Follow up

"If we had just one month of the cost of this war in Iraq, we could fund a worldwide school lunch program, and the world might be more peaceful.." ~George McGovern

Remember the community garden at East Nashville Co-Op? Well, I ran by there the other day and although they were closed at the time, I couldn't resist a peek through the fence. Two of the three back rows are filled with tomato plants and everything seems to be coming along rather well. From a gardening standpoint, I'm pretty amazed since the dirt they started with was a little bit of an urban gardener's nightmare (glass, gravel, rusted scrap metal, etc.)

Just learning

About to start a new job in two weeks, Brandy and her three beautiful kids, returned to Nashville having tried and failed, to make a start somewhere else. The defining issue in her case was childcare. She had a great job but was still having to pay three hundred fifty dollars a week for childcare alone. A novice in the area of social services, Brandy came to the pantry this day, for the very first time, hoping to bridge the food gap until her new job begins.

Today's options

What's wrong with this picture? It may not be terribly obvious but the two overgrown zucchinis in the foreground are the only fresh produce in the building. Where food distribution is concerned (*), fresh produce can be tricky and pretty much requires the thoughtful planning and attention of a single gardener or volunteer shopper, willing to search for it on a given day. At Hamilton UMC, there's at least one member who donates tomatoes in the summer from their own garden but this only lasts a few weeks. In the remaining months of the year, recipients make do with whatever's available. For those wondering about how the emergency food box program works, each individual is allowed three visits in six month. Most often, boxes are packed with the number of family members in mind and the three visits can be used at any time within the six months. There are some situational variations based on location and the services provided within each agency but that's the basic guideline.

(*) Please be advised that what I know about food distribution is limited to three months and two weeks of study. I'm not entirely ignorant, but I'm certainly not an authority. Those voices would be a welcome addition here so if anyone out there has thoughts, ideas or corrections, please do speak up.

There is a great post (one in a series) at Tyson's Hunger Relief blog this week, it's called Art of the Cart--5. I hadn't heard of the Food Stamp Challenge before but what a great idea. I think everyone who hasn't already been challenged by hunger, should have a big spoonful of that, if for no other reason than to sharpen our perspective.

South Nashville

Elise Nollenberger records client information for emergency food boxes at
Hamilton United Methodist Church in Antioch.

Bus stop

I offered to bring the grocery cart back from the bus stop. Mr. Patterson was concerned that someone else might need to use it. On the short walk over there, we didn't talk about what brought him to this place or the ninety degree heat, or the fact that he'd had to not only ask for food but also for the bus fare to get back across town. We talked about dentists and Nashville drivers, the price of gas and the war.

Rose and Mr. Patterson, shopping for clothes

Mr. Patterson rode the bus over to Madison from different part of town. He got off the bus not really knowing where to go. Luckily, the second church he went to was affiliated with the food pantry and gave him directions to get there. He didn't know he'd get to pick out five pieces of clothing at the thrift store to go with the food box so, surrounded by women, he asked for their advice (smart man) on his choices and got plenty of answers. It ended up being a lot of stuff to haul back across town on a bus but Ed wasn't complaining; in fact he thanked every one, repeatedly.

New friends and old ones

Some years ago, Rose Nicks left a relatively fluffy white-collar job to run the Christian Cooperative Ministry in Madison.

"I'm a nicer person because of it", she says. "Before, I would look at the homeless people and I'd look at different people in the community and go: Why don't they get a job? Why don't they do something? but you never know what their story is. You just don't."

Just off Gallatin Rd.

Don't think for a second these ladies won't hook you up with a food box if you need it. And that's just the beginning. They run the Christian Cooperative Ministry in Madison. It's a food pantry and thrift store, supported by sixteen different churches in the surrounding community. Like everyone, they have some regular customers and some that are only temporarily needy or displaced. From left to right we have: Irene, Rose, Millie, Edyth, Irene, and The Captain, Flo.

Aaron

Aaron grew up in Memphis. He used to shine shoes at Warren's Barber Shop when he was a kid; went to school with Issac Hayes. Aaron joined the Army when he was old enough. They trained him to be a machine gunner and he went to sniper school right on the cusp of the Vietnam War. He missed combat, but not by very much. After the Army, Aaron went to school and ended up working in the morgue at Baptist Hospital. When that got dull, he did a turn in the Navy. The war was nearly over by then. After the Navy, Aaron filled a variety of positions including Plant Manager, bio-hazard courier, and these days, just two months shy of his official retirement, laborer. Every time I've ever seen him he has a perfect (double military) crease in his pants. I'd ask him if he irons them himself but I already know the answer.

Aaron and a host of other working people, usually miss the food truck when it comes. By the time they get home from work, there isn't any food left but they manage to get by somehow anyway.

Attention food bank experts: Wikipedia could use your help in refining their definition of the term: food bank.

Cookout on Sunday

Trish made dinner for about ten people yesterday afternoon. Barbecued ribs (on that little grill), baked beans, and potato salad. People started hanging around long before it was finished.

Smithville, UMC

Last week, as I mentioned before the holiday, I had occasion to go to Smithville, Tennessee, where people spoke highly of a food pantry volunteer there by the name of Betty Martin (aka my mom; don't worry it's only a little bit like The Twilight Zone). Betty helps out at the Smithville United Methodist Church and while she isn't the only person to make the place tick she plays a vital role in that it's her job to divvy up the food.

