Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  Good morning everyone! What a beautiful weekend, and there are many beautiful things to tell you about too. I've highlighted in yellow the volunteer opportunities below, so if your email reader supports that, it will make it easy to see how you can get involved with our vibrant community. Our Friday dinner community continues to grow, and we find ourselves in need of some more volunteers. We also have a couple of slots opening up for Saturday morning pantry volunteers and another Wednesday morning packing crew member. If you have any interest in being a part of our potluck, packing, or pantry community, please leave a private comment here with your email address! The annual August food drive at the Ayer Police Station is starting this coming weekend. You'll be able to drop off donations there all August, in addition to the usual spots at Ayer Shop 'n Save and at the pantry at specific times. The advantage of the Police Station is its availability around the clock! A...

Good morning! What a gorgeous weekend, the type that all of us except for extreme heat-lovers just live for. Mike and I are going to try to extend the weekend a little bit this afternoon after I get all of the paperwork done. This particular part of the paperwork...writing the weekly letter...is pure joy for me, since I get to share with you all of the amazing things that you are enabling us to accomplish in the lives of our friends and community. There are actually so many small (and a couple of big) things to share with you today that this whole letter could be an episode of One Small Thing! So I'll leave off the title and just tell you as much as I can remember about the blessings we've experienced this past week. Ayer Police Department is going to be holding the annual food drive for us in the month of August, where you can drop off pantry items at the Police Station. In addition, APD and Ayer-Shirley-Groton Rotary Club will be holding a Fill-a-Cruiser event...

  Good morning! We had an extremely busy weekend, but it was also very satisfying in that we were able to help a LOT of people. The farm owned by the Boston Area Gleaners is ramping up for the season, and we received our first full shipment of produce. Nonetheless, we needed more than we had. The last two people to visit the pantry on Saturday had to be satisfied with gift cards to go purchase their own produce. So even though no one went away empty-handed, it wasn't ideal. Some of the surge in our numbers is probably due to our being closed on the 4th, but we shall see! If you'd like to help us out with produce, have questions about your own gardening efforts, or need a hand with harvesting, don't forget about our gardening guru Rachel! She and her team can help you out. You can contact her at rachelsunflower01432 at gmail dot com We super-appreciate our friends Andy, Bethany, and others at Shepherd of the Valley who share produce with us each week from their...

  Good morning! I hope you were all able to spend some time with family and friends this past weekend, and that you did everything you could to keep cool. We worry about some of our friends when the temperatures soar like they did, but just a reminder...you can tell anyone you know who is at risk that the police stations and/or fire stations usually have cooling rooms. You can double check with your own town before the next wave arrives so that you will have the information available to share. We now have a date, place, and vendor (woot!!) set for our First Annual Cops and Cones event. It's scary when you have to pick a date and place first, get that all set, and then aren't sure if anyone will have the date free. August 19, 7 to 8pm, the first ballfield at Pirone Park, catered by...(fanfare please)...the amazing West Side Creamery of Acton! They use an old refurbished milk truck! Isn't that adorable? So please put that date on your calendars now and plan to com...

Good morning! What a relief today is from all of the recent heat and humidity. And pollen...yikes! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, especially after the humidity broke on Sunday. We had our "end of the year" picnic at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Ayer on Sunday, and the breeze and the shade made it a lovely event. I have a couple of reminders this morning, and a couple of news items to bring to everyone's attention.   Reminder #1: Nashoba Associated Boards of Health nurses will be doing wellness checks, including things like checking blood pressure and answering questions, Friday June 19 from 4 to 5 pm at Stone Soup Kitchen. No appointments needed. Everyone welcome. No fees.   Reminder #2: Our friend Jin H will be on hand Saturday morning, June 20, from 10 to noon to help you make sense of all those numbers the bank sends you each month. No registration or appointment necessary: just stop in, have some coffee and a donut, and get your qu...

  Good morning! It's such a gorgeous day, and not too hot for my taste, so Mike and I are going to go see if we can find a nice spot outdoors to hike a bit and then sit and read. I hope you'll each have a chance to enjoy the outdoors this week and to decompress from all that is negative around us. We had a very productive week at Stone Soup Kitchen, and there are a few things to catch you up on. Even though it's almost two months away, I want to let you know about an event that we are planning with our Ayer Police Department: Cops and Cones! Do you like ice cream? Do you like chatting with our police officers? Would you be interested in helping out with this event by scooping some ice cream and chatting with people? Email me back and we'll get you on the volunteers list. We are looking at the 3rd week of August, probably the 19th or 20th. More on all of this when we get a firm reservation. This past Wednesday, we delivered a stack of Stone Soup books to t...

