Food bank's shelves empty
(Durango Herald, November 22, 2008)
Church continues serving meals, despite losing use of Manna Soup Kitchen
(Durango Herald, December 9, 2008)
Not so many years ago, I traveled to a ground zero of disaster headlines with bags of clothing, food and a bit of money (all donated), to help spread around supplies that were dribbling in from all over the country. I'll leave description of the specific place to memory and imagination, but will say that the regional food bank was under water, normal methods of distribution and communication destroyed or, at best, intermittent and unreliable. I stayed until money, supplies and my energy gave out, searching out start-up food banks, meal and soup lines; and helping deliver whatever we could find to keep them going a few more days. They operated out of churches, in parking lots, and at private houses. Warming up with a meal revives hope, and a food bank sustains it with a promise of more to come.
Entering the most dangerous season for living on the edge, the two headlines above are storm warning signs for our little corner of paradise. People need food and warmth all year, 7 days each week. There is urgent need to explore and address the problems described in each story, while realizing that helping sustain hope, through seasonal and economic shifts in supply and demand, is up to each of us.
Here are a couple of places to start:
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Unlike the disaster tale I told above, none of this is a start-up for Durango, and the Women's Resource Center has already put together a list of food resources.
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