Newsletter

"When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and the resident foreigner. I am the Lord your God.’”

When I was about ten years old, my mom and I went to a fast food place together. After I ate my food, I told her I was still hungry, and asked if I could get more food. She agreed and, instead of going back up to the counter to order with me, she handed me money to pay for myself, along with a clear set of instructions. "You can get what you want, and use this to pay for it, but there's a rule when you come here with me: If you get any coins back in your change, you have to put them in the donation box." 

That was my introduction to gleaning. 

In the biblical passages about it, the focus is on not being too precious with your harvest: don't go back over your fields with a fine-toothed comb to get every last grain of wheat; don't fastidiously make sure even the tiny corners are harvested; instead, do an adequate job of harvesting, take what you get on the first pass, and let those in need have what remains. What was left behind - the gleanings - would be enough to feed some of the neediest people in your village for the winter, and would factor very little, if at all, in your net harvest.

It's a great system for an agrarian society to look out for its most vulnerable members. It's also something that, if taken literally, really doesn't apply to the 98% of Americans who are not farmers.

As we enter into the traditional harvest season for our region, I am inviting us all to reimagine what harvest - and gleaning - look like in our society. This month I invited the children of our congregation to bring in jars of their favorite "sandwich spreads" (peanut butter, jelly, jam, sun butter, honey, fluff, etc) as a representation of the harvest, and to place a dollar under each jar as a representation of leaving the gleanings. The spreads and the money will of course all go to our food pantry when harvest season is over.

It's a great start, but we don't have to stop there. Here are a few other ways we could practice a modern twist on gleaning.

-Pay for things in cash and keep the change in a jar or bucket. When it's full, convert that change to bills and donate it to a worthy cause.

-Say "yes" when asked if you want to round up your order for whatever cause the local business is supporting.

-Take advantage of "buy one, get one free" sales and donate the free item.

-Participate in harvest recovery efforts through the National Gleaning Project (nationalgleaningproject.org).

-Cook too much food for your family and share the excess with a neighbor in need.

-Find your nearest Little Free Library or Little Free Pantry and make a donation (or, if there isn't one nearby, maybe be the one to start it!)

This is a short list, and surely not comprehensive. I invite you to consider ways you might add to it, and share them with others. I'd love to be able to revisit this in a few months with a report of all the ways our church family practiced gleaning, and found abundance in that which was previously overlooked. Happy harvest season.

Blessings,

Pastor Shea

In our September newsletter we reached out to you to be a part of raising money to purchase Christmas gift cards for our Food Pantry families. To make this a reality we decided to make a second request in this newsletter.
We currently serve between 35 and 50 families each month: 104 children, 116 adults and 30 Seniors. The HFP obtains the largest portion of food through the Food Bank of Central New York in Syracuse. By buying food in bulk, it reduces the cost. The HFP also receives free food which is often government or surplus food. People in our community also donate food. The HFP spends between $1,000 and 2,500 monthly.  Local donations from our community cover the cost of monthly purchases to keep the shelves stocked. Thank you to our faithful donors.
Last Christmas we were not able to offer Christmas gift cards because we were not able to raise enough money to cover the project. We need at least $1,250 beyond our monthly expenses. Please join us to make this happen.
 

Hammond Food Pantry
Jen Gardner, Director   315 324 5940
Diane Ayotte, Emergency Food and Treasurer  315 775 3557
Judy Hays, Food Sense  315 528 9067
 

2024 Dates
October 24
November 21
December 19
 

Donations
Hammond Food Pantry
PO Box 193
Hammond,New York 13646
 

Hammondpresbyterian.org
Click on “Give Now”
Option to designate gift for the Hammond Food Pantry

The other morning, my daughter was telling me as we were walking to school, that the tummy bug was going around school again. Last year, in early spring, I received a phone call from school that my daughter’s stomach wasn’t feeling well and that a lot of kids in school was having the same issues and all being sent home. I was on my way to the store when I got the call, so I quickly turned around and headed back to the school. As I was waiting for my sweet little girl to come out, I heard a child in the hallway getting sick. I didn’t realize at that moment that it was my child. So, when I was buzzed in by the office secretary, I quickly came to the aid of my sick little girl. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur, because my husband got sick a day and a half later, and I got sick shortly after that. My son hid in his room, wanting nothing to do with anyone in the house. He came out to grab food (which he brought back to his room because he didn’t want to be around any of us.) and go to the bathroom. One night, my son (please remember, he is diagnosed with Autism so there are times when I have to walk him through certain processes) said to me, “Mommy, I’m hungry for some supper. Can I have pizza?” Knowing there was left over pizza in the refrigerator, I knew I had to walk him through what he needed to do, so I said, “Okay bud, get the pizza out of the fridge. Then put the pizza on a plate, then….” He interrupts me saying “Mommy, what number on the microwave do I have to press. I know all the other stuff.”

It was at that point that I knew God was giving me a break. Everyone, except my son, was so sick in the house. My husband would try to get up and make us toast, I would try to get up and make sure everyone had enough water to try to stay hydrated, and God was helping to take care of my son. Because in that moment of my son being frustrated with me not cutting to the chase, I realized God was giving me a break. It’s those little things that happen that we might overlook that we need to stop and realize that God is at work.

 We are collecting items for Church World Service School Kits. These kits will be sent to CWS for distribution anywhere where there are children who do not have the basic materials to succeed in school. Each kit consists of the following: Three spiral bound, 70-page notebooks, one handheld pencil sharpener, 6 unsharpened pencils with erasers, one large eraser, one pair of blunt scissors, one 12-inch ruler, one box of 24 crayons. If you choose to donate several of one item, these will then be combined with other donations to complete the kits. This project will be ongoing for another month, so there is lots of time to take advantage of all the back-to-school sales going on. Let’s help all those eager students who will benefit from your help. There is a donation box in the dining room and lists of items on the back table at church. Many thanks for your generosity.