Director’s Blog
Index to posts:
Happy Thanksgiving from the Executive Director
February…A month of highlights and challenges
What You Have to Give is Enough
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Happy New Year!
Before we get too involved in 2010 I wanted to take a minutes to thank all of you for your support of the Bremerton Foodline. Over the two holidays we provided over 1600 holiday baskets to families in need. We did this through the help of a whole lot of people! We would never have been able to help so many people without the volunteers who came forward to help us sort food, prepare the baskets, escort families through the lines and to their cars, and cleaning up after the distribution.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and our faithful staff, thank you. Have a wonderful New Year.
Kathy Thayer, Executive Director
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The Bremerton Foodline is gearing up for our Christmas basket preparation. Donations are coming in from many different sources. Kitsap County employees did a can food drive creating structures out of their donations. Keyport is collecting donations which soon will be arriving. Walgreens on Kitsap Way dropped off a large donation of sweet treats just today. Churches, individuals, Parametrix, Teletech, Alexander’s Golf Shop and many other businesses are all participating in food drives on our behalf.
The Bremerton Key Club is donating stuffed animals and the Kitsap Youth in Action were here helping us prepare. On Saturday we’ll be assembling our food “baskets” with the help of many volunteers in the community, including members of the Henry M. Jackson. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we’ll start to hand out those baskets to families for their holiday meals.
This time of year truly shows us how much support there is for families in our community. Everyone cares and wants to help. To all of you who have sent in food or cash donations, I thank you for your support. Bremerton is a great place to live.
Kathy Thayer, Exective Director, Bremerton Foodline
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Happy Thanksgiving from the New Executive Director
It’s been a whirlwind month for me here at the Bremerton Foodline. What a unique time of the year to begin a new job. I have learned so much in the last few weeks with the help of board members and a wonderful, supportive staff. It’s been unbelievably busy getting ready for the holidays, learning new things, meeting so many new people, and just trying to get a handle on how everything works.
The Thanksgiving holiday is quickly approaching, only just a few days away! I have witnessed a well orchestrated group of individuals come together to weigh and sort food donations, pack boxes with food, load trucks, move boxes, and clean up a warehouse to be ready for the days of distribution. It was quite impressive to see it all happen and I realized how lucky I am to be working here. We will be serving over 900 people, providing them with all of the essentials needed to make their Thanksgiving a happier one.
On behalf of the Bremerton Foodline staff, the board of directors, and myself, I wish to thank the community as a whole for coming to our rescue this year to provide us with canned goods, turkeys, funds to purchase needed items, and their time volunteering. The generosity of the community has been flowing through our doors….what a fantastic time to start a new career!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
Kathy Thayer
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February…A month of highlights and challenges
It typically slows down in February at food banks. We think it is due to the much needed energy assistance making its way to our families freeing up cash for life’s other necessities, including food. We know that anyone who comes to the foodbank would rather provide for their family by going to the corner grocery store….wouldn’t we all? That being said, our agency served 1,177 food boxes last month to families residing within the Bremerton School District boundaries, which represents a 24% growth compared to February 2008. And it’s not just the Bremerton Foodline. Foodbanks across Kitsap County are serving record numbers…many of whom have never imagined they would ever cross the threshold of a food bank for something other than bringing in a donation. At times it feels like we stand in front of a swell of need that is turning into a tidal wave.
Yes…there are challenges. I hear of families that are taking in relatives and friends…so much so that there is barely room to sleep on their floor. We are turning folks away on a daily basis who ask for help with gas to get to work, or a little help making a rent payment that month. While we may turn folks away for financial assistance, we never ever turn anyone away who asks for help with food. This is the core of our mission…and we take extreme pride in staying in front of that need.
