A Just Harvest

Author: Kristi Sanford

  • Union Church of Hinsdale’s Volunteer of the Year

    by Kristi Sanford, Director of Communications

    Note: Over the next several Monday’s we’ll be sharing profiles of the 2012 Community Kitchen Volunteers of the Year.  Each of our kitchen partners who donate food and organize volunteers on a monthly basis have been invited to select a volunteer of the year to be recognized in our blog and at our Annual Awards Banquet and Benefit.

    Fran Evans is the Volunteer of the Year from Union Church of Hinsdale.  She organizes the volunteers and shops for the food each month.  Fran credits her involvement at A Just Harvest to one of her very dearest friends who persistently invited her to serve on the congregation’s mission board.  Each mission board member is responsible to be the liaison between the congregation and one of the community agencies they help support, and so Fran is UCH’s liaison to A Just Harvest.  (Service and mission are at the heart of Union Church of Hinsdale, and that is one reason why we are giving the church our 2012 Mary Byrd and Winston Garnett Service Award.)

    This same dear friend invited Fran to go to Mississippi just six weeks after Hurricane Katrina.  They were responding to a call that Loving Neighbors had put out through the United Church of Christ seeking volunteers to collect and distribute supplies to hurricane victims.  Fran says experience was life-changing. She and her friend camped in a field in rural Mississippi, the only women in the entire camp.  They had practiced setting up their tent at home, but when arrived they couldn’t figure out how to get it right.  Laughing, their fellow campers quickly fixed their tent and got to know one another.

    Her time in Mississippi was as much a ministry of presence as it was of sharing basic material goods that residents had done without since the storm.  As they handed out basic necessities to people who were living in tents, reluctant to leave their property and eager to finish clean up and restoration, they listened to harrowing survival stories of people trapped in attics or floating in rafts tied to tree tops fearing nearby alligators and contamination.  They cried a lot of tears with the Katrina survivors and shared a lot of love with them.

    They went back a year later and lived in a FEMA trailer for 8 days. Fran says, “I definitely got an appreciation of what conditions  the victims had to deal with.” They had gathered up computers , printers, etc & had a pickup truck full of these items to give to people that needed them.  They talked to a lot of residents of the town to see what they needed so that they could send more after they returned home.  Fran still keeps in touch with one of the hurricane survivors and her family.

    Fran has also been on Union Church of Hinsdale’s Habitat for Humanity trips to Guatemala and two U.S. locations.

    She says that volunteering at A Just Harvest meets her need to nurture others. She loves that it’s something the generations can do together.  On the day we spoke, her volunteers ranged from age 12-75.  Fran organizes about 85 unique UCH members to serve at A Just Harvest over the course of a year.

    Fran knows that most of us are just a medical or weather related crisis from depleting our life savings or from becoming homeless, a belief that was reinforced on her post-Katrina trip to Mississippi.  When I asked what might have happened in her childhood to prepare her heart for service, she said simply that she remembers the generosity of her own parents to relatives and friends in their times of need.  She hopes that her granddaughter, just now old enough to serve at A Just Harvest, will have a similar experience with her.

    Fran has two sons, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.  She’ll be the first to tell you that she’s very, very blessed and leads a very full life.  Supposedly retired after 27 years of designing kitchens and bathrooms, Fran estimates that she spends about 3 days a week at church which she describes as “much more working than praying”.  In fact, she is the co-chair for Union Church of Hinsdale’s annual garage sale which generates about $40,000 in revenue each year!  She also makes time for bowling, golf, yard work and (surprise) travel.

  • Internship a Source of Reflection & Preparation for the Future

    By Rebecca Helberg

    The foreclosure epidemic that has spread throughout both Chicago and the United States is difficult to stomach. Since the housing bubble burst in 2008, people have been struggling to pay their mortgages commonly leading to foreclosure. According to a May 2012 Chicago Tribune article, 44% of Cook County homes with a mortgage are underwater. Working at A Just Harvest (AJH) this summer has allowed me to go beyond reading and learning about the economic crisis and view face to face the issues that Chicago is confronting.

    During my internship at AJH, just one short summer, I have seen Community Kitchen patrons seek out a support system and a healthy meal in a time of crisis. The atmosphere within the kitchen is truly communal. Conversation between friends and family fill the air which evoke a feeling of shared love and warmth. I volunteered in the kitchen four times throughout my internship and each time I had my own obstacles and trepidations but by the end of the experience I felt a little bit closer to being in tune with the economic struggles of our city.

