St. Luke's Community House

These wheels were humming the entire time I was at St. Luke's Community House last Thursday. Between visitors, two volunteers (this day it was Jill Williams and Ted McKinney) bagged groceries, helped people to their cars, and sorted a truck load of food, all in one smooth motion. They might have taken a little break along the way, but if they did, I missed it. Visit St. Luke's blog here.

News: (8/26/08) Come the first of September, America's Second Harvest will be changing its name to Feeding America.

Bethesda Center in Ashland City

This is just a little annex at Bethesda where they keep furniture. The brick building next door (you can just see the edge of it), houses their food pantry and thrift store.

Patty, Sandy and Chris, part of Bethesda's dream team of volunteer/employees, on their way to lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Bethlehem Center

Here are just a few more shots from the Bethlehem Center's food pantry on Charlotte Ave. The food pantries are set up by zip code, for readers who may not know already. If someone needs food, they generally would go to the food bank in their zip code.

Those kids all go together. Aren't they great? They were so well-behaved it was scary. Of course, they weren't without supervision, but still. That's a crew.

Super Mom

Who cares?

Roy Reed checks in a long line of people at Bethlehem Center's food pantry last Thursday morning. I've noticed over the last few months how patient people are when they're waiting in such a line. There isn't the same huffing and puffing you might find in a long grocery store line.

EFB's, ready and waiting

I'm not sure when I last visited the Dickson Help Center. I think it was a little over a year ago. It isn't clear from this photo but they have maybe a third of what they had then. If that estimate is inaccurate, someone correct me.

Seth Doanes' backstage account of [his] CBS News story, A Family on the Edge is here.

Dickson Help Center Lunchroom

The New York City Hunger Blog is reporting some pretty good news for seniors here. In a similar nod to the value of nutritious meals... Tennessee Schools Serve Free Fruits and Vegetables

What supports a food pantry?

Very often, it's a thrift store.





Volunteers, Ursula Spence and Bobbie Somerville discuss the perils of moth holes, among other things, in a donated garment. I went looking for a website for them, didn't find one, but here's an article that mentions the Help Center. Good resources listed there at the end too if you happen to be needing help in Dickson County.



Jessica Donald (mentioned in the previous post)

Dickson County

People from the community leave donations and leftovers from their yard sales at the back door of Dickson Help Center. I should add: during business hours. The articles are then sorted by a brave woman named Jessica. Brave is appropriate for Jessica because as any thrift store sorter will tell you. There can be a little bit of everything in those bags and boxes. In her words, "Sort at your own risk."



Alley keeps tabs on volunteers, employees, and stray visitors at the Dickson Help Center.

Pick one

[meat freezer]

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.

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."