  Good day! I only have a few things to catch you up on this week. The first is a reminder that our friend Rachel K will be going to speak to the Ayer Select Board tomorrow evening, Tuesday June 2, about her Garden Gleaners. The meeting starts at 6pm at the Ayer Town Hall, and the Public Comment agenda item is near the very beginning, so please drop in if you can! Next, our friend Jin H has offered to do a drop-in workshop on Saturday June 20 during our regular pantry hours, 10 to noon. She will be assisting people in learning how to balance bank statements...and your checkbook if you still use one (I do!). She will help you make sense of all those numbers the bank sends you each month. No registration or appointment is necessary: just stop in, have some coffee and a donut, and get your questions answered! Everyone is welcome and there are no fees. Parking is next to Shepherd of the Valley Church, on Newton Street. Walk up Washington St to the first blue door and come ...

  Hello all! I'm late with the letter this morning (afternoon), because I wanted to go to our town's Memorial Day gathering at the Town Hall. It was beautiful, moving, and meaningful, as I fully expected it would be. It was a great reminder to me how much I love this country that I was blessed to be born in, and how much I want to work to make it a better place. We were really fortunate last Friday to have our friends Cindy, Angela, and Laurie cook dinner for all of us. Winner winner, chicken dinner! The dinner crowd has swelled, and we are extremely happy to find that we have some Veterans and some more folks who just need some company coming each week. If you would like to help with the cooking sometime, just email me and we'll talk about what it entails! We have a couple of topics that we would really like to be able to offer as workshops. Do you have any of these skills and would you be willing to share with others? **check balancing, avoiding scams, usin...

  Good morning! Welcome to summer, a month early. It would have been nice to have a little more spring first, but... Recently several people have asked for information about our wonderful cookie bakers, so I'd like to profile them this week. Our friend Laurie S coordinates all of the bakers, who sign up when they want to, with no obligations for baking more than they want. Laurie has an online system for sign ups, and people who've chosen to bake that week bring their cookies to her house on Friday or early Saturday, and she packages them up safely in boxes for us and drops them off to the pantry. This is a great way to volunteer with us for people who prefer to be behind-the-scenes, so to speak. We absolutely adore our bakers, who bring such joy to our guests at the pantry and sometimes at the dinners too! I've told this story before, but for those who are new to our mailing list, we've had people actually cry when they learn that they are receiving homemade ...

  Good morning! Whether or not you've ever been a mother or father to a child of your own, I bet almost all of you have served that function in the life of another person – physically, emotionally, or spiritually – so I just want to take a moment to thank all of you for the love that you have poured into others over the years. What you do for others truly makes a difference. There are only a few things to catch you up on this week. We received a bag of sandwiches from Alltown Fresh on Saturday morning, and they were an extremely welcome addition to our Coffee Bar. Despite the rain, we had visits from many of our beloved friends and were able to give them something nutritious for lunch. Thank you to Chef Samantha and Alltown Fresh, and thank you to our faithful volunteers Nicole, Hunter, Connie, and Atlas who pick up produce and sandwiches for us each Saturday morning! * * * * * One Small Thing We got a start on our call for seeds through two donations this past week! ...

  Good morning good morning! Every week I think that there will be nothing to tell you in the newsletter, and every week there are new people who enter our lives as well as old acquaintances who pop up to say hi and to do something nice for the community. Make sure you check out One Small Thing below...it's really sweet! To start, Ayer Community School, with whom we share the building, did a food drive for baking supplies for us in the month of April. I've attached a picture of what they left for us last Wednesday. Many of our pantry guests are just thrilled to get Baking Bags from us so that they can add some joy to the lives of their children (and spouses, and friends...). Thank you, ACS! Next, we were given a really interesting suggestion during our Partners' meeting in January, and we've decided to give it a go this growing season. Our friend Rachel K thought it would be good to offer to pick up excess produce from our gardening friends around our area, a...

  Good morning! We had a very eventful week, all good, and there is lots to catch you up on. The first bit of good news is that the weather finally cooperated, and our wonderful friends Mike H and Bob M risked life and limb to climb tall ladders and hang our sign on the Washington Street side of Shepherd of the Valley Church. If you've seen the sign near our door off the Cambridge Street side, the new one is identical. The greatest challenge besides climbing up those ladders was to create a frame for it and find the right type of hooks so that it won't damage the siding on the building. Thank you Mike! Thank you Bob! Another lovely thing that happened last week was that we had a visit from some of our friends in the Ayer Rotary, and they brought us birthday tins for us to share at the pantry. You might remember that our friend Carla, Sarah, and crew brought birthday tins in early March. Well, these new ones came just in time as we had given all of those away...lots o...

Happy Easter and Chag Pesach Sameach to all who celebrate, and to everyone, enjoy the reduced price chocolate this week!  We had a fairly small pantry service on Saturday, because I believe that many people assumed we'd be closed.  Hopefully they were able to get all they needed the week before.  Have you seen the prices in the grocery store lately?   There are some things to catch you up on this week, which are all good news, and are only the beginning of the results from our January Partners' Meeting.  Our first quarterly contribution to the Ayer Library has been made, to help them supplement the food they keep on hand for unaccompanied teens who come after school.  We feel this is an extremely important step for us, a way that we can extend our partnership with the Library and serve more of the population that wouldn't be necessarily coming to us.  The Library is a safe space for teens after school, and we feel very good about supporting them....

