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