The other day some asshole yelled at me: “Hey, what’s in the bags?” and this blog post is my response because in general, people who yell stuff at me make me feel afraid.
MOST Fridays before Shabbat service begins, my husband and I make an in-kind food donation to David D. Frazier Food Pantry at Jewish Family Services in Greensboro, North Carolina, on behalf of Temple Emanuel. https://www.jfsgreensboro.org/
Why?
My husband and I have been donating food for many years because it is the right thing to do. Neither one of us has ever gone hungry, but we have known people, families, and children who have gone days and weeks without food.
Can you imagine going to school without eating breakfast?
We never did. We both grew up in working-class neighborhoods, and there was plenty of default abundance we didn’t necessarily deserve but got simply for being white people. Food was never scarce.
But that’s not the case for most others.
I was teaching one day when a student of mine passed out at her desk and tumbled onto the floor. The security came quickly and EMS revived her. She hadn’t eaten for days. My husband is a teacher and has had similar experiences. If you teach children and young people you will hear these kinds of stories from other teachers.
My husband and I donate food because it’s a Mitzvah–A Jewish tradition, a commandment, an act of kindness, Tikkun Olam, Justice, an action to repair the world.
When we stop caring about the most vulnerable in the world we lose our human dignity.
When we stop reflecting on how good we had/have it compared to others we completely lose our perspective.
A MAGA confronted me at a political gathering once and said: “Hey, [Liberal Democrat] I don’t donate because it’s like you–you don’t care about me!”
He’s right. And I don’t have to worry about him either. I still worry a lot about the families I saw when I worked as a volunteer at a soup kitchen in his and my county.
If you work at a shelter or a soup kitchen you will see mostly complete families by the way. Small children. Babies. Grandparents.
My husband and I will keep on donating in-kind food as long as we can afford it. If you cannot afford it, please do not donate anything. Take good care of yourself and your family. But make sure you vote for laws that protect others from hunger!
As soon as this country quits passing laws that protect our most vulnerable we can no longer claim that our country is the best place to live.
For the record, hunger and starvation among elderly people in the United States is at an all-time high.
Finally, our favorite Rabbi in New York City gave us this piece of advice when we decided to commit to living in North Carolina for life: “Take care of your shul!”
And by that, he meant we should find ways to help out on behalf of everyone.
We donate food on Fridays on behalf of every member of our relatively new community.
For the record: the Jewish Family Services food pantry helps EVERYONE. If you are food insecure they will help you. No exceptions.
That’s what’s in the bags and that’s what’s going on inside my head!
Photo: a typical donation looks like this.
Mary Louise Penaz 
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