BLOG: Around the District: Visiting Hebron Food Pantry
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As a businessman, I enjoy learning about creative ways that the private sector is working to meet the needs of the community. Not-for-profit organizations often find innovative ways to meet existing needs without the creation of massive government programs. Last week, I was honored to take a tour of the Hebron Food Pantry in Attleboro, a good example of one of these innovative nonprofits.
Operating out of Centenary United Methodist Church, the Hebron Food Pantry is the only nonprofit in Massachusetts that assists low income or "working poor" with access to healthy and nutritious food. All other food pantries or food banks require that the participant qualify for food stamps or other government programs.
We met with Rev. Lehlohonolo Montjane from Centenary UMC and Michelle Burch, the director of Hebron Food Pantry, for a tour and a discussion about the struggles and challenges that the organization faces in serving this community.
Like almost everyone that I meet with, the clients of Hebron Food Pantry are struggling in this economy. These are the people who fall through the cracks of our social welfare net. They work and make too much to qualify for food assistance programs such as SNAP (formerly food stamps), but they still can’t make ends meet. Many of them are seniors or parents. Since the economic downturn in 2009, the Pantry has seen a 30% increase in demand without an increase in resources to supply those needs.
Unlike many food pantries, visitors to Hebron can do their own shopping and food selection. The food pantry is set up like a grocery store, and shoppers can select non-perishable foods such as canned vegetables, rice, beans, pasta and canned meat. Hebron also works with local grocery stores and vendors to provide a free selection of fresh meat, baked bread and produce.
“I try to get food that is healthy and nutritious,” said Burch. “By picking their own box, visitors can maintain their dignity and self-respect.”
Each week, Hebron distributes between 8,000-10,000 pounds of food to the community. Through partnerships with the Greater Boston Food Bank, the pantry can purchase about $100 worth of food for only $5.
Like any entrepreneur or start-up, nonprofits like the Hebron Food Pantry see a need in the community and seek to fill it. I hope that others in the area will join me in supporting the work that the Pantry does in the Attleboro community
Through September 30, we will be collecting food at Bielat for Congress offices in Foxboro and Newton. Please stop by with a donation of a non-perishable food item. Whether you are stopping by the Foxboro office to pick up a yard sign or the Newton location to phone bank, please help the campaign give back to the Attleboro community and fill a need that our government entitlement programs are failing.
Gretchen Robinson
6:08 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
I haven't met Rev. Lehlohonolo Montjane yet, but in my book she's a star. Welcome to Attleboro Rev. Montjane!
paul
7:16 am on Sunday, September 23, 2012
Most Republicans want all these lazy (working poor) people to get up and find more work. Why does Bielat care about the poor people of Hebronville? Could it be that a poor persons vote counts the same as a Republicans? It's good to know that people still help each other out without the government. Will Sean still help after Nov. 6th?
Emcee of Seekonk
7:48 am on Sunday, September 23, 2012
Republicans will strive to give the working poor better paying jobs. A lot of people in the area work all day for under $10 an hour and pay some taxes on the earnings, to boot, plus they are subject to all the state sales taxes that the rest of us are. For some, life is not too wonderful under the Democratic regime of Massachusetts.
Good for the Hebron Food Pantry for what it does.
As far as Joe Kennedy vs Sean Bielat, I think they will both do what they can as junior representatives in congress, only Bielat will show up for the job more often.
Kurt Buermann
11:30 am on Sunday, September 23, 2012
Emcee,
You opine that “Republicans will strive to give the working poor better paying jobs.”
Inasmuch as republicans have consistently quashed Obama's (even their own!) jobs bills (including the veteran's jobs bill), voted against minimum wage increases and tried to destroy unions, They don’t seem much like friends of the working poor. Republicans live in constant fear that someone will get their money. They persist in the debunked, unfounded belief that most people would rather take welfare and do nothing. They think anyone other than themselves is shiftless and lazy. They are, deeply pessimistic about humanity. With republicans it is all about me! me! me! They think that personal success is entirely due to their own efforts. Gollum, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and film) embodies this conservative mind-set.
(http://www.lord-of-the-rings.org/books/gollum.html )
Republicans constantly complain about taxes.They seem unable to grasp the spiritual paradox embodied in Christian (and all other) religions that: In order to keep what we have, we must give it away. As the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
(Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:5-15)
Emcee of Seekonk
11:57 am on Sunday, September 23, 2012
Remember that Republicans have control in the HR only. Bills are submitted to the Senate that never see the light of day. Why? Harry Reid doesn't want any bi-partisan success that might put the Republicans in a good light. He wants the population to believe exactly what you believe.