    I also had the honor of interviewing all of the volunteers of the year nominees from a wide variety of organizations. When prompted on why A Just Harvest was special to them, a common answer involved the ability for AJH to promote a sense of respect and dignity in their work. This inspired me to truly think about the definitions of ‘respect’ and ‘dignity’. Everyone has a different image of what respect and dignity mean. They are intangible concepts that deserve discussion.

    To me respect is the ‘golden rule’: treat others as you want to be treated. The golden rule is something that I strive to use every day no matter where I am. I translated this in the kitchen by giving patrons my undivided attention and serving food with pleasantries. That is what I want when I am being served food.

    Dignity is a harder concept for me. With little experience with direct service in low-income areas until this summer, I have only recently formed what dignity means in this context. Dignity is looking past religion, skin color, economic status, or any other type of label, and treating a person as a human being. We all have fears, dreams, worries, and goals that make up who we are. Recognizing that allowed me to view the Community Kitchen as a space full of stories and personalities and to listen more intently to the patrons that I was serving.

    The summer is coming to an end as is my internship. I’m beginning a job in Washington D.C. at a similar anti-hunger organization to AJH in a Center for Employment Training division. A Just Harvest provided a fresh and humbling perspective for me in the world of non-profits. It faced me with obstacles that people are struggling with today more directly than any textbook or news report ever did.

    In my next step I want to continue to meet the faces of those that are experiencing the economic crisis firsthand. I have a lot of extraordinary ideas, but this summer has reminded me that I have to start at the ground floor. That I have to listen, understand, and respect the community I want to work in before doing any systemic changes. I’m thankful for the people at AJH and their openness to accept me into their organization. They showed me the exceptional work that they do each and every day and I am grateful. Thank you AJH for an amazing summer and a forever impactful experience in my life.

  • A Budget Choice: A Moral Choice!

    by: Rev. Marilyn Pagán-Banks

    “Cheat the poor to make a profit or give gifts to the rich—either way you lose.”  Proverb 22:16

    I like the Proverbs—they often go right to the heart of the matter.  Nuggets of wisdom directed at a nation needing direction on how to live and be a liberated, prosperous, whole and holy people.  A nation accountable to God and to one another’s well-being—shalom.

    This particular Proverb speaks to an important issue we face in this country today.  Congress must decide whether to begin to restore basic fairness to our tax system by ending the Bush-era income tax cuts for the richest two percent—households with income above $250,000 a year—while extending the tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans.

    Last week the US Senate voted 51-48 on legislation that would extend the Bush-era income tax cuts to households earning up to $250,000.  The House of Representatives will be voting later this week.

    If the tax cuts are not allowed to expire for those earning over $250,000—the richest two percent of the country—it would cost the federal government $68 billion dollars in 2013!  This is equal to what will be spent in 2012 on the following programs combined:  infrastructure, K-12 education, head start, school breakfast, clean water funds and meals for homebound seniors.

    We each need to urge our representatives to vote to end the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest two percent.  Call your member of Congress now at (888) 744-9958.

    We lose as a nation when everyone does not pay their fair share of taxes.  The well-being of our nation is compromised when we give tax breaks to the rich while at the same time eliminating vital social services for the most vulnerable.  There is no shalom when we put profit before people.

    Call your member of Congress TODAY at (888) 744-9958.

  • Feasting and Fasting: Tisha B’av Beit Midrash

    Feasting and Fasting: Tisha B’av Beit Midrash (House of Study)

    by Jill Zenoff, The Gan Project, Northside P.O.W.E.R.

    Tisha B’av is a day of fasting, but how do you host a Jewish event without food?  This Sunday July 29, 2012, The Gan Project will host an afternoon of interactive learning about hunger midst plenty, community-based farming as a way to create food security, and Jewish traditions around food, eating, fasting, and celebrating.

    We (Jews) have had a storied history filled with twists and turns, high highs and low lows for sure.  Our collective memory is long, and we acknowledge both our victories and our defeats in a yearly cycle when most others might try to gloss over the less pleasant times.  We regularly look back in reflection so that we might avoid making the mistakes of the past and honor the memory and wisdom of our ancestors. We then use that knowledge to navigate through life’s challenges as we heal from wounds old and new, and work towards creating a better more just society.   After all, that is what we have been tasked to do as a people, to pursue justice, Tzedek, and repair the world, Tikkun Olam. 