Like all the other pantry monitors (the ones I've met anyway), she has a pretty rigid system that appears to work beautifully. When it comes to box-, or in her case, bag-packing, they're all cut from the same cloth, these volunteers. They're typically reliable, super-organized, and happy to help. Betty is no different.

Food Truck Line

July 4, the day set aside to celebrate independence from tyranny, is also a time to remember that there are those who need to be freed from hunger and all the other ills of poverty.

~Stevie Lacy-Pendleton, Staten Island Advance

This is a picture of Trish's (from the previous post) urban garden. I took it a couple of months ago and now her tomato plants are taller than me. I think I have a sound file of her talking about it but I'll have to add it in later on.

Just a quick update this morning. I'm off on what should be a nice drive to Smithville, Tennessee. My mom works at a Second Harvest food pantry there. I'm not sure if it's legal to put her in my project or if it's some odd conflict of interest but you can guess what would happen if I went there and ignored her completely, right?

Also, on the business end of this page, now that we've managed to gather up a few regular readers, I'm (again) taking suggestions for a name change. Food for Thought is cool but way too common. The Face of Hunger has also been used repeatedly. While it will remain the name of the Second Harvest project, it seems a little bit limiting here on the blog where you might see for example, anything from a rogue jukebox to a wheelbarrow full of bricks. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments. If you want to be anonymous, that's fine. My only request is that we avoid names that are too sweet. Sweet has its place, but we're on a low-carb diet over here. Have a great day.

Neighborly

Trish and Jesse are neighbors and friends. They each have a room in local SRO housing. Of the two, he's more likely to be without food and she's more likely to see that he gets something; either from her own supply or from the food truck. Apparently, he's offered to take her out to Red Lobster when he gets his check but it's still in the planning stages and their conversation is pretty funny... listen



Thanks to both of them for letting me/us eavesdrop on the whole thing. I'd also like to thank Regina Hackett at Seattle PI's Art to Go, for sending a nice crowd of people our way since last Friday. This (below) is a photo of Trish and her daughter, taken when they lived in Germany, some forty years ago.

Rutherford County Food Bank

I spoke to a woman at the food bank yesterday (not the lady in the photo above, a different one) who moved to Tennessee to escape an abusive husband. Without a job, she found that no one would rent her a place to live. She and her son, stayed in a motel until the money ran out. Then along came her savior, a slum lord, who (in spite of the fact that she didn't have a job) offered to rent her a house on her credit card. Now, on top of the fifteen hundred dollar a month rent charge, and knowing she has no place else to go, he wants her to pay for repairs he's making to the place. She's still looking for employment, is educated and willing to do most anything.

Here, sent to us by a compassionate and health-conscious NYT reader, are:

The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating

Also, last month there was a great slideshow on wasted food by Jonathan Bloom in the New York Times. His blog, Wasted Food has gotten a lot of attention recently, and for good reason. We're incredibly lucky to have Nashville's Table to address this issue but the problem of wasted food continues throughout the country.

Horseshoe nails and whiskey (part 1)

Old James (who doesn't seem all that old) talks a little about the necklace he was given ten years ago, when he was homeless. Today he lives in SRO housing.

These days

Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. ~W.E.B.DuBois

Take all

Judy used to work third shift at Wal-Mart and then one day her husband had a stroke. From that point forward, misfortune came for both of them, in violent waves. The initial onslaught lasted about three years. He became a diabetic. She became a diabetic. He had vascular surgery - nine times. She became depressed and quit her job. He recovered. She had a heart attack. His back gave out. She had her leg amputated.
He died.

Miserable and angry, and convinced she'd never walk again, she sold her car one month, to pay the rent.

Now, ten months later, facing double bypass surgery, she's down to selling bricks. She asks a neighbor regularly, what point there is in living and the neighbor, try as she might, doesn't always have a good answer.




Judy, like Malea in an earlier post, recently received her second emergency food box.

Cannon County

Short Mountain Bible Camp, at the top of Short Mountain.




I set off in a white van Tuesday with two women from Second Harvest Food Bank. They were traveling to a couple of outlying counties to do site visits. Just for those who don't know, a site visit is when a Field Representative goes out to the partner agencies either to get them set up initially, or to generally see how they're doing. There's a little bit of an inspection but it's not nearly as stressful say, as a visit from the Health Department or the guy from Codes showing up. It's more like a check-up at the dentist but without the drilling.

We ended our day with an excursion to Short Mountain Bible Camp. They didn't have a site visit scheduled but were kind enough to let us visit anyway.

One question that lingered on our minds throughout the trip was: How do the people who live that far out in the country manage to support themselves (jobs being sparse and gas being four dollars a gallon)? Are there (there must be) rural poor families who are no longer able to afford the commute?

Road trip

Met this really terrific woman named Carolyn, in Cannon County yesterday. She runs a food pantry at the Center Hill Baptist Church, just at the base of Short Mountain. Her pantry is about the size of a tiny bathroom closet but thankfully, there's plenty of space in the room that surrounds it for a couple of freezers and a nice-sized kitchen and dining area. They hadn't quite finished the kitchen part yet because, as Carolyn said, and she's absolutely right, "Money doesn't last as long as it used to."



The photo below is Center Hill Methodist Church, est. 1962, which is situated a stone's throw away from Carolyn's pantry. They aren't related but the architecture matches the feel of this rural community.