About the Republicans being worried about their money, I hope you realize that there are many, many Republicans who have no money to worry about. They are among the unemployed and underemployed, they are often known as Evangelicals, sometimes Catholics, sometimes Protestants, maybe even Jews. Plus, if you'd look at a list of 1%'s, you'd find as many Democrats as Republicans, if not more. You'd see Kennedys, for example.
Fiction is a wonderful tool to present a POV, or make a statement. But, it is just that: one person's POV.
deb of see-attleboro
12:00 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2012
Please. Again. I ask those who are not on "the journey" please refrain from using The Word to score political points.
If we all took a vow of poverty, the political class would get nothing. AMEN to that!
Kurt Buermann
6:47 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2012
deb of see,
The christian church seems to have no qualms about using the Word ( λόγος ) to policital ends. The Word is certainly not exclusive to any one religion or belief.
___
“It is basic Christian doctrine that the Holy Spirit may act wherever and whenever. Presuming to constrain the activity of the Holy Spirit - to limit God Himself- is not the way. Orthodoxy recognizes and accepts the mandate to seek Truth and to follow the Holy Spirit wherever He leads, including in other religions or philosophies when his Truth is to be found”
__
Zescs, "The Holy Spirit". Seminarion Theologon Thessalonikes. No. 5 (1971) pp. 188ff. Emmanuel Clapsis,
"The Boundaries of the Church: An Orthodox Debate", The Greek Orthodox Theological Review. Vol. 35, No. 2
deb of see-attleboro
7:01 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2012
Just a question, Sarek. Do you believe the Holy Ghost was speaking through you at 11:30am this morning?
Gretchen Robinson
8:43 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2012
Lot of 'holier than thou' here today. I've always been a 'go in your closet (room) and pray person myself. Too many sanctimonious leaders out there.
Kurt Buermann
11:41 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2012
deb see,
Whatever we say, even if it is to order a a pizza, the utterance come from the same source as the "Holy Ghost" as Christians call it.
What I am saying is that no religion or philosophy has a monopoly on ultimate truth.
No one belief system is more valid than another. This certainly does not prevent us from believing in whatever we believe in or limit our path tos pirituality.
Emcee of Seekonk
7:37 am on Monday, September 24, 2012
"... no religion or philosophy has a monopoly on ultimate truth." True
"No one belief system is more valid than another." Very True
"This certainly does not prevent us from believing in whatever we believe in or limit our path to spirituality." Very, Very True
And that is our theology lesson for the day, although I don't know what it has to do with Sean Bielat visiting the Hebron Food Pantry which happens to be located in the Centenary United Methodist Church.
It would seem to me that the peoples of the world spend an awful lot of time and bloodshed trying to convince and convert other folks into believing as they believe whether it be a religious philosophy or a political ideology. The truth is I can never convince you to think as a Republican, nor can you convince me to think as a Democrat, so why do we keep trying?
Kurt Buermann
9:31 am on Monday, September 24, 2012
Emcee,
You touch on the nub of the matter: "The truth is I can never convince you to think as a Republican, nor can you convince me to think as a Democrat, so why do we keep trying?"
The value might be not in convincing each other of our political beliefs, but rather in the argumnents back-and-forth in itself. Imagine if the democrats held absolute sway. Or if Republicans ruled unfettered.
It would be as if we were in a runaway car on a mountain road. This one would say step on the brakes hard as you can.(The brakes would burn out.)The other would say don't use the brakes at all.( We'd be certain to run off the cliff.) Our lives depend on a compromise with something in between.
Emcee of Seekonk
12:16 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Compromise is one thing, but what goes on in campaigns and even on this blog is two sides digging in for a good fight. Everyone gets bloodied and at the end of the day, nothing changes. The working poor are still queued up at the Hebron Food Pantry.
Eventually, someone gets elected by a small majority of the popular vote, and the others resent him/her and start arming themselves for the next fight. After all, the spoils include incredible wealth, the manipulation of it, the power of it, the accumulation of it, etc. And the working poor are still queued up at the Hebron Food Pantry.
I understand your theory and it makes good sense. Putting it into practice is a bit difficult.
Gretchen Robinson
6:56 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Emcee, glad to know you are non-violent. I wasn't so sure about some who posted in the past....
note that most of the wealthy are Republicans....
and people like Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett have given away a significant part of their wealth for the betterment of human-kind. And none of those three is a theist (none thinks there is a god).