So, I've come to the conclusion that eating healthy on SNAP involves using some of the other assistance available. The food pantry and soup kitchen are great sources for healthy ingredients and meals, but there still is a way to personally coordinate all of these sources for the best impact.
One common tendency for people on SNAP is to use their foodshare benefits right away and then seek out the pantries and soup kitchens. I've done this myself and I can completely understand why people make this mistake. The SNAP money doesn't go that far, and leads to limited menu options. When the beginning of the month rolls around again, it is an opportunity for different menu choices, so we blow through the SNAP money because everything in the store looks good. For me, budgeting and planning go right out the window at the sight of fresh fruit and vegetables and a meat option that I haven't spent the entire last week eating.
The best way to get the maximum health benefits from SNAP is to look at the other sources you seek out and combine these resources throughout the month instead of always at the end. Most food pantries will let you visit once a week, so plan that into your month. Visit there before shopping at the grocery store so you don't buy duplicates and have more to spend on healthy options. I recommend that even at the food pantry you have your shopping list. That way, you are an active participant in your own healthy choices. Don't just grab food and plan to use it later. The worst thing you can do to other food insecure families is take something you won't really use and end up throwing it away when someone farther back in the line would put it to good use.
If you tend to run out of food by the end of the month and spend the entire last week eating at The Community Table, plan those visits throughout your month. If you normally eat there five times at the end of the month, plan at least once a week to eat there. This allows you to work these visits more into your schedule instead of being at the mercy of the serving schedule they offer. Also, The Community Table of Eau Claire posts their day's menu on the answering machine, so if they are serving something you don't like, you can go another day that works with your schedule.
Whether you are on SNAP or not, just making a few changes to the way you use your food resources throughout the month can give you more control over your schedule and your food dollars and can take some of the stress out of food insecurity.
Showing posts with label Community Table. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Community Table. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Human Dynamo Creates Meals for Community Table
I have met the human dynamo and I am awed! Her name is Tami, and she is the kitchen manager at The Community Table in Eau Claire. She can easily be underestimated because she is a little thing with a pixie haircut and some colorful tattoos; but she is, in reality, a small bundle of energy who is usually working on three or four tasks at one time and thinking about six or seven more for the near future.
Tuesday, I went with her for her run to Target to pick up the produce, bread and grocery items that were removed from the shelves because they were no longer saleable. Target has high standards for what they want their customer's experience to be, so if an apple has a bruise, they remove it. If one strawberry in a package is moldy or one orange in the package is bad, the whole package gets removed.
Through a partnership that Target has with Second Harvest Heartland, the food removed doesn't go directly into a landfill--it goes to those organizations who work with food insecurity. Feed My People food bank is under the umbrella of Second Harvest Heartland and The Community Table is a partner hunger relief agency with Feed My People; so through those channels, they created a direct partnership between Target and The Community Table of Eau Claire to reclaim the non-saleable food.
While Tami was going through the reclaimed food to choose what she needed for upcoming menus she was answering all of my questions, but I could see that the whole time she had menu possibilities running through her mind. The bruised pineapples could have the bad parts cut off and be added to the good parts of the apples and strawberries...squeeze the juice of some of the limes and oranges on top, and it will be a tasty, nutritious fruit serving that is easy for the volunteers to make.
There are so many elements to planning a menu for The Community Table. Tami has to know what meat she is going to have available from Feed My People or has in the freezer. Then, she will do a recipe search to find a way to use that meat and multiply it out so it serves about 125 people. She may have to modify some of the spices a bit if she doesn't have one or two that are included in the recipe. She usually doubles the amount of vegetables in the recipe so the guests are getting the healthiest meal possible and adds grated carrots to a lot of the tomato dishes to increase nutrition and flavor.
She watches the store ads to see what produce is in season, because in about a week, that is what she will be getting a lot of, so she will be able to incorporate that into the meal planning. If the stores are running ads on broccoli and cauliflower, she can usually bet on getting some soon and can maybe make a soup or side dish to include them. Seasonal fruits like blueberries and strawberries will be added to the fruit salad to give the guests a summer treat.
Tami also makes sure the meal is healthy and the guests are getting the maximum nutrition. She is very strict about making sure that meal provided always offers at least 1/2 cup fruit, 1 cup of raw veggies, 1/2 cup cooked veggies, 3-4 ounces of protein and one or more grains.
