Month: August 2021

Small Miracles – Foodbank Tales #2

On Wednesdays my husband Jack and I do a run together for Miracle Food Network.  We cram our small pickup truck full of food boxes, milk jugs and take-out pizza and drive to a trailer court north of town.  There are 55 to 60 single-wide mobile homes and trailers.  Busted windows, sagging stair steps and decks are part of the scenery though many residents also have small gardens, potted plants, holiday lights or some other touch that turns a house into a home.  We deliver to 11 trailers, approximately 28 adults and 20 kids, most from Central America or Mexico.

Shortly after we started this gig, I began to clear out my grandchildren’s leftover animal toys and action figures.  Remembering my own childish anticipation of a tiny toy buried like treasure deep inside each new box of breakfast cereal, one day I dropped a plastic animal in every food box, two for trailer # 2 which houses 7 kids and 3 adults.  My dentist donated some outdated tubes of travel toothpaste, which also went into boxes the following weeks.  Ann, a dedicated volunteer for the city library, donated some picture books, and we began to distribute those too.  In what I came to think of as my own income redistribution scheme, I haunted Little Free Libraries in established neighborhoods across town culling a small selection of books from each and eventually returning others.

Slowly we learned the children’s names:  Mariela, Sofia, Flora, Gabbi, Iris, Alan, Karen, Carlos, Diego, Leslie, Juana, Rodrigo, Tristian, Reina.  They would come to the door when we knocked or occasionally follow us around the trailer park on their bicycles.  I learned most – though not all – of the kids spoke English and preferred English language books, but I needed to speak Spanish to the parents.  Some spoke an indigenous Guatemalan dialect, so we communicated either through the children or with smiles and brief greetings.  One fine summer day I showed two little girls the latest books I had on offer and was rewarded with a big smile and a response I still treasure, “Me encantan los libros!”  (I love books!)

I passed that commentary on to Ann, and she rewarded me with more books.  Slowly I began asking which books kids preferred out of my stash, then more generally what kinds of books they liked.  Shy at first, they warmed up and showed up.  One day at trailer #15, Juana asked me if I had any chapter books.  I realized I needed to recalibrate and offer more than picture books.  A retired middle school teacher posted a notice on Nextdoor, and I collected three free grocery bags of chapter books!  Princesses, super heroes and unicorns were poplular.

As we completed our delivery that day to number #42, the last on the loop, Jack glanced up and saw 4 of the little girls reading their new books together, shoulder-to-shoulder, on a swing in the back yard.  The following week Miracle Foods added a new family, and we learned that Diego lives with three uncles and likes sports books.  At some point I got the impression that my book selection was, perhaps, kind of lame.   Maybe I needed to look for graphic novels and include comic books.  Ann suggested coloring books.  My friend Sally dónate 6 boxes of brand new crayons, color coordinated with sharp points.  This seems to be an intuitive sort of process as I record impressions and reactions in English, Spanish and Mam, a Guatamalan Mayan language, which of course I do not speak.

Who knows where this will lead us?  Fantasies of a future summer day find me sitting on that porch swing reading to Juana, Iris and Sofia in person.  Jack thinks about taking Builder Boards –  https://woodshop4kids.com  –  out to the trailer court and setting up a hands-on adventure.  No matter.  For now, families get food, kids get books (and toothpaste) and we get the satisfaction of knowing and serving a previously unknown part of our own back yard, a small miracle all its own.

Mike rescued his unusual looking cat from an empty apartment when he was just a small kitten.  Although abandoned by owners, Gato stayed alive for two weeks on his own by drinking water from the toilet and licking food bits off used paper plates and left-behind pizza boxes.  He was one dehydrated and very, very hungry kitty, but otherwise healthy.  Once Gato settled into Mike’s home and had his belly comfortably full, Mike took him to a local vet who drew blood and told Mike all about his unusual new super-sized kitten, including the fact that he would grow to be very large.

Every Wed. and Fri. we deliver food to families who need it.   In March 2020, when Covid-19 first reared its ugly head, there were many.  Now, sixteen months later, those hungry numbers keep climbing.  Stuck at home way more than I’m used to in the early months of the pandemic, I began to look for a local volunteer opportunity.

I heard they needed delivery drivers, so I called the Foodbank.  After a brief conversation, they told me I was too old – in a polite way.  Next I called Whatcom Unified Command, the top-dog organization coordinating services in case of county-wide emergency.  I filled out their forms and offered to drive my own vehicle to deliver food to those in need.  They had no problem with my advanced age.  “Alright, I thought, I’m good!  I qualify!”

My husband and I both got picture ID’s and shortly after, our weekly sign-up sheets.  Arriving at Civic Field on my first ever run, I pulled up to the loading dock behind a big box truck unloading delivery boxes from the Foodbank, which I then loaded into my truck.  I received a route sheet with addresses, phone numbers and a specified number of boxes for each household.  Everyone gets 2 except those with large families who may get 4 or 6.

Six months later, Whatcom Unified Command handed off to the Volunteer Center, reformatted our weekly-sign-up sheets and pick-up site.  We began picking up Foodbank boxes at the actual Foodbank even though the Volunteer Center continued to organize and oversee the delivery process.  Another six months passed, and the Volunteer Center handed off to …….. wait for it………. the Foodbank, who apparently changed their rules so those of us over 60 could continue to deliver the same food we had been delivering for a year and a half.  My suspicion is that most of the volunteers are, in fact, over 60 (and still capable of making informed decisions), so it is certainly in everyone’s best interests.

My pal Veronica and I deliver food together to people who don’t have cars or can’t drive because they are sick or disabled.  It’s a simple job, really, but in an odd way, quite interesting.  I’m curious by nature, and it gives me endless opportunity to poke my nose in neighborhoods all over town.  I have a friend who writes and publishes a podcast about her long, solo road trips crisscrossing the US. Cat is the first of a series of stories about the worlds shortest of road trips.

As we drive around town, we often stack boxes at front doors or on porches without seeing anyone.  Yesterday was different.  We delivered 2 food boxes and a pound of frozen hamburger to an apartment on Ferry Street.  A guy named Mike and his huge, long-haired, tortoise shell cat, Gato, came out to greet us.  We stopped to chat and pet the critter.  He told us his cat was a cross between a wild ocelot and a

Maine Coon – the largest ever domesticated cat.  It is one of the oldest natural breeds in North America, native to the US state of Maine, where it is the official state cat.

Mike and Gato were our last stop of the morning, so we offered them an extra package of leftover, frozen ground beef.   Joking, I said, “Gato might like this!”  Mike said, “Oh no, he only likes salmon I catch from the bay!”