Walking the Walk

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching." — St. Francis of Assisi

A friend recently posted the above quotation on his Facebook page, and it so succinctly explained the issues I’ve been struggling with for the past few months, and what I want to express as we enter a new year.

As many of you know, Carroll & I are very active at and its ministries, particularly the compassionate ministries. ’s Deacon’s Cupboard, an emergency food pantry, distributes food that feeds more than 500 people every month. That’s a LOT of food, usually measured in tons. It takes time, muscle, and money to make the cupboard work. Every three months, we rent a 22-foot truck and go to a warehouse to pick up our allotment of Federal food — what used to be called “commodities” years ago. We never know what we’re getting until we get there — and we rejoice when we see pallets of shelf stable milk, tuna, and peanut butter. Yes, this food is on pallets that weigh enough to squash you, so erase that picture of carrying in a bag or two of groceries from your imagination. Nope, it takes able bodied men to do this job! In fact, our deacons purchased a pallet jack to keep at the church, to streamline this operation further. I have photos of our men heaving pallets of food up our handicapped ramp on that pallet jack — we joked that they were training for the Jamaican bobsled team.

Food donations come in from schools, scouts, Post Office, local companies, etc. filling in where the Federal food leaves off. Parishioners bring in requested items (most recently it was toilet paper). We also receive some grant money from local grocers to purchase food at the Maryland Food Bank. Panera and Mars both donate bakery items. In addition, we spend about $2,000 per month on protein to make sure that folks really do have what they need. All of this food has to be picked up and inventoried, packed and readied for pick-up. The baked goods have to be repackaged. By the time the Cupboard opens on Wednesday evening there are hours and hours of work behind those neatly packed bags. On Wednesday evening it takes a minimum of three volunteers to operate the cupboard. What I’ve described is one small food ministry. A completely different group of volunteers operate Martha’s Meals, a soup kitchen, open on Thursdays at .

The number of volunteer hours needed to meet the needs of our poorest neighbors is staggering. What I’ve described addresses only hunger. Homelessness and homeless prevention are much thornier issues, requiring an astounding amount of resources. (I’ll write about the challenges of helping the homeless community in another post).

I must admit that over the past few months I’ve become a little annoyed at the number of people who are quick to point out civic problems, such as hunger and homelessness, but do little or nothing to help solve those problems. To date I’ve bit my tongue and kept silent, but that’s wrong too. It is my hope that each and every one who reads this post will get involved in solving one or more problems in our community during 2012. Can you imagine? Wow. As Louis Armstrong sang, “What a wonderful world it would be.”  

The needs in our own community is great, and there are pockets of folks struggling to meet those needs. Roll up your sleeves and hoist a few bags of food. It’s cheaper than going to the gym and provides exercise for the soul too!

Just as a start, here are some suggestions of food ministries that can use volunteers:

GRACE PLACE
Union Avenue
Havre de Grace , Maryland 21078
(410) 939-2107
Open every Tuesday 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
A free lunch and bag of groceries are provided.

Martha’s Meals
50 E. Bel Air, Ave.
Aberdeen,  MD 21001
(410) 272-0896
Services: Provides free hot lunch, and other resources

Kitchen Door

615 Congress Avenue 
Havre de Grace MD 21078 
(410) 939-2525 
Emergency Food Pantry

The Deacons Cupboard
50 E. Bel Air Ave.
Aberdeen, MD 21001
(410) 272-0896