Pantry Man

I think the sign actually said Pantry Monitor. Whatever it says, volunteer, John Caruthers, is it. John packs and distributes emergency food boxes at the East Nashville Co-op. One of his legs was in a cast the day I visited so here in this shot, he was taking a little break, having just packed about twelve boxes before the doors were opened.

Cedar Seniors

Looks pretty tame doesn't it? In truth, the Cedar Seniors Center (say that three times fast), in Lebanon, Tennessee wasn't serving lunch when I was there but it was a lot like being at someone's house. Someone with a pretty big dining room, that is. I guess they had room for about forty people. There was a jukebox too, with a painting of The Last Supper hanging right next to it. For obvious reasons, The Last Supper is pretty popular in places where people gather to find food. It is so popular in fact, that I'm adding a category for it here.



Bankruptcies Rising Among Seniors, from the New York Times

Cinnamon and Sid

Sid was a pretty ordinary guy, until about twelve years ago. He drove a tractor-trailer truck for a living and had a house, a family and a couple of cars. One night he came home from work and while he was busy making himself a sandwich, an intruder knocked him out cold in his own kitchen. He woke up a month later in the hospital and nothing since then, has been quite the same. The doctors, he said, called it medical Bi-polar. Instead of his mood swinging over a period of weeks or months though, Sid's mood can change from minute to minute. They used to call me Five-minutes, he says. I'd come by and stay for a few minutes and next thing you know, I'd be mad as hell or crying like a baby - over nothing. I usually just go on home after that happens", he says. "I'd rather them call me Five-minutes" he says joking, "than to call me Crazy".

Sid has no transportation of his own but he occasionally gets food from the Nashville's Table truck despite the fact that much of it (sweets and bread) aggravates his diabetes.

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.

Kitchen table

There won't be a lot of the touting of fund-raisers on this page as that isn't the goal here, but occasionally if I run across something big that's particularly painless, I'll let you know. As such, for the next two weeks, Kroger is Bringing Hope to the Table, where the purchase of certain clearly marked items, garners a donation to your local food bank. Easy.

This photo was taken when I rode on the Nashville's Table truck with Alvin. For those unfamiliar with it, Nashville's Table rescues excess perishable and prepared food and delivers it around town to people who need it.

Salad dressing Crouton moustache

Kids Cafe; April

Bakery

"Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when man made. It breeds anger, social disintegration, ill-health and economic decline.."
~ UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Mission control

"My daughter says I should stop pointing at people when I talk. She says that means I really want them to listen. You know, you spend your life telling your kids what to do and the next thing you know, they're telling you." - Mrs. Elsie Smotherman, volunteer

In the photo, Mrs. Smotherman is speaking to (and pointing at) Mr. H.R. Brown, who along with his wife has been volunteering at East Nashville Cooperative Ministry for approximately nineteen years.

Bag lunch

Volunteers at East Nashville Cooperative Ministry on Main St., prepare twenty-five bag lunches for the homeless, four days a week.

A day's work

The thrift store at Gallatin C.A.R.E.S., among other things, helps to support their food pantry. While this pile of donated clothing might look insurmountable to the untrained eye, the staff assured me it would be organized and gone within a day or two. And, they weren't kidding.

Long-time friends

Nancy Franklin and Ruth McCullen, Volunteers at Gallatin C.A.R.E.S..

Transportation

Mr. Harper

It didn't take long to figure out that Mr. Harper had stories. There were knots tied in the straps of his overalls and an eagle on his baseball cap. He was wearing high-end sneakers and keeping an eye out for a new-used pair, he said. He lives at a nearby nursing facility but thanks to the kind women at Gallatin C.A.R.E.S., a community food bank and thrift store, he still gets to go to work every day, helping them organize the piles of hangers.

Mr. Harper loves to sing "at church or just anywhere", he says. He sang all the verses of Roll Jordon the first time we met and then again two weeks later, on request. He still likes to shoot a little basketball too, much to the chagrin of his nurses.

(Note to the the Titans: Some one of you guys with four hundred pairs of shoes really ought to take a pair to Mr. Theodore Harper at Gallatin C.A.R.E.S. That man deserves an awesome pair of shoes, you'll know why in a minute.)

Here are a few words from him, and a good bit of the song.

Lunchmates

Wendy Overlock, Program Director of Loaves and Fishes, stands for a picture with friend, Barbara Raper.

Breaktime

Construction worker, Robert Wallace at Loaves and Fishes

Before the serving line at Loaves and Fishes

Maurice

I caught up with Maurice Gordon at Loaves and Fishes on Wednesday afternoon. He said he asked someone if it was alright to play the piano and they told him it was fine so long as he actually could play. It's safe to say that a number of people were mesmerized. Maurice has fallen on hard times and currently resides at the Mission.

Kid's Cafe