Ride Along

For the last two weekends my wife Dorothy's non-profit organization Gathering Change Inc., has been wrapping holiday presents at the North Shore Mall in Peabody to raise money for local food pantries. Thanks to the kindness, dedication, and hard work of GCI's Board Members and volunteers as well as the outrageous generosity of holiday shoppers, the "Wrap for Food" weekends were a smashing success. Another critical part to the success of the weekends was the kind help and support GCI received from the North Shore Mall staff. The money raised at the event will be split up between food pantries in Beverly, Danvers, Salem, and Peabody.

Today, Dorothy let me take a ride along with her as she delivered money to St. Joseph's Food Pantry in Salem and Beverly Bootstraps. When we got to our first stop, St Joseph's Food Pantry, we found it to be a hive of activity.

Non-perishable food donations were being stored and stacked in milk crates. These items would later be used to build the sacks of food that waited patiently for folks to come in and take them home.

While Dorothy and VeAnne Campbell Pantry Director chatted about future opportunities to collaborate, I poked around, said "Hi" to folks that were working there and took some snaps. The energy, enthusiasm, and organized action of the place truly impressed me. I mentioned to Dorothy when we got back to the Accord that it looked like they weren't suffering as far as donations went. Dorothy quickly corrected me. She said that when the Pantry is open, the line for bags of food stretches around the corner. They serve around 2000 individuals a month. All the food sacks I had seen set up would be gone in very short order. The daily ongoing need for food is immense.

Our next stop was Beverly Bootstraps. BB is a great organization. Not only do they run a food pantry, they also run a thrift store, provide housing assistance, as well as youth and adult education classes. When we went in the front door, we were greeted by Sue Gabriel, Executive Director. Sue took us on a tour of the pantry area and graciously stopped to pose for a picture with Dorothy.

Sue told us that the need for food went up 35% in 2009. She pointed out to us that while it seemed like they had quite a bit of food on hand right now, that it would be almost gone by the end of January or mid-February.

Sue said that in the dog days of summer, the pantry shelves would likely be bare. She also told us that she is constantly uplifted and grateful for the generosity of folks in Beverly.

A few things struck me as we drove home together. First, I am so proud of Dorothy and all the folks connected with Gathering Change Inc. I think it takes a great deal of bravery to start down this path in our current economic climate. Secondly, the people that are running the food pantries are doing amazing, healing work in this busted up country. Lastly - the need for assistance is mind-bendingly enormous. Much more needs to be done, not only in the way of donations, but employment and housing as well.