Can I help?

“Can I help?” the young man with the intense stare said. Usually one or two of the people who come to our food closet pull us aside and say they want to help. Some appoint themselves a task, sweeping the walkway after all the pet food has been given away or refreshing the snack trays we put out for those who wait for their number to be called so they can go collect their grocery bags.


The men want to go downstairs and do the heavy lifting – bag the groceries, load the bags into the cars. They want to feel useful. When we can we make room but more often we say, “We actually have so many volunteers that we had to send some home today.”

It’s a good thing that so many people in our community feel compassion for those who go hungry. We use our talents to organize and staff an enterprise that distributes food and a chance for people to visit with each other. We don’t make much room, though, for these folks to join us in useful work.

Sometimes they make suggestions on our process, and sometimes their suggestions are good ones.

The young man with the intense asks why we don’t recycle.

“We have no staff to deal with the bins.”

“Why don’t we let the guy who collects cans for money be responsible for taking away our recycled bottles and cans?”

There’s a good idea.

Work is a sacred activity. When people are deprived of work – by economic downturns or by personal circumstances that prevent them from holding a job, their spirits are as depleted as their empty stomachs.

“I thought about getting here early because I knew someone would need to shovel the snow away so people could get here,” the young man said. “But I had to wait for a ride. When I got here, it had already been done.”

Those of us who are blessed with health and brimming with ideas need to stand aside sometimes to make room for others. They will have ideas of their own, and different ways of doing things that we may not like. But we will all be blessed in the give and take.