Okay, I won’t dance around or sugar-coat anyone. The Cambridge Food Pantry, like so many other non-profit charities, is in trouble. So is just about every food pantry in the country. The country’s financial drama has landed here, for the hopefully coming future.
Today, I’m helping by adding the entire Cambridge Pantry Amazon Food List (now an Emergency Food List) as the day’s items. Please browse the list. Nearly half of these items are Amazon Bargains at very low prices. Take a look if you can. Send more to the pantry if you can.
I say no to empty food pantry shelves. It is not who we are.
For the first time in the year or so I’ve been working with her, Sarah says the items sought are all the Wish List items. She is running out of all of them. The food bank deliveries are suddenly drastically smaller and less frequent.
You may all be reading about the widespread government cuts to food relief, children’s lunches, and food pantries nationwide. Sarah closed her eyes and prayed it wouldn’t happen to this food pantry, which she has worked unbelievably hard to improve. But it’s here, at least for now, and it’s rough. In a nutshell, these people should never have to plead for the food they give to people experiencing poverty.
But this is our world; the tests of our hearts and souls are about our mercy and charity. We accept it or hide. I vote to take life as it comes.
Right now, just about everyone on the planet is asking each of us for money and more money.
We are doing the same thing.
But I go to the food pantry almost every day, and this is the right cause for me, and I hope for many of you. I see the humans who do it and volunteer without pay, and those who receive the help. It is a wonderful thing to see—the best of humanity. I know where the money goes—no bureaucrats in between, just us and them.
“The truth,” she told me at 5 a.m. this morning, “is that the stock of everything on our Wish List is very low.” I asked her which items were the lowest: “All of it,” she said. “The Regional Food Bank is suddenly putting limits on many items. We’ll get one case, not the three or four we requested. One case will usually last a day. Any item would be appreciated, “she asked me to tell the Army of Good. We could say “better choice.”
It is a choice; we have to decide if we can help, for how much money, and for how long. No pressure, we each get to do what we choose and respect each other’s choices. I’m in; this episode is just getting started, and I don’t believe all these wealthy, money-crazed billionaires, politicians, presidents, and premiers won’t find a way to get out of it.
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These are all Amazon items. For those who prefer to show elsewhere, these items can be purchased anywhere and mailed to the Cambridge Food Pantry, 59 S. Park Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. You can buy almost all of these items at your local food market.
There are 17 items on the Cambridge Pantry Amazon Wish List: You can see them here. I’m not into gloom and doom or guesses about the future. I’m only interested in helping the customers at the food pantry get enough to eat for themselves and their families. Donors have to do what is best for them. Please help if you can, and bless you just as much as you can, and/or cafe.
For some of us, this crisis is new. For the customers of the food pantry, it can be one of the most difficult times in their lives. I’m in. I hate to see those empthy stories boxes and shelves.
The items are wide ranging and desperately need now: Cheese garlic biscuit mix; Herbal Tea, Facial Tissues; Paper Towels, Velvet Shells & Cheese Shell Pasta; Cheddar Broccoli Pasta Sides; Huggies Vitamin E Baby Wipes; Chicken Noodle condensed soup; Petite Diced Canned Tomatoes, Baby Diapers Size 6; Ben’s Original Jasmine Rice; Del Monte Pineabble Tidbits in $100% juice; New England Coffee Breakfast; Campbell’s Chunky Pot Pie Soup; Canned Pasta with meatballs; Spaghetti and Meatballs.
At least half are AMAZON BARGAINS, From $2 to $ 5.
We’ve put our hearts and souls into the Cambridge Food Pantry, just as they put their hearts and souls into this good work. And it has paid off.
Jesus would be beaming, and so would Maimonides and Mohammed. Peace be upon him and this food pantry. We sure are not giving up. I’m sure we will do our best for as long as possible. No one can do more. Charity is the bond that keeps those with nowhere to go together. The pantry customers have nowhere to go.
You can access the Wish List anytime by clicking here or on the green button at the bottom of my blog pages.
I sent some food and hope it helps.
Thank you for all that you do. Our local food bank, clear across the country, is also experiencing low stock with all the cuts. It is heartbreaking. At least we are in a rural agricultural community, so, as things warm up, we will have fresh produce, both from donations and from our own food pantry vegetable garden. Working together, we can at least put a big dent in food insecurity.