    As a people we were once agrarians; farmers, shepherds, botanists, arborists, and food preservation experts.  Our lives were so profoundly connected to the land that the very foundations of our faith were written in the language of agriculture.  Our ancestors lived their lives based on their indisputable knowledge that true wealth was (and still is) perishable.

    Given this ancient piece of collective knowledge, what are the implications of voluntarily going a day without food, as we daily partake in a globalized food system that disenfranchises its workers, destroys our Eco-systems, and leaves millions of people hungry every day?  How can we continue to partake in a system that operates as the antithesis of our heritage?

    This Sunday July 29, 2012 we will be joined by the Hazon cross country bike riders for an afternoon of interactive learning about hunger midst plenty, community-based farming as a way to create food security, and Jewish traditions around food, eating, fasting, and celebrating. Sunday July 29, 2012 from 1:00-5:00 PM at The Gan Project Homestead (@Bernard Horwich JCC 3003 W. Touhy Ave Chicago IL 60645). Register at www.hazon.org/chicago

     

  • There’s Still Room on the Bus!

    SOUL and Northside P.O.W.E.R. Leaders in Action Together

    by Cindy Bush, Director of Organizing for Northside P.O.W.E.R.

    I was reminded of a famous Ken Kesey quote from the 1960s when IIRON leaders boarded buses Sunday, June 24 to go into action together: “you’re either on the bus or off the bus”.

    (Northside P.O.W.E.R. & SOUL at the home of James Crown, President of Risk Management at Chase, demanding that Chase give back vacant foreclosed homes to the community.)

    While the context of the quote is different in our time, the metaphor is instructive-these leaders understand that their destinies are intertwined and that any effective action must be collective action.

    Two buses, one from the north side of Chicago and one from the south side, loaded up and carried leaders into action together-one action challenged the outrageous behavior of Chase Bank in gambling with our economy and destroying our homes and neighborhoods; the second action challenged the failure of the Governor of IL to release money already appropriated to create green jobs in urban neighborhoods struggling with the highest unemployment rates.

    IIRON leaders experience the continuing effects of the Wall Street corporate greed that crashed our economy in many different forms: underwater mortgages, Medicaid cuts, distressed schools, and unemployment.  The list is unfortunately very long.

    But we have a clear understanding that we are all suffering from unrestrained corporate power and greed, and that we all need the same relief.  Our elected officials must act in the interest of the working people, not in the interests of that corporate greed.

    And it’s not just in Chicago that we get this, regular working people everywhere are joining the most recent call for a Robin Hood Tax-a tax on Wall Street that could transform Main Street.  http://robinhoodtax.org/

    If you are not already involved in the fight to save our economy, you are welcome, come on and join us.  Get on the bus!

  • God Takes Care of It

    by Sarah Jacobs, Trinity United Methodist Church

    (Editors Note: Trinity UMC is A Just Harvest’s newest Community Kitchen partner.  We love their enthusiasm and are grateful for the delicious pork roast they usually bring on the third Friday of every month.  Sarah coordinates her church’s partnership with A Just Harvest. Sarah and her husband have two daughters ages 13 and 15, and the girls and their friends often serve with them.  The following are some of Sarah’s reflections about her service at A Just Harvest’s Community Kitchen.  You can see more photos of Trinity UMC members on our Facebook page.)

    I have been amazed at the many times that our volunteer work at A Just Harvest has moved me.  One weekend I was very busy planning an event at our church to promote A Just Harvest.  We were baking cookies to decorate to sell to raise money to buy the food we donate to A Just Harvest.  My nephew, Craig Rossow, a marine, was flying home that same weekend before his first deployment.  I was disappointed that I could not travel to Wisconsin to see him off.  That night, a Friday night around 8 pm, my sister-in-law, Craig’s mom, called me to tell me that Craig’s flight to Milwaukee had been cancelled and that he was on a flight bound for Chicago.  She asked if he could stay with us and then put him on a train to Milwaukee on Saturday morning.  I believe that God wanted me to know that he supported our great works with A Just Harvest and he brought my nephew to me so I could see him before he left.  (February 2011)

    **********

    We were at A Just Harvest on a Friday in May.  While making the rounds to serve the patrons their choice of milk, water or coffee, a beautiful young girl around 8 years of age, looked me in the eye and with a smile on her face asked, “Hello, Sarah, may I have a glass of milk please?”  Her eyes sparkled and her smile was so uplifting.  I told her she just made my day.  She thanked me and I thanked her for the opportunity to serve.  (May 2012)

    **********

    We can never know the true impact that we have on those that we feed.  I was sharing my journey of becoming a partner church with A Just Harvest with a local business owner in Wilmette.  He told me that he used to eat at A Just Harvest when he was a child living at the Jonquil Apartments around the corner.

