www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Food for the poor and needy

"Stamp Out Hunger", a food drive sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers - the union for the delivery and collection folks - is scheduled for tomorrow. It is co-sponsored by Campbells, the US Postal Service, the United Way, Valpak and 'America's Second Harvest'. When the carrier comes to drop off your mail, he/she will pick up food donations that you leave by your letterbox and the donations will be dropped off at the postal station; the carriers then deliver the food to local food banks on their own time after they clock out.

Please be generous - especially needed are canned meats and fish, canned soup, juice, pasta, vegetables, cereal and rice. (No expired items please - that's just tacky!) And you don't even have to leave your home!

No one in our thrice-blessed country should go to bed hungry. And many children and elderly suffer that experience all too frequently.

".. for I was hungry and you gave me to eat..."

Blessings to all who help out!

Dr John

Thanks for the reminder. Will have it out there. As retired mail carriers, it is truly an amazing task.

Also, people really don't realize that mail carriers are very often the only people many people see in a day, especially the elderly. Though the PO has changed some, it still works on the same principles that Benjamine Franklin set it up to run on. However, due to time restraints on carriers, there is not the personal contact there use to be. My dad said when he was a kid, the mail carrier brought the groceries out too. So, through the years, many people have been rescued by carriers because things just didn't seem right at someone's home.

YES, thanks, for the reminder. I am going to go put out a can of kidney beans and a large can of chick peas which I have in the pantry...

Alice

That is beautiful, Pani Rose!

Glory to God for the little touch of personal interaction that still exists in our Postal Carriers from a time when these United States were much more 'small town' in mentality, more community and neighborhood oriented, and personal.

In Christ,
Alice

Just make sure it's food and not cash. United Way supports abortion.
Stephanos I

Alice while I support feeding the hungry. Shouldnt this be the ministry of every Church, with a Christian touch of love rather than a secular endeavor?
Hope things are going well.
Stephanos I
Brrrrrrrrrrrr I am freezing here in Canada.
Next time I will wait for the full warmth of summer.

Dear Father Stephanos,

Christ is Risen!

I am doubly confused by your post!

1. Why are you in Canada and not(warm and sunny) California?

2. I just said that I would put out two cans of food into my mailbox...I wasn't making a statement about secular vs. religious endeavors to feed the poor..just complying with Dr. John's very easy request.

Ofcourse, we have such food drives in our parish as well, and monthly meals to a homeless shelter by our women's philanthropic org, by our youth groups, etc., and we also do a monthly Midnight run to the homeless of NYC. I think that every church does such things, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't donate food to a secular endeavor to feed the hungry, as well, does it?

Respectfully in Christ our Lord,
Alice

I did not know that you were former carriers, Pani Rose. It's a tough job. I don't know when you retired, but my friend Mike is a carrier (in an urban style area in Arlington, Virginia) and he tells me that the carriers are still doing the same watchfulness, especially on 'walking routes', but also on the cluster box routes. (In our building: 350+ units, many older residents sit outside the mail room, and wait to chat with the carrier.) And when a box isn't empty on a day when it should be (an elder patron), he checks out the door or the management office. It's amazing how much postal carriers know about their patrons, AND care.

And bless you too, Sister Alice, for your thoughtfulness. A few cans or boxes, and if everyone did it, no one would go hungry or be forced to go gather dandelion greens to make into a soup with some beans. There's no "secular vs. religious"; if we are loving our neighbors and helping them, it's graced - no matter who does the organizing.

Blessings to all!

Dr John

Not to be insensitive, (and/or nit picky ) but those of our ancestors who also had to resort to eating picked dandelion greens in Greece under the German occupation, or because of poverty, lived to be a much healthier and older age than those who are now eating the 'superior' diet of meat...but I do know what you were trying to say, and you are right...no one should be that hungry that they cannot shop for food.

Best Regards,
Alice