner and to get groceries. Those who come on foot to pick up their groceries also go on foot up to the hospital for medical care. There is no public transportation in this area to get to another hospital. They don't have enough money for groceries, so they certainly don't have the money for an Uber. Going by ambulance is obviously for eme...

  My letter to Governor Maura Healey this morning, concerning Nashoba Valley Hospital. I'll be glad to share the email and phone numbers with whomever wants to help:  ********* “Because the current funding for Steward during its bankruptcy is running low, and Massachusetts won’t advance the $30 million it’s committed before sales agreements are signed, Lopez said he had no choice but to approve the closing of Carney and Nashoba Valley by Aug. 31.” From the Boston Globe On a personal note, I cannot accept the scarcity mentality that is willing to give up these hospitals. Don't tell me that there's nothing you can do. One thing I've learned from my work at Stone Soup Kitchen's hot meal program and food pantry is to operate in abundance: when more people come, you build a bigger table. You don't shut down the program. As someone who voted for you and believed in you, I am astonished for the second time. First, the Leominster Birthing unit was allowed to c...

Can you imagine being homeless and/or extremely low-income, and finding out that the wonderful neighborhood hospital you've relied on -- because you can walk there -- is closing thanks to the insatiable greed of a CEO and his investors?  Steward Health Care System's leader, Ralph de la Torre, sold the land right out from under the hospital (among other things) and the hospital is bankrupt.  And it's closing.  de la Torre is under federal investigation, and a subpoena has been issued, but whether or not he will comply or rather decide to sit smugly on the $40 million yacht he purchased with his bonuses as the Steward hospitals went bankrupt in non extraditable waters remains to be seen. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steward-health-care-ceo-ralph-de-la-torre-senate-subpoena/ The nearby medical buildings where many of our favorite doctors, including primary care, cardiologists, endocrinologists, orthopedic surgeons, ophthalmologists, gynecologists, and many more has been spar...

  Another animal tranquilizer has joined xylazine to further contaminate street fentanyl: medetomidine  NPR article Image: Canva

  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.  

  I just got off the phone with Brittany Beaudry, our wonderful social worker who is coordinating the care of everyone, and she had some really great news for all of us. First of all, only a few people who have been living at the Inn longer term have left, for various reasons. The rest have been able to stay...there truly was room at the Inn! So don't believe for one more moment that anyone's needs are being ignored over there. Brittany is working with all of them, and is making appointments with all of the current resident families that need any help. That's what she was in the process of doing when she made the discovery of what the State was doing. She will also make sure that they know about food help that we can provide for them if they want it. As for the immigrants, they will be moving in gradually. They will not need food from us, but they will need household items, clothing, etc, especially baby things. Brittany will have a list, hopefully by the end of...

  We have been chosen by one of our community's wonderful businesses to receive a grant towards food for our pantry and our hot meal! The Bemis Community Investment Fund of the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts contacted us last week to let us know 💕 We are very grateful to Bemis Associates and to their Community Fund Committee. Bemis's commitment to community involvement runs deep, which you can see at the link above.