Creative Ways to Feed the Hungry...and the Heart

I received an email from Rose Berry of Tomah, Wisconsin the other day after sending out a query to some of the women who have been featured in the quarterly newsletter Global Women's Artisan Alliance, asking them for an end of the year "report" on what they're up to. (If you're like me, and you like to sit down and read "hard copies" of stuff over a cup of coffee, email me at karen_rushen@yahoo.com and I'll put you on my mailing list for the newsletter.) Rose is really a remarkable woman who, I regret, lives nowhere near me! She had just gotten finish baking 400 bagels and buns for two fundraising suppers; one to raise money for a church, and the other for a mission in Haiti! Rose says both these suppers usually feed 100 people and make about $500 each!

Now as if that weren't enough, Rose and a friend spent the last two days out at an orchard, where the owner told them to pick all the apples they wanted for a local food pantry. So Rose and her friend got eight children together--including a two year old!--and picked over a thousand pounds of apples for economically disadvantaged individuals and families! Luckily the weather in her part of Wisconsin was up in the high 60s--a lovely Indian summer spell! Everyone enjoyed cinnamon roll snacks with juice and coffee while picking apples. The adults got some exercise and the kids learned about helping others while having a blast!

Now I have to admit, when I read this, I got feeling a bit envious. First of all, I miss the days when I lived up north, and spent summers picking wild raspberries and strawberries, and foraging for black walnuts in the fall. I can remember going out picking blueberries with one of my girlfriends, or getting Michigan peaches off of trees in friends' yards and making the best jam with them! Here is Florida, this time of year, I'm often able to get a stray grapefruit that's fallen off of someone's tree and rolled into "public property", and every now and then I'll find an acquaintance who will let me pick leftovers off of their lemon or orange trees, but somehow it's not the same. There is something about gathering your own food from the wild that I find tremendously satisfying--not to mention that it usually tastes so much better. I miss being out in the bush and bramble in the summer, and I miss the crisp air and beautiful foliage you get up north this time of year. And I especially miss not having a friend down here with whom to go "picking stuff". Still, this morning I sat bare foot with my cup of coffee besides the lake outside our front door, and watched the heron and egrets hunting up their own breakfast from the shore. Florida too has its distinct advantages...

It's wonderful to have our little crafts group here in St. Petersburg, and to have a group of women with whom to make stuff. But Rose has inspired me to think of ways that maybe I could do something around food "gleaming"--taking the leftovers--for our own local poor and hungry. Now I just have to go dig up some "allies" among my crafty women friends. This is a tough year, and we're getting a record number of requests at the hospital for holiday assistance from folks that are just making it from day to day. Getting outside and gathering food for others would be a wonderful way to feed their tummies--and my heart and spirit. Thanks, Rose, for inspiring me to think a bit outside the box--I'll keep you all posted if I go anywhere with this idea.