Kindness in crisis: how people’s generosity shines in today’s world

With kindness often in short supply in our polarized world, generosity shines brightly. Anonymous generosity shines even brighter.

This month, the number of neighbor gifts has been nothing short of amazing. Thank you. Our mission would be impossible without your volunteerism and continued pantry donations.

Recently, a new corporate food donor, South Atlantic Packaging, connected with a Feeding Team volunteer offering a donation of popcorn, water, and pancake syrup. Two of our folks made an appointment to meet the donor at his business along with our friends from Gaylor Electric, who graciously provide truck transportation and logistics support for the Feeding Team.

Setting the scene, they arrive to discover that this was not a normal donation. Upon arriving the team learned that this was 17 pallets of food.

Yes, 17!

Each pallet held 400 items for a total of 6,800 individual food items. Thank goodness Gaylor brought a pallet jack, or we never would have been able to load and unload this much food. Fast forward a couple of hours and amazing volunteers had unpacked and moved 10 pallets of food, or 4,000 items. There were large boxes of food in the box truck, in the shed, in the trailer and in the offices. Oh, and seven pallets still outside tarped up for overnight protection.

The next day, volunteers descended on the 2,800 remaining items, scurrying around to get the pallets cleared and the food stored as a storm approached. The good news is that they succeeded in managing the single largest donation and unpacking in our history before the storm. Then to top it off, they distributed 200 bags to volunteer pantry hosts as part of their normal food pick up.

Talk about sovereign timing! Talk about generosity shining!

Click here to watch a Facebook Reel of the unloading and sorting process.

 

 

 

In a day and age when many corporations only worry about their ROI, I am happy to write about companies that worry about neighbors, too. They took extra products and put them into The Feeding Team model to serve hungry neighbors in central Indiana.

These are wonderful reports, and they offset an unfortunate truth: food charities sometimes have to get through people’s greed in order to get to other people’s need. We have learned to take the good with the bad. On the same day we celebrate the people who made the magic of the day happen, SUV lady showed up. That is what we call her, SUV lady. She and her partner come to our pantry once or twice a week and clean it out. We have spoken with her a few times when she engages with a volunteer. SUV lady knows that the pantries are there to provide a few meals for many people, not many meals just for her people. Yet, she proceeds to take and take, even giving the security camera at the offices the joy of a middle finger salute.

These are the challenges of an honor system food pantry. There are some people to whom honor does not matter.

Undaunted, we proceed celebrating the wins and people’s generosity. We celebrate getting through greed to needs. We have learned over the years that for every SUV lady, there are many families who respect the model, take what they need, feed their families, and often return later to give back some of what they have.

Generosity shines brightly here in our neck of the woods.

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With over 44,000 food-challenged neighbors in Hamilton County, FeedingTeam.org is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that provides outdoor 24/7/365 no-questions-asked free food pantries throughout the county.

The pantries exist to meet the food insecurity needs of gap families, neighbors who may not qualify for public assistance and could use a few meals before payday. The pantries serve as many food-challenged neighbors as possible, and our hearts are with those who, like my family, could not always make ends meet.

Thank you for supporting the pantries. We love serving with so many neighbors across Hamilton County. In future columns, we will share more stories about how your generosity served neighbors in times of need. The face of hunger in Hamilton County is not what you may think.

In practical terms, this straightforward way to help neighbors is having real impact on lives, families, and our communities. Thank you. A few meals can change the course of a person’s life. A can of green beans means so much more when you have nothing to feed your kids.

Would you like to get involved? Volunteer opportunities are available. We are evaluating new pantry locations. If you think you have a potential location, please contact us.

Mark and Lisa Hall are the Founders of Feeding Team. They may be reached at lisa@feedingteam.org and mark@feedingteam.org or by calling (317) 832-1123.