It’s time, I think, for a minor extension of the Army Of Good. We started the program in 2016, and it has been successful far beyond my expectations. I have a new idea that fits like a glove.’
We all need ways of feeling good, and I think I have another one in addition to the refugee kids and the Mansion residents. We have a successful pantry, the Cambridge Food Pantry, and they’ve asked me for help dealing with the unprecedented requests for food from the parents of young babies needing formula to older people on social security who don’t have enough to eat.
Things are tough out there; people are struggling to feed their families.
The Army of Good idea is small acts of great kindness. We can’t fund a pantry this size, but we can help individual people such as mothers seeking formula.
We don’t deal in thousands of dollars or take on expensive projects. We find small ways of helping that have significant consequences.
A mother came into the local pantry recently to ask for help getting formula for her babies; she needs a lot.
The pantry couldn’t help her, but we could have; that is what we do and the sort of thing we do.
I asked Sarah Harrington, the new pantry director, to let me know when a person, family, or older person needed help. We can do what we did for Sue Silverstein and her refugee students and send things like formula to the pantry when needed, or I can raise some money and buy it, or food can be sent directly to the pantry.
She’s excited. I explained we didn’t deal in huge amounts and I needed to photograph everyone we helped so the people who help know who they were helping. We don’t generally send money to institutions but to people.
We’ll figure out the best way when people need some help with food. We all understand this and want to help when we can. I don’t know many things that feel better than helping a family eat. Sometimes it’s the smaller things that mean so much, as we demonstrated with the art students who needed a good breakfast.
Our work is vital when helping people is controversial and in decline. Our government is paralyzed, but people’s needs are growing. Sometimes we can help. This is right up our alley.
I’ll work on this over the next month or so and get back to the AOG when needed. This is another beautiful way to do some good in a troubled and angry time. We don’t have to be that way. It feels good to do good. I’ll be in touch when the new project is ready for us. Today, I have been exploring light, sun, and beauty in images.
I love the way the sun moves through our farmhouse in the morning. It looks great in black and white.
Kitchen windowsill.
Through the glass in the back door.
Succulents, back door windowsill
Zip taking his afternoon map on the back porch.