When meal planning, Tami has to take into consideration if there is a serving team signed up to help and what the experience level is for that team. If there is a team that is new or is all individual volunteers, she will do a menu that can mostly be prepped ahead so they aren't intimidated by the recipes and the experience. If it happens that the team works well together and ends up with extra time, they clean salad and fruit or wash potatoes and tomatoes for upcoming menus. The whole process reminds me of working in a restaurant kitchen and doing the prep work and light cleaning in between the orders; it is very efficient.
I do want to add, though that she does not do it alone. She plans the meals and regulates the inventory, but without great on-site coordinators and staff members, the plans would all fall apart. The on-site coordinators work with the volunteer teams, watching over them and guiding them in the process of making and serving the menu that Tami has planned.
Tami works really hard to make sure that the guests and the servers all have a great experience and will want to come back; and as someone who has now been on both sides of the serving counter there, I can say she has succeeded.
Tuesday, I went with her for her run to Target to pick up the produce, bread and grocery items that were removed from the shelves because they were no longer saleable. Target has high standards for what they want their customer's experience to be, so if an apple has a bruise, they remove it. If one strawberry in a package is moldy or one orange in the package is bad, the whole package gets removed.
Through a partnership that Target has with Second Harvest Heartland, the food removed doesn't go directly into a landfill--it goes to those organizations who work with food insecurity. Feed My People food bank is under the umbrella of Second Harvest Heartland and The Community Table is a partner hunger relief agency with Feed My People; so through those channels, they created a direct partnership between Target and The Community Table of Eau Claire to reclaim the non-saleable food.
While Tami was going through the reclaimed food to choose what she needed for upcoming menus she was answering all of my questions, but I could see that the whole time she had menu possibilities running through her mind. The bruised pineapples could have the bad parts cut off and be added to the good parts of the apples and strawberries...squeeze the juice of some of the limes and oranges on top, and it will be a tasty, nutritious fruit serving that is easy for the volunteers to make.
There are so many elements to planning a menu for The Community Table. Tami has to know what meat she is going to have available from Feed My People or has in the freezer. Then, she will do a recipe search to find a way to use that meat and multiply it out so it serves about 125 people. She may have to modify some of the spices a bit if she doesn't have one or two that are included in the recipe. She usually doubles the amount of vegetables in the recipe so the guests are getting the healthiest meal possible and adds grated carrots to a lot of the tomato dishes to increase nutrition and flavor.
She watches the store ads to see what produce is in season, because in about a week, that is what she will be getting a lot of, so she will be able to incorporate that into the meal planning. If the stores are running ads on broccoli and cauliflower, she can usually bet on getting some soon and can maybe make a soup or side dish to include them. Seasonal fruits like blueberries and strawberries will be added to the fruit salad to give the guests a summer treat.
Tami also makes sure the meal is healthy and the guests are getting the maximum nutrition. She is very strict about making sure that meal provided always offers at least 1/2 cup fruit, 1 cup of raw veggies, 1/2 cup cooked veggies, 3-4 ounces of protein and one or more grains.
When meal planning, Tami has to take into consideration if there is a serving team signed up to help and what the experience level is for that team. If there is a team that is new or is all individual volunteers, she will do a menu that can mostly be prepped ahead so they aren't intimidated by the recipes and the experience. If it happens that the team works well together and ends up with extra time, they clean salad and fruit or wash potatoes and tomatoes for upcoming menus. The whole process reminds me of working in a restaurant kitchen and doing the prep work and light cleaning in between the orders; it is very efficient.
I do want to add, though that she does not do it alone. She plans the meals and regulates the inventory, but without great on-site coordinators and staff members, the plans would all fall apart. The on-site coordinators work with the volunteer teams, watching over them and guiding them in the process of making and serving the menu that Tami has planned.
Tami works really hard to make sure that the guests and the servers all have a great experience and will want to come back; and as someone who has now been on both sides of the serving counter there, I can say she has succeeded.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
SNAP Challenge--final week of the first month
Yesterday, I planned to go to the St Francis Food Pantry as an actual shopper, but my plans didn't work out. I spent the morning picking wild berries and the time just got away from me. That was my only opportunity to work the food pantry in with my schedule, so I will have to make the food I have on hand last one more week.
