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.

Saturday Afternoon Sandwiches and Support for Women Victims of War

Cathy Naghitorabi and her family here in St. Petersburg opened their home this past Saturday to friends and guests for a sandwich buffet, followed by a presentation of a documentary about Women for Women International. 

Women for Women International is a fantastic not-for-profit started by Iraqi-American Zainab Salbi, assisting  women victims of war in healing from trauma, recovering their self-esteem and beginning new lives with the help of literacy training, business skills courses, micro loans--whatever it is the women need to begin new lives filled with hope and promise. 

It was a really nice afternoon of getting to know Cathy, her family and her guests, as well as a nice opportunity to learn more about a worthy cause and perhaps make a donation, which I don't think anyone left without doing since we found out our donations would be matched dollar for dollar through mid-November. Women for Women International offers those of us whose lives have not been touched directly by war the unique opportunity to reach out to victimized women in various countries through our caring and our contributions. 

Thank you, Cathy, for welcoming us into your home and giving us the chance to help other women make better lives for themselves. Since this was a buffet, we were invited to contribute sandwich spreads and condiments, so I brought along a bowl of my Amish curried egg salad. In the spirit of women sharing our resources with one another, here's the recipe for you to enjoy.

Amish Curried Egg Salad

6 hard boiled eggs, peeled

1 Tbsp. spicy mustard

1 tsp. beau monde or celery salt

curry powder to taste

mayonnaise 

 2 Tbsp. chopped pickles

1 Tbsp. chopped green onions

1 rib of celery, diced

Mash up the eggs and mix in the mustard, beau monde or celery salt, and enough mayonnaise to get a nice, creamy consistency. Sprinkle in and mix curry powder to taste. (We like it spicy, so I add about 1 Tbsp.) Mix in chopped pickles, green onions and celery. Makes enough egg salad for 3-4 hearty sandwiches.

 

Check out Women for Women International at www.womenforwomen.org .

Giving the Same Gift...Twice

Everyone is concerned about the economy lately, wondering about the certainty of our financial futures. When the global economy gets chilly, countries like America may sneeze, but the poor of the world catch a cold, if not pneumonia. 

If you are looking for some nice--and reasonably priced!--gifts for the upcoming holiday season, consider giving fair trade gifts this year. That way, you not only give a gift to the person receiving your present, but you also give the gift of financial livelihood to the struggling artisan who made that gift. These artisans aren't looking to buy video games or new outfits for their children for Christmas--often, their sales mean the difference between heat or no heat in cold weather, or food on the table, or their child's school tuition.

If you live in the Tampa Bay area, consider attending our Fair Trade Holiday Market at the Franciscan Retreat Center in Tampa on Sunday afternoon, November 23rd. If you don't live nearby, or live up north, consider giving a handmade gift like these lovely "gloves-to-mittens" convertible mittens, made by our friends, the women of Kullakas. They're only $23, and every cent of your purchase goes to the women themselves. They're especially handy if you work outside at all in the cold, or like to have your fingers free for driving but need the warmth of mittens when you get out of the car. They come in a variety of nice colors, but the nicest thing about them is how warm you'll feel inside, knowing you've helped a woman like yourself continue to care for her family in difficult times. 

Check out Kullakas web site at www.alpacaartisans.com . This is a new web site, and if you're experiencing any problems trying to put an order through, don't hesitate to email me at karen_rushen@yahoo.com, and I will be sure you get whatever it is you need. 

You may not be able to depend on the stock market or any given bank, but you can rely on the fact that when you help those far less fortunate than yourself in a generous and compassionate manner, you WILL find your own life blessed! 

