Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I’m excited about this week. Pantry Executive Sara Harrington and I launched a new Army Of Good project at the Cambridge Food Pantry in honor of Help Feed The Pantry  Children’s Food Week this coming week.

My color art and daffodil pictures are in honor of the Pantry kids.

Today, we chose fruit juices as the first item of the week. The program is new, different, and inexpensive. Today through Friday, we will offer five different foods for children, all urgently needed and affordable.

I hope to do this frequently, and I hope you can help. We hope to stuff this week’s backpacks—they are going to 66 children of Pantry families—with juices, soups, candy bars, healthy breakfast cereal, and soup.

The pantry always chooses expensive foods.

For $8.06,  we can each give 40 juices to kids for their lunch this week.  That launches this week’s program; the need is severe and urgent. Also on the list this week will be Instant Oatmeal, Chicken Noodle Soup, Cinnamon Life Cereal, and Chicken Ramen.

We want to stuff their food backpacks on Thursday with enough good and nutritious and wanted food for every kid of a Pantry family. Maria and I will be there on Thursday, stuffing the backpacks, which were 66 packs last week. The packs reach 66 families, and 180 children are served.

(Above, the food packs that went to the kids last week, we had to substitute some of the items; there wasn’t enough of what we wanted to put in the bags.)

These goods are foods the children want, need, or love. We can only work minor miracles, but the Army of Good has a rich history of working small miracles. Please check out the program—one food a day, one food at a time. It’s awful to think of children without enough good food.

My photos are always free. The food for the kids isn’t, sadly.

I hope you enjoy the photos. I loved taking them.

Daffodils

Against a gray sky

White Rose and Lianthus

I’m still trying to figure out the name of this one. You can check out the children’s food program here.

The Army Of Goods has done a fantastic job sending tens of thousands of pounds of food to the Cambridge Food Pantry. Thank you.

I want to focus our work this week on the urgent need to ensure that the children are getting the food they want and need and that the food backpacks we send them every Thursday are full.

(First Item:  Welch’s Fruit Snacks, Fruit Punch And Island Fruits, Perfect For School Lunches, Gluten Free, Bulk Pack, 08 oz, Single Serve Bags, Pack Of $40, $8.06. Think of it: $8.06 will buy 40 of these kids – members of families that use the food pantry a fruit bag for lunch.). The packs go to 66 families, and 180 children are served.

Every week is a struggle, and it’s a heartbreaking reality that children are going hungry or being deprived of the food they want, need, and, in most cases, love to eat. This is important; to be honest, it is urgent.

It was wrenching to see we had to stuff some of the backs with substitutes; the demand is always intense, and the food is always a challenge. We can’t work big miracles, but I love coming up with small ones, the specialty of the Army Of Good.

I know we can’t do this every week, but I hope we can do it this week and now and then. I just bought a bunch. I hope you can help these kids.

Along with Executive Director Sarah Harrington, we have this idea of choosing one food a day for these children today through this coming Friday. The items chosen so far, subject to change, are Welsh’s fruit snacks (today’s choice), instant Oatmeal, Chicken Noodle Soup, Cinnamon Life cereal, and Chicken Ramen.

(Harry helps pack the food bags and clean them up afterward every Thursday. As you can see in his face, he is a man of great heart.)

I’d love to show you some of the faces of these remarkable children, but that would make them uncomfortable, and I won’t ever do it.

These children have had a rough time, deprived of the food and snacks most children in America get to have. Every Thursday, Maria and I go to the pantry along with a dozen or more other volunteers, and we pack 66 backpacks (we call them backpacks or snack packs) and put in a healthy and nourishing mix of food, from a warm breakfast to chicken soup to fruit juice, etc.

Every week, the pantry struggles to fill these bags, often having to substitute other foods if they are available. We also stuff fresh apples, protein, and candy bars into the bags when we have enough, but we often don’t.

It would be excellent this week to know that these children get all the snacks they deserve to keep them healthy and boost their and their parents’ spirits.

We can help the pantry stuff those packs this week to the brim rather than scramble to fill them.

Today’s food will be Welsh’s Food Snacks. Like the others, the food will be on the Pantry Amazon Wish List all week.

If you prefer to shop elsewhere for the food for the children, the correct shipping address is Sarah Harrington, The Cambridge Food Pantry,  24 E. Main Street, Cambridge, New York, 12816. I know money is tight, but this is easy to do: $8.06 will help 40 children. The packs go to 66 families and serve 180 children.