I still have plenty of oatmeal and pinto beans and enough rice for another week. I will have enough berries to get some vitamins and the green onions and arugula are coming nicely in the garden and there is a nice-sized Chicken of the Woods mushroom growing out of a stump in my yard. I have about six radishes left and most of the leaf lettuce that I bought at the farmers market. Celery, carrots and cabbage round this all out.
The only thing I'm really missing at this point is the meat. I have three eggs left and two and a half chicken breasts. I'm thinking chicken fried rice will be one of the main menu items. With the carrots and celery, it will look good and taste good. I also have the pasta left, so that can make a nice hotdish or pasta salad. Menu planning is critical, I'm finding, to stretching food dollars. I haven't connected in person yet with the nutrition educators at the Extension office, but when I do, that is one of the things I want to ask them about--how do they teach meal planning and budgeting and healthy eating?
One thing that has helped me stretch my food this month is the free meals at The Community Table of Eau Claire. After today, I will have eaten there four times this month. I also had a great meal yesterday at my niece's bridal shower. It's fun when the women in couple's families get together. In my family, the girls share a lot of laughter and wisdom (or wise remarks?) to start the couple along on their journey. All of the successful marriages I know have a liberal amount of laughter in them. Humor can go a long way to soothing the minor slights and the unintentional emotional bruises.
As for the meal, there was ham and beans and pickles and taco salad and pasta salad and a lot of desserts. I must have eaten a half jar of my sister's homemade pickles all on my own. And the pasta salad had vegies in it! Real vegies, like broccoli and cauliflower and carrots--ones that crunch! I was in heaven! The dessert section didn't appeal to me at all. I'm not really a sweets person, but after all of the starchy foods this month, I just have no desire for sweets.
That is one of the biggest things I've learned on this challenge--fresh fruits and vegetables are so costly that it is actually cheaper to eat unhealthy. I've heard that part of the reason is that we subsidise the corn growers and wheat farmers, so things with corn, corn syrup and wheat have some of the cost offset so they cost us little. I don't know if it is true, but maybe a visit to the local Ag office could shed some light on this. I wonder if there are any farm subsidies for perishable goods? What does the government do for those farmers? There must me some system in place for using all of the crops so they don't go to waste, right?
I still have plenty of oatmeal and pinto beans and enough rice for another week. I will have enough berries to get some vitamins and the green onions and arugula are coming nicely in the garden and there is a nice-sized Chicken of the Woods mushroom growing out of a stump in my yard. I have about six radishes left and most of the leaf lettuce that I bought at the farmers market. Celery, carrots and cabbage round this all out.
The only thing I'm really missing at this point is the meat. I have three eggs left and two and a half chicken breasts. I'm thinking chicken fried rice will be one of the main menu items. With the carrots and celery, it will look good and taste good. I also have the pasta left, so that can make a nice hotdish or pasta salad. Menu planning is critical, I'm finding, to stretching food dollars. I haven't connected in person yet with the nutrition educators at the Extension office, but when I do, that is one of the things I want to ask them about--how do they teach meal planning and budgeting and healthy eating?
One thing that has helped me stretch my food this month is the free meals at The Community Table of Eau Claire. After today, I will have eaten there four times this month. I also had a great meal yesterday at my niece's bridal shower. It's fun when the women in couple's families get together. In my family, the girls share a lot of laughter and wisdom (or wise remarks?) to start the couple along on their journey. All of the successful marriages I know have a liberal amount of laughter in them. Humor can go a long way to soothing the minor slights and the unintentional emotional bruises.
As for the meal, there was ham and beans and pickles and taco salad and pasta salad and a lot of desserts. I must have eaten a half jar of my sister's homemade pickles all on my own. And the pasta salad had vegies in it! Real vegies, like broccoli and cauliflower and carrots--ones that crunch! I was in heaven! The dessert section didn't appeal to me at all. I'm not really a sweets person, but after all of the starchy foods this month, I just have no desire for sweets.
That is one of the biggest things I've learned on this challenge--fresh fruits and vegetables are so costly that it is actually cheaper to eat unhealthy. I've heard that part of the reason is that we subsidise the corn growers and wheat farmers, so things with corn, corn syrup and wheat have some of the cost offset so they cost us little. I don't know if it is true, but maybe a visit to the local Ag office could shed some light on this. I wonder if there are any farm subsidies for perishable goods? What does the government do for those farmers? There must me some system in place for using all of the crops so they don't go to waste, right?
