Went to the Salvation Army lunch again today. The lady in the kitchen said they were a bit short-handed, but the servers were just as gracious as ever.
There wasn't any pizza ready when E. and I walked in, so we got some coffee and sat down to wait.
She told me that the Salvation Army is good people. They have a food pantry open twice a week and they just give you a bag and let you pick what you want, whereas at the Food Bank in town, you stand in a small lobby holding a number, waiting to be called and handed two bags of whatever they have on hand. She said, "At least at the Salvation Army you can get stuff you're actually going to use."
She says that sometimes she can hear the volunteers in the Food Bank, talking about the person who is waiting for their allotment. ("Oh, it's her. Just give her one of those. She won't know the difference." "It's them again. Weren't they here last week? Don't give them two of those, just one.")
E. was happy today, because she'd had good news. Her granddaughter has been born, healthy, 7 pounds something. It happened yesterday in a town about an hour's drive away which, when you have no car, might as well be a day's drive. E. said that she couldn't sleep the night before, 'cause she had a weird feeling, like something was wrong. So she sat all day, nervously eating chocolate covered crackers (from the Salvation Army pantry), waiting for the phone to ring. And then, finally, her son had called with the good news. He asked when she'll be coming up to see the baby.
She was wondering whether to give her granddaughter her first dress, or her first doll when we got called to come to the counter to get our pizza.
R. was there. It's so good to see him doing so well. He's been sober now for over 5 months and he's a whole 'nother person. He keeps asking me if I know anybody who needs help with anything. He doesn't need to be paid, just wants to help, like a lot of these people. He said he's going to bring some apples to Dinner this week. We'll see. Last week after lunch I went home with a couple of packs of butterscotch pudding that he asked me to mix up for him. He said he's not good at following directions. I just think that his 'love language' is 'acts of service'.
M. and M. had ridden over to lunch with us as well. Their friend, who they're still crashing with, was going to come, but he got some work. He does yard work for people around town. He loves to work outside with his hands. At Dinner he always goes for the salads and fruit first. Early on when we'd just started serving these meals and people hadn't got to know us very well, this guy would literally come in and fill his pockets with salad and fruit by the handful and then head straight back out the door. It was like trying to feed a bird out of your hand. He just wouldn't stick around. He does now.
I talked to C.L. at lunch, too. She's been really stressed lately. She has a history of having lots of pets and a while ago, someone anonymously phoned the Humane Society and (falsely) accused her of neglecting them. The Society sent someone around to check things out and they decided to take away several of her animals, which is like taking her children. She loves these pups and cats and rabbits like babies. They also told her to change some things around.
A couple of weeks later they came back and repeated the process. She lost a few more pets this time and had a few more edicts pronounced.
Things settled down for a while, and then this week someone anonymously phoned the Society and told them (falsely) that she'd been keeping dead kittens in her room. So they came again. This time they were less polite, despite the fact that there were no dead kittens in evidence, and spent several hours haranguing her. By the end of the day, she was so stressed she had pains shooting down both arms and legs.
Hopefully that will be it for a while. I don't want to see her having a heart attack.
Next Tuesday will be the last lunch for the summer. The woman who brought us our Jello said it was too bad that, just when they're starting to get a good crowd, they're stopping. She shrugged and said that they'll just have to start all over in the fall, building from small numbers up.
We did the same thing last year with Dinner. We shut down except for monthly events. Problem is, people are hungry in the summer, too. Except some of us have been doing this every week for almost two years and we don't want to get burned out.
It's a conflict we're trying to resolve. We've appealed to the local churches for help, but in the past that has brought nothing but frustration. If I were cynical, I'd say that you can't get a church on board with anything unless you can convince them it was their own idea and they can put their name on it somehow. If I were cynical.
So, we'll see what happens and try to make it work.
r
There wasn't any pizza ready when E. and I walked in, so we got some coffee and sat down to wait.
She told me that the Salvation Army is good people. They have a food pantry open twice a week and they just give you a bag and let you pick what you want, whereas at the Food Bank in town, you stand in a small lobby holding a number, waiting to be called and handed two bags of whatever they have on hand. She said, "At least at the Salvation Army you can get stuff you're actually going to use."
She says that sometimes she can hear the volunteers in the Food Bank, talking about the person who is waiting for their allotment. ("Oh, it's her. Just give her one of those. She won't know the difference." "It's them again. Weren't they here last week? Don't give them two of those, just one.")
E. was happy today, because she'd had good news. Her granddaughter has been born, healthy, 7 pounds something. It happened yesterday in a town about an hour's drive away which, when you have no car, might as well be a day's drive. E. said that she couldn't sleep the night before, 'cause she had a weird feeling, like something was wrong. So she sat all day, nervously eating chocolate covered crackers (from the Salvation Army pantry), waiting for the phone to ring. And then, finally, her son had called with the good news. He asked when she'll be coming up to see the baby.
She was wondering whether to give her granddaughter her first dress, or her first doll when we got called to come to the counter to get our pizza.
R. was there. It's so good to see him doing so well. He's been sober now for over 5 months and he's a whole 'nother person. He keeps asking me if I know anybody who needs help with anything. He doesn't need to be paid, just wants to help, like a lot of these people. He said he's going to bring some apples to Dinner this week. We'll see. Last week after lunch I went home with a couple of packs of butterscotch pudding that he asked me to mix up for him. He said he's not good at following directions. I just think that his 'love language' is 'acts of service'.
M. and M. had ridden over to lunch with us as well. Their friend, who they're still crashing with, was going to come, but he got some work. He does yard work for people around town. He loves to work outside with his hands. At Dinner he always goes for the salads and fruit first. Early on when we'd just started serving these meals and people hadn't got to know us very well, this guy would literally come in and fill his pockets with salad and fruit by the handful and then head straight back out the door. It was like trying to feed a bird out of your hand. He just wouldn't stick around. He does now.
I talked to C.L. at lunch, too. She's been really stressed lately. She has a history of having lots of pets and a while ago, someone anonymously phoned the Humane Society and (falsely) accused her of neglecting them. The Society sent someone around to check things out and they decided to take away several of her animals, which is like taking her children. She loves these pups and cats and rabbits like babies. They also told her to change some things around.
A couple of weeks later they came back and repeated the process. She lost a few more pets this time and had a few more edicts pronounced.
Things settled down for a while, and then this week someone anonymously phoned the Society and told them (falsely) that she'd been keeping dead kittens in her room. So they came again. This time they were less polite, despite the fact that there were no dead kittens in evidence, and spent several hours haranguing her. By the end of the day, she was so stressed she had pains shooting down both arms and legs.
Hopefully that will be it for a while. I don't want to see her having a heart attack.
Next Tuesday will be the last lunch for the summer. The woman who brought us our Jello said it was too bad that, just when they're starting to get a good crowd, they're stopping. She shrugged and said that they'll just have to start all over in the fall, building from small numbers up.
We did the same thing last year with Dinner. We shut down except for monthly events. Problem is, people are hungry in the summer, too. Except some of us have been doing this every week for almost two years and we don't want to get burned out.
It's a conflict we're trying to resolve. We've appealed to the local churches for help, but in the past that has brought nothing but frustration. If I were cynical, I'd say that you can't get a church on board with anything unless you can convince them it was their own idea and they can put their name on it somehow. If I were cynical.
So, we'll see what happens and try to make it work.
r
Comments