Better Than Day Care!

With school in recess, summer has seen a jump in the number of children coming to Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen. Families sometimes take up half the dining area, and volunteers love to interact with smiling and giggling kids.

At the same time we are seeing more young folk wanting to volunteer at the soup kitchen.

Last Wednesday, for example, when we served 90 guests, three children were busily helping to serve drinks and preparing trays.

Alyssa Sharp, 12, who was all smiles at the beverage station, wouldn’t let a guest get by her without asking what he or she wanted to drink.

Her mom, Tammy Sharp, was in the kitchen helping to prep items for the trays. Tammy is on recess, too, since she is a second grade teacher in the Utica School District.

It was Karina Zabko’s third day volunteering. The 11-year-old, who was helping to set up trays, is the niece of kitchen volunteer-supervisor Joanne Lockwood.

“She wants to keep coming,” notes Joanne.

The youngest volunteer was MacKenzie DeRyder, 9, who had been there every day for two weeks.

The daughter of a friend of the family, MacKenzie accompanies Joanne to West Side Kitchen, where “she makes salads and helps with preparing trays,” and when she returns home, she “evangelizes” her mother and grandparents about volunteering.

“She prefers to come here instead of going to day care,” Joanne laughs.

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P.S. Help!

Donna and Bob Oderkirk, the volunteer “chefs” who supervise the nighttime food preparation, are putting out a plea for more volunteers to help out on Wednesday evenings.

“Tonight in the kitchen we made 549 sandwiches and 19 gallons of soup,” Donna reports. “Bob sliced all the meat. We prepped the celery and carrots…We really need some new volunteers as the same 10 people show up every week. I am afraid we are going to get burned out.”

In addition to the Oderkirks, those evening volunteers are: Tom and Josie Abounader, Ann Longo, Gordon and Kathy Morrock, Ann Furner, Tony Weber, and Rosemary Tamer.

To volunteer, or for more information, email Donna, or call her at 315-725-0516. You can also volunteer online.

Numbers Tell a Shocking Tale

Deacon Gil Nadeau has become an advocate for our soup kitchen guests. He met with staff at the Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL), and this past Wednesday RCIL sent an outreach team to Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen to see the need first hand.

The team did a survey of 62 of the guests, and 10 actually filled out an RCIL questionnaire, with five of them accompanying staffers back to RCIL for follow-up assistance.

“This has been a very humbling experience for all of us,” one RCIL staffer told Deacon Gil.

She shared the results of the survey. Of the 62 guests interviewed:

-- 49 (or 70 %) needed employment.
-- 41 (66 %) needed help with food.
-- 40 (65 %) needed clothing.
-- 33 (53 %) needed assistance with transportation.
-- 21 (34 %) needed medical help.
-- 17 (27 %) needed shelter.
-- 14 (23 %) expressed the need for counseling.
-- 13 (21 %) needed help with the cost of utilities.

While the numbers confirm our belief that we are serving the homeless, the jobless, and the working poor, it’s still shocking. At least 17 of our guests are living on the streets. At least 49 do not have jobs. And 21 need medical care.

And those are just the ones who were interviewed. We’re now seeing 60 to 80 guests a day, and as many as 110 on some days.

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Lunch Milestone

“We reached a milestone at the soup kitchen,” Deacon Gil Nadeau told the congregation at the conclusion of 10:30 a.m. Mass a couple of weeks ago.

“We served 1,589 lunches last month.” The congregation erupted into applause.

“And just last week we served 400 lunches.”

He paised the volunteers and donors.

“It takes a lot of effort, thanks to our volunteers. And it takes your contributions.”

In an email to West Side Kitchen’s Coordinating Group, Deacon Gil announced another milestone, with volunteers serving lunch to 110 people on a recent day – a jump from the previous high of 85.

“The kitchen crews are doing a fantastic job taking care of our guests on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “The food is wholesome, balanced and always presented very well on the tray.”

Volunteers were chatting among themselves about how much the guests appear to appreciate the food, Quality Control Coordinator Joanne Lockwood noted. One guest was overhead saying, "My diet depends on the generosity of my neighbors."

Let the Little Children Come to Me

By Mary and Robert Stronach, SFO

Wayne, our legally blind guest, was laughing and conversing with volunteer Jim Caldwell between sips of soup. He mentioned he had been on the phone with Protective Services that morning.

“They told me to get my butt right over there,” after learning he had been living on the street for 47 days.

“But I thought I would get something to eat first.”

Across the room, volunteer Katie Koscinski, SFO, was playing “high-fives” with a giggling 3-year-old. His 6-year-old sister came rushing over with a big smile to take a turn at slapping Katie’s hand. Their mom, a refugee who speaks very little English, smiled as she nibbled on a sandwich.

The poignant truth is that children come to the Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen. Some are infants and some, a little older. It’s not unusual to have as many as six or seven on any given day. Shortly, when school is out, we fully expect those numbers to go up. For the most part, our children are very well behaved. They sit close to Mommy or Daddy, quietly enjoying their soup and sandwich.

We are happy to see them…to know that they are having a nutritious lunch. And part of us wants to scream, “Why? Why should our little children have to know that hunger is real? Why should they even know what a soup kitchen is?”

Everything should be sunshine and daisies for them. They should feel safe and secure, knowing that Mommy and Daddy will always be there for them.

Life is not so easy for some families. Dad or mom may have lost a job. The spiraling price of oil and gas has affected the cost of transportation, utilities, food and just about every product we use. The dollar just doesn’t go as far. And our children are affected. They now come to the soup kitchen. It’s part of their daily routine, just like playing with toys or taking a nap.

When you come right down to it, West Side Kitchen came at just the right time. It is a blessing. And, we have our children close to us – safe and secure at the parish center.

