Giving back

Today, I visited the Mobile Foodshare site at the United Methodist Church on Farmington Avenue in Hartford, where they were distributing sweet potatoes, pineapples, carrots, and fresh sweet peppers.  The wonderful group of volunteers at the church told me and State Representative Matt Ritter who stopped by, that they sometimes serve as many at 300 people.

The highlight of the visit for me, though, was when a lady came up to me and asked if I was Gloria.  She told me that her name is also Gloria, that she is retired and that the food from the truck has been a great help to her.  She said that she tries to send in small donation to Foodshare whenever she can to support this work, not only for herself, but for so many other people in need in the community.  She told me that she felt like she knew me from reading my letters and our newsletters over the years.

This kind of thing happens so often - people who are receiving food wanting to give something back and volunteering or offering a small donation.  Call me naive, but over the years, I've become convinced that this kind of thing happens much more often than any kind of fraud or abuse of the system!