Good morning all!  I truly hope you had a great weekend.  It was colder than I was hoping, for sure, but all over our yard and throughout town, I see the signs of spring.   Our friends Cindy and Angela prepared the potluck dinner for everyone last Friday!  It was delicious, featuring a chicken and a vegetarian lasagna with a terrific white sauce.  The dining room was full!  If you are interested in getting involved in this potluck, just email me back.  We can always make room for more friends! I was going to share with you about the results of our Board meeting and which activities/areas for service we decided to expand into, but I'm still waiting on the input from a few people, so that will have to wait until next week.  However, that doesn't mean that we haven't already launched into a couple of initiatives that we all agreed on.  We are moving forward with several partnerships, including with the Ayer Library, some of the area churche...

  Good morning everyone! My phone tells me that it's supposed to reach 60 today, but I'm having some serious doubts about that. That's ok though...I have so many things to tell you about today, my files are bursting out even if the flowers aren't exactly there yet. Last week, along with many of my friends at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Ayer, I learned about a college behind bars program. The specific program mentioned was through Tufts University, but many other colleges offer classes as well. Anyway, Tufts partners with an organization called Partakers, and volunteers there join teams to become mentors. These are not so much academic mentors as they are friendships and encouragers: people who will get to know an incarcerated person and encourage them on a monthly basis. I think it's an amazing program, and I wanted to share the info with you in case you find it intriguing: https://www.partakers.org/ Ken Burns, on PBS, did a documentary on the ...

Good morning everyone...yawn, stretch, try to get back on track...stoopid time change! I love having more light in the evening, but my body just hates the time change. Anyway, I hope you all had a good weekend and are looking forward to some milder weather this week! At SSK, we are moving ahead with our plans to form more partnerships in order to serve more people. This week and next, we have several meetings with organizations that also have the space and the desire to sponsor workshops, classes, meet-ups, and the like. Many of you know that in the past we have held these types of meetings in the building where we were located. That was fine, but we tended to mostly only see the same people that we were already reaching. We would like to help even more of our community to expand their relationships across the typical divides that can keep people from socializing (and help with their food needs, if necessary), so we are continuing to look for two things: Like-minded businesse...

Good morning, and happy beginning of meteorological Spring!  Under all that snow, wonderful things are happening, but in New England we know that there's more to get through before Spring comes for real real :-) I had a slightly different plan for this letter today, but late last night I came across the title of an article from Psychology Today that immediately caught my attention.  "We've Lost the Spaces that Foster Friendship."  I believe most of us are already aware of that.  For decades, people have been pulling back from joining clubs and other organizations, from church membership and from bowling leagues and community choirs.  Covid made it much worse, and so many of us retreated into our own little worlds, helped along by online "communities."   These gathering spaces outside our homes are called our third spaces (first = home, second = work), and there are fewer of them all the time.  When the great withdrawal began, lots of third spaces ...

Good morning (barely) everyone!  It's later than usual for me to get this letter out, but I have a good excuse...Mike and I stayed up to watch the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and mourned that it's over for another 4 years.  Happily though, the Summer Olympics will be along in just 2 years.  And then, of course, this morning we woke up late to Snowmageddon, and I turned over and went back to sleep! There are a couple of things to tell you about today.  Last week I was privileged to go and speak to the members of St Vincent de Paul in Westford (located at St Catherine's).  Some of the members of the Littleton chapter at St Anne's came too.  These are people who are deeply committed to serving our communities, and it was an honor to share some of Stone Soup Kitchen's history, philosophy, and current operations with them.  I wish I had thought to snap a picture while I was there! But I did remember to get some pictures when Kim and Mike P cam...

Good morning everyone!  Last week was chock full of the Olympics for Mike and me.  I love watching much of the world coming together to celebrate excellence in sports.  I know that not everyone is as thrilled by the sportsy-ball stuff (To quote my grown children! Whose are they, anyway?) as we are, but we just love every minute of it. In other news, Stone Soup Kitchen has also been celebrating the excellence shown by our Partners, Participants, and Allies.  When I sent out the list last week that we generated at our meeting in January, I didn't know that some people were going to take that as a challenge!  While the board of trustees of SSK will be deciding what major directions we will be following, several people looked at the smaller things on the list and said to themselves (I'm imagining...), "Heck, I can do that right now."  Thus we ended up with special treat bags for the Super Bowl and also themed bags for Valentine's Day!  So a special thank ...

Hiya hiya! I miss you all when I'm gone for a week! I hope you are all doing well, and that you have been able to avoid house and health-related problems during this stretch of snow and extreme cold. I have a lot to share with you today, and most of it is included in a pdf (if you are reading this online and wish to see a copy, please leave a comment on this blog post with your email address...it will not be posted!). This is the result from our meeting in January with all of you, our Partners, Participants, and Allies. It's not too late to weigh in on any thoughts you have for us. If you were able to attend the meeting, you might notice that I didn't include the topic of "Keep some money liquid and wait for the crash" on the report. That's because we are fully aware of how important it may end up being, for us to have ready funds available, and that is already a part of our plans. Other things to share this week: we received a report from the Boston Area ...