February was a great month in many respects and it’s good to remind ourselves of the good things that our happening in our community. For example, the East Bremerton Albertson’s launched a grocery rescue partnership with us that is now contributing hundreds of pounds of meat, dairy, deli and produce products every week. Seaside Church volunteers now staff our Last Saturday of the month service, which is getting some traction as more folks hear about it. We hope this will grow into a long-term resource for folks in the community who cannot reach assistance during the week. Thankfully, our donation support continues to remain strong and we remain in solid financial position to continue stocking food bank shelves and serve this community as the dimension of the need continues to change. And perhaps, most importantly, our wonderful volunteers show up every day, doing the behind the scenes work that keeps this agency humming. So…despite what the news may bring…we will still be here, doing our best to do whatever we can to make lives a little easier for folks. We could not do this without your continued help and support. You make our work possible…and as always, you have our deepest gratitude!
Executive Director Monica Bernhard
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A woman named Lucy helped us out on a volunteer basis several weeks back, while she was in the process of looking for work. I came to learn that she was living in her car…in January. Still, her spirit was strong and she always showed up with a huge smile on her face, ready to lend a hand to her neighbors. She said something to me I think I shall never forget. Once married and living in a home of her own, Lucy shared, “I took for granted just being able to turn a door knob and walk into your own home.” How true that is. Thankfully, a week later she found a job, working graveyard shift as a Certified Nursing Assistance. The hours weren’t ideal. But it was a job…and perhaps it was a step towards once again “opening a new door” in her life.
A woman came into our agency a couple of weeks ago…in her 40’s…married and mother of two…and in tears. “I’ve tried everything”, she said. “I’m a college graduate…I can’t find a job…I’ll do anything. My husband works, but it takes three weeks of his income just to pay the rent. I know we came in for a basket a couple of weeks ago, but we have no food…We’re so hungry”. Here was a woman, willing to work and unable to find anything …struggling to get by and feed her family. To each and every one of you in this room, I say: This is why we are here.
How do you continue to hope, when everything in life says quit? In a world with increasing poverty, unemployment, homelessness, looming recessions and hungry children, it would be very easy to be cynical…to cast blame on the politicians of either party…to assume that things will never change. But deep down inside, we are all here because we are a people of hope…we want to help…we recognize our blessings and want to share that with others. We have a need to know that lives improve…that kids are safe, that there is enough housing, enough food, and most importantly enough love to go around. Even when there isn’t. For me, my inspiration comes from the people we serve. Day in and day out, they inspire me to hope…they inspire me to believe in the strength of the human spirit….they inspire me to get up and show up one more day and try again. But there are days, believe you me, when coming back in and trying again is not easy.
How do you continue to hope, when everything in life says quit? A man in his 60’s came into my office and told me that he had tried to end his life. …several times. “What was the point?, No one cares about me. I have no one. I am so lonely.” But I knew he did not want to die…he just wanted what we all want…someone to love…someone who cared if he came back at the end of the day. So he comes down to the Bremerton Foodline…sometimes for food, sometimes for a smile…but mostly, I believe, because he knows that we care…and when he is feeling a bit unsteady, we help him restore his sense of hope.
How do you continue to hope, when everything in life says quit? A woman in her late 40’s, diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and undergoing round after round of chemotherapy and radiation, stops by and asks me an agonizing question… “Monica, what have I done wrong? Why is God punishing me? I’ve tried to be a good person, I don’t want to die….I don’t want to die.” We sit for a while…holding each others hands…I remind her that we are all standing with her. After a hug, DeMorris takes her back for a few bags of fresh produce.…and she sees a few friendly faces.. Linda became one of my dearest friends at the agency She died from complications from breast cancer a few weeks ago.
How do you continue to hope? Continue to hope when your electricity bill is $40 in the middle of winter because you never turn the heat on? Continue to hope when you have to turn to your kid’s piggybank in order to get $7.88 in gas money to get to the doctor? Continue to hope when you pay off one garnishment and are faced with surmounting medical bills. Continue to hope no one has funds to help pay the rent and you are facing eviction with young children. The answer to that is I don’t know…I don’t know how some folks can get up day after day after day, when everything in their life says quit. But they do it…they do it. They do it, because they “Dare to hope”. They dare to hope because the alternative is giving up.