Friday, July 5, 2013
SNAP Challenge Personal Blog: Too much soup
In order to make the meat stretch, I've been eating a lot of soups and stews. Chili, stew, beef soup. This would be great, but I wasn't wise enough to purchase enough vegetables. So, my soups and stews are sadly lacking the nutrition they should have. And that's the thing--it isn't whether or not a person can survive on only 116.50 a month (the average Wisconsin SNAP amount in 2012), it is whether or not a person can eat healthy meals for only 116.50 a month.
I've already had two meals at The Community Table and am signed up to volunteer again this weekend. There, I've been getting a balanced meal with nutrients and fresh fruits and vegetables. They still have their full flavor and nutrition. Really, the meals there are incredible!
As I said yesterday, I have less than eight dollars left to spend for the next two weeks. I've got enough oatmeal and rice to make it and I'm good with the baking supplies like sugar and flour. If I'm not wasteful, the bottle of oil and the remainder of butter will last out the two weeks. Sometime this weekend, I'll post what I've purchased and what I have left.
In another week, I should be able to start to harvest baby lettuce leaves from my garden and a couple of hot peppers that were on the plants when I bought them. The onions are coming in nicely, and I should be able to add some green onions to the mix. The berries surrounding me are starting to turn a bit pink. They will ripen within the next few weeks. I've already asked my neighbor if I can pick berries on his land, so I'll have something for the freezer.
I'm lucky...in a couple of weeks, I will be surrounded by good food in nature. The normal SNAP recipient, though, can't just go to the country to pick berries. Transportation is a huge concern as well as childcare. There aren't any bus routes that run out here and someone needs to watch the kids to keep them out of the poison ivy.
I've already had two meals at The Community Table and am signed up to volunteer again this weekend. There, I've been getting a balanced meal with nutrients and fresh fruits and vegetables. They still have their full flavor and nutrition. Really, the meals there are incredible!
As I said yesterday, I have less than eight dollars left to spend for the next two weeks. I've got enough oatmeal and rice to make it and I'm good with the baking supplies like sugar and flour. If I'm not wasteful, the bottle of oil and the remainder of butter will last out the two weeks. Sometime this weekend, I'll post what I've purchased and what I have left.
In another week, I should be able to start to harvest baby lettuce leaves from my garden and a couple of hot peppers that were on the plants when I bought them. The onions are coming in nicely, and I should be able to add some green onions to the mix. The berries surrounding me are starting to turn a bit pink. They will ripen within the next few weeks. I've already asked my neighbor if I can pick berries on his land, so I'll have something for the freezer.
I'm lucky...in a couple of weeks, I will be surrounded by good food in nature. The normal SNAP recipient, though, can't just go to the country to pick berries. Transportation is a huge concern as well as childcare. There aren't any bus routes that run out here and someone needs to watch the kids to keep them out of the poison ivy.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
SNAP Challenge...two weeks in
Well, I'm two weeks into my SNAP Challenge and I've got $7.96 left for the rest of the month and I don't want to spend it. I'm afraid that I'm going to need some last minute ingredient and not have the money to get it.
Fear must be a big part of the life of someone who really is living a life of food insecurity. I can always call it quits and I still find it stressful as hell! Real sleep is a thing of the past and that is making concentration a chore. If I can't concentrate, I get frustrated and snappish. I'm tired all the time and feel as though I'm living life underwater. Moving my limbs takes more effort than before--like there is a force working against them.
I don't want to go to St Francis Food pantry as a shopper. I just sort of feel like that is the final admission that I can't do it on my own and I'm a damned independent person! Yes, I realize that I've already accepted free meals and coffee from The Community Table, but that seems different somehow. Food pantries are for poor people, after all. With all of my recent work learning about food insecurity, I'm learning that I have stigma that I need to examine. Why am I afraid to go to the food pantry? Am I afraid about what I may feel? What I may learn about myself?
Fear must be a big part of the life of someone who really is living a life of food insecurity. I can always call it quits and I still find it stressful as hell! Real sleep is a thing of the past and that is making concentration a chore. If I can't concentrate, I get frustrated and snappish. I'm tired all the time and feel as though I'm living life underwater. Moving my limbs takes more effort than before--like there is a force working against them.
