From the desk of Doug O'Brien
“It seems clear to me now that my mother did very sacred work in the kitchen. She presided over our dinner table and offered us a sustaining and life-giving sacrament, the product of her love and creative energy. Such work becomes scared, I now think, when we focus creative energy into doing something, or making something, that contributes to the health and healing, to the well-being and wholeness, of ourselves and others.” ~Sarah Hall Maney
When I first read these words, I was reminded of my own childhood. My own mother’s care for me made tangible in a warm cup of soup on a winter day. All of us have felt hunger pangs at one time or another. For most of us, when we’ve been hungry, we would get something to eat. But for one in ten Vermonters it isn’t that simple. When you’re a child and you’re hungry your mom gives you something to eat. But what if you’re the mom and you’re hungry too…and you have hungry kids, and there is no food? What do you do then?
Giving food, giving time, giving funds…these are creative, hopeful, and perhaps even sacred acts of kindness and concern for another. As you may have read in the newspapers or seen on television, this past autumn was one of concern for us at the Foodbank. Here in Vermont and in food banks around the nation, inventories were down substantially – driven primarily by greatly reduced contributions of USDA commodities – while at the same time, requests for food assistance were increasing. The numbers of families requesting food from our network partners had increased in 12 of 14 counties in Vermont. In some of our largest partner agencies, in Burlington and Brattleboro, the numbers of people being served increased 25 to 30 percent in just a few months.
On average, about two-thirds of the food provided to low-income people through our network partners - the food shelves, food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters – is provided through the Vermont Foodbank. So, when the Foodbank is low on food there is a domino effect making less food available to people in need in communities all across the state.
One of our responses to the food shortage was to put out a call to Vermont communities to support their local food shelf or pantry by donating time, funds and food. We asked that individuals and business alike reach out to community kitchens to ensure that no Vermonter went hungry.
Vermonters answered our call for help and the response was phenomenal and heartwarming. Food drives were organized at businesses and schools, grocery stores, churches and synagogues, banks, restaurants, and radio and television stations throughout the state. From this localized effort, enough food to provide more than 65,000 meals was donated throughout Vermont—in only a few weeks time – and cupboards once bare were filled again.
We all know that we are now in the midst of very difficult economic times. But I am encouraged and uplifted by the generosity of Vermonters and the strength of Vermont’s communities. I know that the 14,500 hungry Vermonters that will knock on food pantry doors and fill tables at community meals sites this week will be fed. To feed the hungry is indeed sacred work.
When you help us to provide food to a needy family, you help sustain the life of another, you help bring health and healing and wholeness in our communities. And, in your act of generosity and concern you help take the chill off a winter that may seem bleak and frightening to the most vulnerable of our neighbors.
Thank you for helping us fight hunger and feed hope this winter.
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