The power of kindness — and a prayer
Woodstock Food Shelf volunteers prepare this year’s Thanksgiving baskets at the Mill Building near the food shelf location in Woodstock, Vt. (Gareth Henderson Photo)
This week, a group of Woodstock-area volunteers helped make Thanksgiving a brighter time of year for local families in need.
Saturday was pick-up day for the annual Thanksgiving Project by the Woodstock Community Food Shelf, in which families who have signed up get a Thanksgiving basket with a turkey and all the fixings. For decades, this effort has been supported by donations of food and money from the local community. The frozen turkeys were ordered ahead of time, picked up early Saturday morning, and brought to the Mill Building near the food shelf on Maxham Meadow Way in Woodstock. Dozens of families enjoyed receiving this special gift of a Thanksgiving dinner, which they otherwise would have struggled to afford.
In a Saturday interview, Sheila Murray, who leads the project and is the food shelf’s facility manager, spoke about what's most special about this volunteer work.
“It’s just rewarding to think that I’m helping someone without getting compensated for it, and especially with the Thanksgiving Project, when they leave with their basket and a smile on their face, just to think we’ve made their life a little bit easier,” Murray said.
Volunteers gathered to prepare the baskets at the Mill Building on Thursday and Friday. As the baskets lined the tables Friday morning, that atmosphere of community service and kindness was palpable and was underpinned by the decades of service the food shelf has given to those in need.
As many groups and individuals strive to help others during the holiday season, it’s encouraging to know that these efforts are not only providing families with food, but also with kindness and compassion, which help lessen fear and make the light of love shine a little brighter. That spirit is beautifully illustrated in a prayer which is displayed at the food shelf’s location. The food shelf actually started out at St. James Episcopal Church, before moving to its now longtime location on Maxham Meadow Way. The prayer, whose author is unknown, was written years ago, but it pours out a message of gratitude and hope that touches the heart in any season:
Prayer for the Food Shelf
We give thanks -
For those who first saw a need and created a Food Shelf
at the St. James Church where this need was attended to for so long -
For all the volunteers who make the food shelf run, unload, stack the shelves,
shop to find the best possibilities for what we might offer
and make the numbers add up with some degree of sustainability -
For all those who allowed this move to this new space to take place -
For all these who support this effort with their gifts and donations.
We give thanks -
And give voice to this hope,
That within this space, upon these shelves
People will find not just food, although we hope they will always find that
in some abundance,
But that they will also find a community’s answer
to the fear that so many know … many who may never come through this door
The fear of “What if I fell on hard times?”
“What if I ran out?”
“What if I was hungry and had nowhere to go?”
May everyone in our community and beyond know that upon these shelves
and within this space, at least, they will find an answer to that fear:
a generous and unequivocal
“We will be here for you, we will take care of each other.”
So may this Community Food Shelf be in so many ways
our assurance to each other that within this community
kindness and consideration are always stronger than fear.
So Be It.
—
The Woodstock Community Food Shelf serves anybody who lives in Vermont. People are asked to be registered and can shop once a week. The food shelf is open Monday from 4-6 p.m., Wednesday from 1-3 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, and it is located at 217 Maxham Meadow Way. They are closed the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. For more information or to donate, go to woodstockfoodshelf.org. Contact the food shelf by emailing info@woodstockfoodshelf.org or calling 802-457-1185, and you can also connect with them on Facebook. To mail a donation, send it to: PO Box 570, Woodstock, VT 05091.
Donations of non-perishable food items can be dropped off at the South Woodstock Country Store, Bar Harbor Bank in Woodstock, Mac’s Market in Woodstock, Teago General Store in Pomfret, Barnard General Store, and the Christian Science Society in Woodstock (when the flag is out). There is a food drive at People’s United Bank in Woodstock until Dec. 7.
— Gareth Henderson