I don't want to go to St Francis Food pantry as a shopper. I just sort of feel like that is the final admission that I can't do it on my own and I'm a damned independent person! Yes, I realize that I've already accepted free meals and coffee from The Community Table, but that seems different somehow. Food pantries are for poor people, after all. With all of my recent work learning about food insecurity, I'm learning that I have stigma that I need to examine. Why am I afraid to go to the food pantry? Am I afraid about what I may feel? What I may learn about myself?
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
SNAP Real Life experience
Last night I ate at The Community Table as a guest rather than as a server. It was a strange experience for me. I was nervous and almost talked myself out of it several times. I even almost drove past when I saw how busy it was. I knew that if I did, though, that meager bit of groceries that I have left for the month just wasn't going to cut it.
I was a late straggler, so I was the only person in line. There was a table there with a woman and a notebook. I thought she was going to ask my name just like at the food pantry, but she was just making tic marks counting how many people had been served. So, there was a slight pause for me and I got a little embarrassed not knowing the routine.
I stepped to the counter and the first group I encountered asked what I wanted as far as hot food. It was very similar to a school cafeteria. I got the Italian meatballs and carrots Au gratin. I moved down the counter and got my tossed salad and fruit salad and declined the bread and butter. Utensils and napkin next...grabbed a banana...and looked for a place to sit.
That's when I felt really weird for the first time. There was a roomful of people who were laughing and talking; I felt like the new kid in school. So, I did like the new kids do and found a table that was almost empty. The gentleman who I was sitting with and I did not talk. I hid myself behind eating my meal.
I looked around and saw some familiar faces. I've done retail work and have waited on some of these people. I started to relax. I wasn't really alone; like the new kid in school, I was just lonely in a crowd.
I settled into one of my favorite activities--people watching. I was getting some odd looks from the regulars. "Who's the new kid?" their faces were saying. I did the Midwestern slight upturn of the mouth and nodded to the ones who made eye contact. There wasn't any hostility in their eyes as if I didn't belong--just curiosity.
There wasn't any piano music this time, but the conversations made a music of their own. Each voice lent a bit to the melody and the background music was of laughter. That was the thing that threw me--there was so much laughter! Didn't these people realize how hard their lives were? What's with all the laughter? Kids were playing with each other as if they didn't have a care in the world. Parents were joking with their friends about sports and relationships and other life stuff. Old men were making googly eyes at babies to make them laugh. Older couples were lingering over a cup of coffee and fondly watching the chaos. It was normal. It was just such a normal event.
I wanted to be a part of the pulse of this community. I wanted to be part of the love and friendship that they shared with each other over a meal. I wanted to know the little family squabbles that kept some apart from others. I wanted to know the inside jokes that caused some to say one or two words and laugh. I wanted to be one of them.
I finished my meal and brought my empty tray to the dishwasher's area. I took my banana with me for the road. I left still feeling weird--but smiling.
I was a late straggler, so I was the only person in line. There was a table there with a woman and a notebook. I thought she was going to ask my name just like at the food pantry, but she was just making tic marks counting how many people had been served. So, there was a slight pause for me and I got a little embarrassed not knowing the routine.
I stepped to the counter and the first group I encountered asked what I wanted as far as hot food. It was very similar to a school cafeteria. I got the Italian meatballs and carrots Au gratin. I moved down the counter and got my tossed salad and fruit salad and declined the bread and butter. Utensils and napkin next...grabbed a banana...and looked for a place to sit.
That's when I felt really weird for the first time. There was a roomful of people who were laughing and talking; I felt like the new kid in school. So, I did like the new kids do and found a table that was almost empty. The gentleman who I was sitting with and I did not talk. I hid myself behind eating my meal.
I looked around and saw some familiar faces. I've done retail work and have waited on some of these people. I started to relax. I wasn't really alone; like the new kid in school, I was just lonely in a crowd.
I settled into one of my favorite activities--people watching. I was getting some odd looks from the regulars. "Who's the new kid?" their faces were saying. I did the Midwestern slight upturn of the mouth and nodded to the ones who made eye contact. There wasn't any hostility in their eyes as if I didn't belong--just curiosity.