When you come right down to it, it’s a miracle we have them with us, rather than in an empty apartment with an empty refrigerator.

When you come right down to it, they bring us joy. The volunteers play with them and laugh. And the other guests smile every time they see a child. Isn’t that the way it should be?

Christ said, “Let the little children come to me.”

They are here, Lord. Keep them safe.

An Open Letter to My Homeless Friend

By Mary Stronach, SFO

We speak briefly at Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen. You smile and tell me how great the soup is. “It’s the best soup in town.”

Such small talk must hide many scars – of war, of a lost childhood, of lost love, lost companionship, lost work, lost home, drug use, alcohol, emotional setbacks. Whatever it was, something happened that put you into a tailspin. One morning you found yourself homeless and alone.

How was your childhood different from mine? How did you end up under the overpass and how did I end up living in the country? Why do you have to worry more about the cold and rain than I do? Why do I have the pleasure of a daily shower, clipped nails, clean clothes, hot meals, and a warm bed?

If we’re both children of God, why is our earthly inheritance so different? Homelessness was never your goal, hunger was never your intention.

Yet, here you are, walking through Christ’s passion.

Here you are. Hungry and homeless. Your “bed” is a bush or a patch of grass. The sum total of your belongings fits in your pockets or an old grocery cart.

Where do you go from here? Are you at the point that you don’t even see beyond your next meal at the soup kitchen? Do you ask yourself the same questions we all ask in life? “What is my purpose? How do I get there? Where is the meaning of my life?”

Trust in the Lord. He will care for you.

Many years ago I heard a man sing the following song. He was previously homeless and a recovering alcoholic.

“Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I'm happy,
I sing because I'm free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.”

If He loves and cares for the sparrow, how much more does He love you? Open yourself to His healing love.

Nourishment for the Homeless

Fr. Richard Dellos put fingers to mouth and blew a loud, piercing whistle.

He did it again and again, each time to show his appreciation for the singers and dancers at the 40^th anniversary of his ordination Sunday.

It wasn’t a small party. He had invited the entire parish to a barbecue, and well over 400 people showed up, spilling over the campus, jamming the huge tent housing dining tables and performers, and filling the parish center, also decked out with tables for eating. Some brought gifts and momentoes, including State Sen. Joe Griffo, who presented a proclamation from the New York State Senate recognizing the priest’s service and ministry to the community. A big part of that ministry is serving the poor and those in need.

It started to rain, but the showers didn’t dampen the fest, as long lines of parishioners filled their plates with sausage, pork, beef, chicken and fixings.

A number of our regular soup kitchen guests were enjoying the festivities, too. Among them was Wayne, who had heaped several layers of meat and bread on his plate. He let out his easy, ebullient laugh, even though he would be bracing himself for another cold, damp night on the streets.

Wayne, who is legally blind and was burned out of his home weeks earlier, mentioned that his plans for a new apartment fell through, and that he was now spending his nights under a viaduct.

At the party he was nursing a sore thumb, and when he came into the soup kitchen Wednesday, it was sporting a splint. It had turned out to be broken, and had to be reset at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

“I was sleeping in a tree, and I fell,” he explained.

“A tree is okay (for sleeping) if you don’t move,” he laughed. “Now I’m sticking to the viaduct.”

Spring Shines Through

Our blind guest, Wayne, was sitting outside, basking in the spring sunshine a half-hour before the soup kitchen doors were to open Wednesday, while inside Deacon Gil Nadeau and daytime volunteer supervisor Joanne Lockwood led a group of eight volunteers in prayer.

Mother Teresa, Joanne told the group, “spent time in daily prayer and reflection before going out” to serve people in Calcutta. In the same way, she described their coming together in prayer and reflection as a “daily self-offering,” putting them in a frame of mind to better serve people coming to Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen.

“I believe the Holy Spirit is working in us, enabling us to do what we do. I also pray that the Holy Spirit inspire the hearts of many who cannot serve to donate money and food.”

Added Deacon Gil: “In addition to money and food,” people offering “prayer is important, too…We need people to pray for this ministry.”

The volunteers returned to their stations, and soon dining-room greeter Jim Caldwell was opening the doors to guests. Fifty men, women and children filed in for hot soup, sandwiches and dessert. Among the first in was Wayne. Behind Wayne was a guest sporting a small backpack, who quipped: “The soup is always good here.”

In an area adjacent to the dining tables, Deacon Gil had set up a distribution point for free personal care items – from soap, deodorant and toothpaste to toilet paper, band aids and hair spray. Marc, a new volunteer who has been a regular guest, was manning that station, allowing each guest to select two items.

Yesterday, Deacon Gil noted, Compassion Coalition sent over four truck loads of food and commodities – in exchange for volunteer Diane Hnat spending two hours working in the Coalition warehouse.

“Two loads were free, and we paid just for the shipping on the other two loads.”

In addition to personal care items, there were cases of orange juice and canned food for the soup kitchen, plus 20 cases of baby food and 40 boxes of cereal which “we gave to Thea Bowman House” (which is located on the parish campus and provides daycare and assistance to families in need). They also got a free supply of candy bars to place in Saturday’s lunch bags as well as on trays during the week as an extra treat.

But the soup kitchen couldn’t accept everything that Compassion Coalition was offering, as its freezers, coolers and storage bins were jammed full.

“That’s why we need a walk-in freezer and a walk-in cooler,” said Deacon Gil, noting that he and his coordinating group are applying for a grant and trying to raise money to obtain and install large walk-in units. “We need the capacity to accept donations as they’re made available.”

Meanwhile, as Marc was distributing personal care items, Jim was kibitzing with hungry diners as they laughed and chatted among themselves. Suddenly his voice boomed across the room:

“Hey, we’re all family here!”