    **********

    I never worry about finding enough volunteers to serve dinner with us on a Friday night at A Just Harvest.  You only need to experience it once to know what a special place it is.  Volunteers reach out to me and they invite friends and family to join them.  On the day we are to serve, someone will call to say they cannot come and within the hour, another person will call and ask if we are serving tonight and could they join us.  God takes care of it, he always does.

    **********

    I had just finished shopping for the food for A Just Harvest.  It was a cloudy, dreary, overcast day.  When I pulled into the parking area behind the kitchen to deliver the food, the clouds parted and the sunrays beamed onto us as we unloaded.  I know God is pleased with what we are doing and he offers encouragement whenever he can.

  • My Experience of A Just Harvest

    by Thom Parrott-Sheffer, Associate Minister – Union Church of Hinsdale

    I have seen many changes during my years helping out at Good News Community Kitchen, and its metamorphosis to A Just Harvest; a change in personnel, changes in service routine and procedure, and even some changes in the clientele (with more families attending the program).  What has never changed is the passion and spirit that epitomizes the work and workers at A Just Harvest.

    That passion for justice and the conviction to humanize all people who enter the circle is the first thing I encountered as I came into the kitchen in Roger’s Park.  Whatever color, gender, or economic status you were met with dignity and respect; and an expectation was laid upon everyone to act in that same manner.  There is so much more going on then providing a delicious and nutritious meal; everyone is also given a heaping helping of humanity and dignity as well.

    The second thing that I encountered was the laughter – the true sense of joy.  Whether in the kitchen slicing vegetables, on the line making up trays, or serving the food to the tables there was such joy in the room – a true gladness that creates community.  And it is infectious, as the night progresses that joy and spirit becomes more and more evident in the patrons; who joke and talk with the volunteers as if they are old friends.

    Finally, I am so impressed with the level of professionalism and the expectation of being your best.  There is no toleration of bullying, selfishness, or chaos.  However, even in keeping order the integrity of dignity and respect are always in place.  The leaders of the program can be firm, but always loving; they can be tough, but always fair.

    I am so glad that my path in life has crossed with the people and work of A Just Harvest.  It has made me more and more aware of the justice of food, wealth, distribution, and power.  It has given me both a place to give back some of the blessings I have received, the challenge to attack the causes of poverty and the abuses of power, and even a language to evangelize a faithful message of hope and change.  I hope to be a part of this work for many years to come.

  • Fasting for the Common Good

    Fasting for the Common Good

    Check out this wonderful, short video by Will, Jake and Nick, three 7th graders from Northbrook Junior High who are taking a class called “Common Good”.  For their class project, they raised $520 for A Just Harvest by getting sponsors for a 24 fast!  They talk about how they experience hunger.

  • The Illinois Chamber of Secrets

    by Rev. Marilyn Pagán-Banks, Executive Director of A Just Harvest and President of IIRON

    As an ordained minister and someone who heads an anti-hunger organization, when I hear the President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Doug Whitley, say that “the biggest loophole in the Illinois Tax Code is that the state does not tax individuals for the purchase of food or medicine”, I’m sickened!  Once again, the most vulnerable are being blamed for the economic crisis that was actually caused by corporations concerned only with their bottom-line.

    Carrying signs that read, “No More Secrets” and “Disclose Taxes” and donning flash lights symbolizing the need to “shine a light” on corporations that are not paying their fair share of taxes,  members of Make Wall Street Pay Illinois visited Mr. Whitley at his office in Springfield yesterday, asking him to support SB282.  SB282 is a bill that would require Illinois publicly traded corporations to report on the taxes they pay to Illinois.

    His immediate response was “no.”  He went on to make arguments, which were really no argument at all.  You can watch this 2.5 minute video to see his arguments for yourself.  Otherwise, please keep reading below.

    He said, “Individual tax returns should be private.”  We replied, “this bill is not about individual tax returns, this is about publicly traded corporations.  Corporations are not individuals.”

    He said again, “this information should not be open to the public.”  We replied, “the tax returns of non-profit organizations are open to the public, why shouldn’t publicly traded corporations be held to the same reporting standard?” He didn’t answer.