There wasn't any piano music this time, but the conversations made a music of their own. Each voice lent a bit to the melody and the background music was of laughter. That was the thing that threw me--there was so much laughter! Didn't these people realize how hard their lives were? What's with all the laughter? Kids were playing with each other as if they didn't have a care in the world. Parents were joking with their friends about sports and relationships and other life stuff. Old men were making googly eyes at babies to make them laugh. Older couples were lingering over a cup of coffee and fondly watching the chaos. It was normal. It was just such a normal event.
I wanted to be a part of the pulse of this community. I wanted to be part of the love and friendship that they shared with each other over a meal. I wanted to know the little family squabbles that kept some apart from others. I wanted to know the inside jokes that caused some to say one or two words and laugh. I wanted to be one of them.
I finished my meal and brought my empty tray to the dishwasher's area. I took my banana with me for the road. I left still feeling weird--but smiling.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
SNAP Volunteer Day...and a free meal, too!
I'm stuffed! I ate way too much, and I ate every bit of what was on my plate. It was the best meal I had all week, and it was free! Did I mooch off family or drop in on friends? No. I just did a volunteer day over at The Community Table in Eau Claire. If you've read my earlier posts, you know that the volunteers and staff at The Community Table cook and serve the meal, eat with the community members who come for the meal, and then clean up the mess after. It's pretty much like working a potluck in the basement of the Lutheran Church; but the menu is planned, it is on the first floor, and there are members of all religions and traditions working and being served.
By the time I got there, stations were set up in the kitchen and different projects were happening in different areas. One station was working on chopping vegetables for the Ramen noodle salad, a station was working on cleaning and drying lettuce for tossed salad, and one station was busily dicing eggs for the egg salad. I was quickly dispatched to make the dressing for the ramen noodle salad and was given a young helper named Zach to be the ramen noodle master. His job was to open the packets of ramen and bust up the noodles. We called it "rage against the ramen."
There is no time wasted and no food wasted in that kitchen. Kim guided us through the recipes, the serving and the cleanup with minimum fuss. We even had some time to prep some fruit for the Sunday meal and clean some potatoes for the Monday meal. Between sharing the labor, we shared a lot of laughter. The mouths were moving as fast as the hands--it was like preparing a meal with an extended family of strangers.
There was a man who played the piano in the corner. He came with binders of music and went from one song to another without taking much of a break between them. At first, I thought there was a radio in the dining area, then I realized it was just one man. He was fantastic! He must have played for about an hour. Then he just packed up his music, got a tray of food, and sat down to eat. Another man took his place at the piano and started plunking out a blues melody. It was wonderful!
After the line dwindled down to stragglers, a few stayed to serve and the rest of us caught our meal. That is when the reality of The Community Table sets in--you get to see where we as a nation are failing people. I discovered that poverty has no race. It has no age. It has no gender. Poverty can strike any one of us. I sat there thinking that if I didn't have insurance, I would be one health crisis away from being on the other side of the counter. What if I had a condition that manifested itself behaviorally and I couldn't afford my medication? I could be the woman saying, "Don't talk to me! Just trouble! Just trouble!" I could be the parent there with my cognitively disabled child getting her a healthy meal.
Without a decent job with decent insurance, I could be the person who had just finished my meal, brought my plate back to the counter, packed up all my worldly belongings, pulled my hood back over my head, and went back out in the rain.
By the time I got there, stations were set up in the kitchen and different projects were happening in different areas. One station was working on chopping vegetables for the Ramen noodle salad, a station was working on cleaning and drying lettuce for tossed salad, and one station was busily dicing eggs for the egg salad. I was quickly dispatched to make the dressing for the ramen noodle salad and was given a young helper named Zach to be the ramen noodle master. His job was to open the packets of ramen and bust up the noodles. We called it "rage against the ramen."
There is no time wasted and no food wasted in that kitchen. Kim guided us through the recipes, the serving and the cleanup with minimum fuss. We even had some time to prep some fruit for the Sunday meal and clean some potatoes for the Monday meal. Between sharing the labor, we shared a lot of laughter. The mouths were moving as fast as the hands--it was like preparing a meal with an extended family of strangers.
There was a man who played the piano in the corner. He came with binders of music and went from one song to another without taking much of a break between them. At first, I thought there was a radio in the dining area, then I realized it was just one man. He was fantastic! He must have played for about an hour. Then he just packed up his music, got a tray of food, and sat down to eat. Another man took his place at the piano and started plunking out a blues melody. It was wonderful!