There is a risk in choosing to hope. It is far easier to live life bitter…to be cynical. After all, what if things never get better? Why continue to believe when time after time, our dreams are dashed. Martin Luther King said, “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.”
In my role, it’s easy to be discouraged…in fact, I am not sure how I could do this…face this day in and day out if I did not live from a stance of hope. Hope is not some idealistic dream divorced from reality…hope is the lifeblood of life itself. Hope is grounded in the deep sense that life is good…that good things do happen…that people are worthy of our time and love. We must believe…continue to believe.. even when the world throws reasons at us to quit. We must hold on to our compassion …we must hold onto the promise of hope.
When I first started working at the Bremerton Foodline, I was filled with a sense of untested hope-filled idealism. I knew I had little experience in facing head on the struggles that so many face first hand, living with poverty. I believed the best in people…I chose to trust them…to look beyond and through their stories. Because deep down inside, I knew that good things will happen…people will be helped…problems will be solved.
It took two months before that would be truly tested…two months before I realized that for so many, hope isn’t about wishful thinking or blind idealism. One day in December of 2006, I was approached by two women. The first woman, a single mother of five kids ranging from five to 18 including a child with special needs, was facing imminent eviction. She asked…pleaded…if there was anything we could do to help? Coming up with $50 or a $100 might have been possible, but she needed close to $800 to cover back rent…and that kinds of money was no where to be found. The second woman, was also a single mother or two young children. She was going back to school to train as a nursing assistant, but was completely out of money. She had missed several days of work when her youngest child got sick…now she faced a prospect of losing her job and only source of income, as well as her home. Just days before Christmas, both woman faced eviction…with children…and no where to turn. I called around and connected the second woman with one of our board members who worked with her landlord to extend her terms, and thankfully she was able to remain in her home. There were no such options for the first woman and days before Christmas, all of her belongings were cleared out of her apartment and left next to the sidewalk. A tale of two woman…one we helped stay in her home for Christmas and the other was on the streets.
I was devastated…what happened to my idealism…my belief that good things happen? It took me a while and a great many tears before I realized that it was not about me. Each of us do what we can, day in and day out…but at the same time, the individuals we serve bring their lives, with all their complexity…and challenges that are not ours to solve. We can only do our part…To offer up what is ours to give. Food, where families are hungry…compassion where there is pain and suffering…and hope when there is despair.
As staff and volunteers, we realize that food is just part of the hunger that many people face. So many also carry a hunger for love…a hunger for healing of traumas from their past …a hunger for friendship….a hunger for validation…a hunger for peace for once in their life…a hunger for hope. They hunger for someone to see the tragedy of what happened to them a lifetime ago and tell them it was wrong. They hunger for someone to believe in their possibilities even when they can’t. They hunger for someone to hear their story and find the beauty in it…see the hand of God in their journey …hold it all and say yes.
Several weeks ago, a woman I see often stopped by in the morning before work. She is a drug-addict and a new grandmother, and in spite of all the darkness she faces day in and day out, she lights up when I ask about her grandchild. As she left…I got up to give her a hug. She stopped me and said, you don’t want to hug me…I’m so dirty, I’ve been going through dumpsters, I’m filthy. Of course I want to hug you…of course I do.
That is what we all do here at the Bremerton Foodline. Whether you are working in the repacking room, the front desk, running orders, stocking shelves, donating funds, working in the warehouse…we are all about offering hope. Susan, our office manager, offers hope with each food stamps application, with each story she listens to…Tim, our driver, offers hope with each barrel of food, each rack of bread, each bin of produce that he picks up…and Rachel, our supervisor, offers hope with each volunteer she mentors, each client she serves, each shelve she stocks with food.
