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.

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.