A Creative Spin on Addressing Hunger

Debra McMasters of Clearwater, Florida is truly a creative soul.  She creates beautiful beaded jewelry to wear and sell, and she holds monthly spirituality evenings at her home where she facilitates viewing and creating art for spiritual growth and discernment. Debra is studying spiritual direction at the Shalem Center in Washington D.C. (she commutes for their distance learning program that meets throughout the year) and is especially drawn to the labyrinth as a spiritual tool. In fact, Debra has designed and facilitates canned goods labyrinths, whereby she works with a faith community to collect and lay out canned goods donations in the pattern of a labyrinth. Not only do people have a powerful sense of their collective efforts viewing all the canned goods laid out, but they are able to literally see how care for the poor and disenfranchised is integral to their own spiritual path as they walk the labyrinth. Walking the canned goods labyrinth, people are able to meditate on the reality of hunger in their communities, and what their possible response to hunger might be. Recently Debra held canned goods labyrinths at Church of the Ascension and Prince of Peace Parishes in Clearwater. Over three thousand pounds of food, and over a thousand dollars in financial donations, were collected.

Dollies Delivered to the Village of Benito Juarez

Here are some photos that were sent to me by our dear friend Pastora Gutierrez Reyes, who is the founder and leader of the Zapotec Indian women's cooperative Vida Nueva in the village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca State, Mexico. Pastora and the women of the cooperative have a heart for the poor, and from their modest earnings, fund many project to provide for the indigenous Mexican people in the surrounding pueblos. Recently, Pastora (above holding the bag of balls) and some of the women of the cooperative visited the tiny mountain pueblo of Benito Juarez to hand out the forty dolls our women made in August at the Doll Making Marathon Retreat.

Pastora writes, "Dear Friends, Many thanks to you for the gifts you sent us at Vida Nueva Women's cooperative. We planned a meeting to bring the dolls you sent along with the games we purchased to the girls and boys of Benito Juarez elementary school and kindergarten. The children's parents and teachers wanted to know about who sent the gifts, and we told them about you and the project between yourselves and the cooperative. They send their thanks to you and your community, and wanted to let you know that you have friends in the pueblo and are always welcome there. You have done a lovely thing, and every doll you made by hand is now in the hands of a child in the mountains of Oaxaca. The children were very happy, grateful for your generosity, and thought the dolls were beautiful. It was a privilege for the women of the collective, myself included, to deliver you gifts, and to see the children's happiness at receiving them. Thank you from all of us at Vida Nueva, Pastora.

Of course, it has truly been OUR privilege to be involved in this sort of exchange, and we are indebted to the women of Vida Nueva for giving us the opportunity to do something for the children of this poor and tiny village. In looking at these lovely photos, we've certainly received far more than we gave.

Another Doll Making Marathon....

It was doll making marathon number 2 at the home of Audrey Steele, where the goal was to finish 30 dolls to accompany Anna Reschar, RN, on a medical mission to Chulucanas, Peru in November. By 6 pm, the women had secured 31 handmade dolls to go to the Peruvian children. Everyone had a great time, there was more food than we could have possibly eaten, and several women brought their moms or daughters with them for a little mother-daughter bonding time. A lot of us learned we have more creative talent than we would have dreamed. Thank you once again to Audrey Steele, who worked with Anna Reschar to come up with this idea of making dolls for the children of Chulucanas, and for then opening her home and her heart to this project, and to the following women, who all contributed: Nancy Alonzo, Venisa Alonzo, Mauri Barnes, Holly Dodson, Sara Gallet, Jennifer Hall, Judy Hall, Charlotte Hoo, Cathy Naghitorabi, Carmen Ruiz, Pat Sams, Ellen Shelby, Christina Smith and Sonia Smith. 

Warm Wishes from Bolivia

The women of Kullakas knitting cooperative are sending a warm and cozy gift of hope and love to a suffering woman in Ethiopia. The women, from the impoverished district of El Alto, La Paz, Bolivia, prepared and sent this gorgeous hand knit blanket to an Ethiopian woman undergoing surgery for an obstetric fistula at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. Patients are typically in residence at the hospital recovering for two to three weeks, and use blankets as wraps and throws over their shoulders to shield them from  the chilly weather. Kullakas' mission statement states that they are committed to responding in solidarity to the situation of marginalized and discriminated women everywhere. Few women suffer marginalization and discrimination to the extent of fistula sufferers. A special thank you to "kullaka" (sister) Maria Villa, who knit this blanket with affection and best wishes for a rapid recovery and new life for its recipient.

www.alpacaartisans.com