Albert Einstein once said, “there are only two ways to live your life: One as if nothing is a miracle, the other is as if everything is. “ My friends, you are part of the miracle that I know as the Bremerton Foodline. If you sit here today, then you have seen first hand the struggle that so many people face in our community…you see how some succeed, while others fail. You see how some try and pick them selves up again and again, and wonder how you would do if you were in the same circumstances.
Our mission at the Bremerton Foodline is to serve people who are hungry in our community. And since the beginning of this year, we have served more than 11,000 food boxes to families in need. To those in the repackaging room…that’s a lot of rice! Perhaps just as important as our mission to serve food is our unspoken mission to be bearers of hope. So I challenge each and everyone one of us right now: Let us be people who dare to be hurt, Dare to be disappointed…Dare to be wrong…Let us also be a people who dare to believe in the people we serve…dare to love those who stand beside us. …dare to have faith in the goodness of life. Let us Dare to Hope!
Anyone who is familiar with foodbanks will realize that we are utterly dependent upon the support of our community. Our agency serves approximately 1,350 households every month and it is indeed a balancing act to keep a variety of quality products available to our clients. We are continually faced with difficult choices: Do we spend our money on protien rich meat sources or canned fruits and vegetables? Can we afford to buy butter or milk? Cereal or box dinners? And what about toilet paper or diapers? Our everyday challenge here is to maximize the donations from our partners and the community and supplement that food supply with staples that are funded by donations to our agency. As you might expect, though, the need is increasing and some of our major funding sources remain the same or show signs of decline. Coupled with that is the increased cost of food altogether – some products increasing anywhere from 5-20% versus just a year ago. So our challenge becomes all that more difficult.
We remind ourselves that people would much rather have the resources to purchase food at the corner grocer than come to our agency; so it becomes all that more important that we ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. A significant part of that experience will depend on the quantity and quality of food that we are able to offer them. If we offer them less than they feel they need or the quality of our products falls short, it sends a powerful message, however unintended, how we value them as individuals. In the end, it is our job to take what we have received from our community and do our best to share it with our neighbors in an equitable way that communicates our belief in the inherent dignity of every person. Sometimes, we fall short; but like everything we balance in life, we try again the next day, fixing what we can, accepting what we cannot change, and trusting we are doing the best we can with what we have.
What You Have to Give is Enough
“Whatever you do will not be enough, but it matters enormously that you do it.” Gandhi
When I began in this role nearly two years ago, I held on tight to an idealistic belief that our community can foster a spirit of compassion that refuses to accept living conditions that contribute to poverty. “Not in our city!” Time is a good teacher and my idealism, while still fervent, has mellowed with the reality of the struggle. Idealism has it’s place…but reality is never so simple. I’ve learned that true hunger is about so much more than the simple lack of food. Deeper than the physical pangs, we are also witness to a hunger of the human spirit, a hunger for acceptance, a hunger for healthy relationships, a hunger for meaningful work, and a hunger for an end to the struggle. The depth of the challenge does not go away with a box of food. People walk through our doors and share their plans for new and better employment, or resolve to leave a destructive relationship behind or a heartfelt conviction to deal with an addiction; and with each person, I affirm their choices with a firm belief that they will follow-through, yet not surprised when they don’t.
It wasn’t long before I realized that many of these life choices were more rooted in holding onto some hope of change than in reality of actually following through. While it is always hard to stand by as some people make similar choices over and over again, I am reminded we are all human. We all have a difficult time letting go of habits and belief systems, and need the change to start over and over again. So it is with many of our clients.
So we choose to hope…choose to believe…and choose to encourage the new beginnings of the individuals we serve. Perhaps this does not bring an end to a particular life crisis, perhaps it is not enough to cure hunger in Bremerton, but it what we have to give today; and speaking for myself, I am coming to accept and find peace with the fact that that is indeed enough.
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