Mt. Zion, Mobile Pantry

Happy Anniversary 2

Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Happy Anniversary

Back in April, the Mt. Zion Baptist Church hosted a neighborhood block party on Jefferson Street. The weather wasn't all that cooperative but it was a lot of fun anyway. It all started when church members wanted to celebrate their pastor's one year anniversary. They asked him what he wanted to do and like all good pastors, he wanted to do it - whatever it was, for someone other than himself. He said he wanted to feed the people in the community. Not just with food. I'm paraphrasing there, I didn't hear him say it, somebody told me.

So they they started making phone calls. One of those phone calls was to Second Harvest, where they ordered themselves and their neighbors, a Mobile Pantry. Mobile Pantry is a truckload of food, delivered and distributed, at one fell swoop (sorry I couldn't resist that). These people packed five hundred boxes on a Friday night and delivered it to shut-ins and their neighbors, the next day. Not only did people get food, but they got access to services like United Neighborhood Health Services (their website is here) and others with their best interests at heart. As if that weren't enough, grown men and women were allowed, even encouraged, to dance out in the street. Well, actually, it was a parking lot. Believe me, it was all I could do to stay on my feet and take pictures.

The two ladies in the post prior to this one, they were there.

At first glance

Hunger is deceptive

So if I were to say: "One of these women owns four hundred hats and one of these women has run out of food", you'd have no trouble guessing which was which, correct?

Now take away the hat and the food box. The odds change dramatically. It's right in front of us but we can't see it.

In this country, and maybe others as well, hunger is hidden. We pass by it every day though. We bark at it in traffic and we get annoyed when it's in front of us at the grocery store, paying for a gallon of milk, with nothing but change. I think it's because we as individuals, don't always look beyond the surface. We see without thinking. What do you think?

Thanks to the lovely Sharon Rucker, right, and Debra Lyles, left, who by the way, really does have four hundred hats. More on her later :-) And thanks also, to Ed Nicholson at Tyson's Voices for Hunger blog for posting a link to this page yesterday on his site and to all the new visitors who've happened along in the last few days. Welcome.