After the line dwindled down to stragglers, a few stayed to serve and the rest of us caught our meal. That is when the reality of The Community Table sets in--you get to see where we as a nation are failing people. I discovered that poverty has no race. It has no age. It has no gender. Poverty can strike any one of us. I sat there thinking that if I didn't have insurance, I would be one health crisis away from being on the other side of the counter. What if I had a condition that manifested itself behaviorally and I couldn't afford my medication? I could be the woman saying, "Don't talk to me! Just trouble! Just trouble!" I could be the parent there with my cognitively disabled child getting her a healthy meal.
Without a decent job with decent insurance, I could be the person who had just finished my meal, brought my plate back to the counter, packed up all my worldly belongings, pulled my hood back over my head, and went back out in the rain.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
SNAP Challenge field trip: Learning about the Community Table
Today, I sat down with Rachel from the Community Table and what I learned is too much to write about on one blog post, so I will give you an overview of the organization and go more in depth with some other aspects in later blogs.
The Community Table in a nonprofit organization whose main mission is twofold:
1) They serve meals to those who need food or community. (I want to interject here that there is no income requirement to eat at The Community Table. If you are lonely and just want human interaction and a really good meal, they are there. It is so much more than a soup kitchen!)
2) They educate the public on nutritional needs of the community. (Another personal aside…This education extends toward the client as well as the volunteers as well. When one is taught to cook and eat nutritional meals for themselves and for others, one learns to make better food choices.)
The Community Table has a small staff, but they rely on volunteer teams of (hopefully) at least six people from the community to cook the meals and do the serving and clean up after. There is a cost for each team to prepare a meal at The Community Table. The minimum suggested donation is $100 and eight gallons of milk. There was a time, when the church and civic organizations that would send teams to The Community Table would have to plan their own meal and do their own shopping; but over time, having Tami, the kitchen manager, plan the meals and provide everything but the milk was found to work better.
You see, the Community Table is able to get fresh produce and other food donations from local business and get food at reduced cost from Feed My People Food Bank. No hassle for the volunteer team to try to think up a menu and an incredibly nutritious, incredibly delicious meal prepared on site. The money the team donates then goes to pay for the costs of rent, utilities, etc. For those of us who work a full-time job but still want to volunteer, this works out so much better!
In the summer months, it is hard for The Community Table to find volunteer teams. People get busy with vacations and the kids are off from school. Hunger doesn’t take a vacation, though. What better learning experience for your kids than to go together with a couple of other families and form a volunteer serving team. After the serving is done, the volunteer team is encouraged to sit down with the community members and staff.
This interaction with each other is one of the really great things about The Community Table. There is a magic that happens when people get together over a meal. Barriers come down and the social stigmas go away. We are just people coming together and showing some loving kindness. And like we all know from any church dinner in any church basement in the world, food is an incredible way to nurture.
Survived a week on the SNAP Challeng...lost ten pounds
Well, I did a week! I survived, but I've purchased food for 4 weeks; so I have another three weeks to go. Can I make it to the end of the month without spending any more money? I will do it the same way someone who is on the system does it and I'll take you with me on the journey.
The other side to this is that I lost ten pounds in the first week. You see, my goal on the SNAP challenge is to eat healthy food and see how far I can go with it. Since I need to ration my food, it doesn't go far. As of today, I am heeding the advice of the people at Human Services, Rachel at the Community Table, and Emily at the food bank--I will be taking a multivitamin for the duration of my time eating within the challenge.
I visited with Rachel at the Community Table this morning. I'll blog more about it later--my head is spinning with the amount of information that I received. There is no one post that could do any one of these organizations justice. I got my first assistance beyond SNAP today. Rachel sent me home with some coffee. Food may equal love in many cultures, but coffee equals camaraderie.
The other side to this is that I lost ten pounds in the first week. You see, my goal on the SNAP challenge is to eat healthy food and see how far I can go with it. Since I need to ration my food, it doesn't go far. As of today, I am heeding the advice of the people at Human Services, Rachel at the Community Table, and Emily at the food bank--I will be taking a multivitamin for the duration of my time eating within the challenge.
I visited with Rachel at the Community Table this morning. I'll blog more about it later--my head is spinning with the amount of information that I received. There is no one post that could do any one of these organizations justice. I got my first assistance beyond SNAP today. Rachel sent me home with some coffee. Food may equal love in many cultures, but coffee equals camaraderie.
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