    He said, “the IRS sets the rules, no laws are being broken.”  We replied, “this is not about whether or not laws are being broken, this is about having all the information disclosed so that we can look at how 2/3 of publicly traded corporations in Illinois pay no income tax.  Then we can begin to fix the tax code to ensure all corporations are paying their fair share.”

    We asked, “how do the one-third of the corporations that actually pay their taxes feel about this bill? Do you represent them too?”  He had no reply.

    At this point in the meeting, the Lakeview Action Coalition reported that they had just met with Director Hamer of the Illinois Department of Revenue and he supported the need for transparency, the concept at the heart of SB282, and committed to further studying the bill.  Mr. Whitley had no reaction to this news.

    It was obvious Mr. Whitley would hold fast to the “charge to aggressively promote the interests of Illinois business” (taken from his bio) and would not be moved to use his position to support the interest of the state of Illinois, its citizens, the people most affected by budget cuts due to lack of revenue—so we closed the meeting in prayer and exited the meeting chanting powerfully.

    As a person of faith, I am not discouraged by Mr. Whitley’s behavior—on the contrary my passion is rekindled.  I believe that God’s justice will be a light for all people (Isaiah 51:4).  I am charged to carry this light.

  • An Invitation to Dinner (And More)

    by Kristi Sanford, Director of Communications

    Since I’ve started my new position as A Just Harvest’s Director of Communications I’ve been eating dinner in the Community Kitchen about twice a month.  I started out doing this so that I could do a better job of helping the organization tell this part of its story – the amazing story of how 40 partners, mostly religious congregations and civic organizations, come together to provide a nutritious meal every single night of the year to anyone who walks through our door.

     Volunteers from Saints Faith, Hope and Charity

    I look forward to my dinners at the Community Kitchen.  But, believe it or not, I was a little nervous the first night I went to eat.  I’m an introvert, so anytime I go somewhere I don’t know anyone I get a little nervous.  Of course this is silly, because it wasn’t actually true that I didn’t know anyone.  I realized I knew a number of patrons who live in the community (I live down the street) and who have volunteered in our administrative office.

    Each time I go I feel welcomed, not just by the volunteers and staff, but by the other patrons. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.   I could tell that Charles, the young man I met as I waited to be seated, also felt very welcomed.  And amazed that a place like this existed.

    It was Charles’ first visit to the Community Kitchen.  He had lost his job a few weeks ago, and had trouble getting his Link card authorized (also known as SNAP or food stamp benefits).  He had run out of food at home, and his caseworker suggested he come to the Community Kitchen.  Before he was even seated he turned to me and asked how he could volunteer.  He was blown away by the fact that he could just walk through the door and get a meal, no questions asked.  He said he’d be getting his Link card by the end of the week, but that he’d want to come back to volunteer.

    I ended up sitting at a different table than Charles and had a great conversation with John.  John eats at the Community Kitchen about 3 days a week.  On the other days, he goes to the south side to help a relative.  This month, his relative didn’t have enough money to make rent, so John sent him the money he had on hand.  We talked about healthy eating, the stock market, theology and the writing of C.S. Lewis.  We had very different ideas about God and religion, but it made for some very interesting dinner conversation.  So interesting that the clean up crew had to ask us to leave so they could finish their work.

    These conversations are the main reason I enjoy eating at the Community Kitchen.  I also savor the joy of a delicious meal prepared and served with love and respect, and the knowledge that people still care enough about other people to spend time, money and energy to help one another.

    If you’ve ever felt like you want to connect more with the people you serve as a volunteer, I invite you to come for dinner some evening. I invite you to come as a guest rather than a volunteer. I invite you to come on a different night than your congregation or your friends serve.  And I invite you to tell us about your visit.  And to share your experience on our blog, if you like.

    If you feel like you shouldn’t come as a guest because you’re not in need, I invite you to consider that we are a Community Kitchen, that we provide community as much as we provide food, and that without your support and generosity on the other nights that you volunteer, we wouldn’t be able to provide either food or community.  If you’re still hesitant, you can make a small donation to help cover the cost of operating the kitchen in the box near the front desk.  And know that many of our patrons also become volunteers, seeking a way to give back and connect more deeply with others at the Community Kitchen.

    Just know that we deeply appreciate your generosity and your service, and that we’ll be here “until all have plenty, and no one is left in need.”

A Just Harvest