From our Director’s Kitchen a blog from Patricia Estabrook
Update March 15, 2020
Four years before I met Ray, at the tail end of a gray winter in Concord, NH 40 years ago I faced my first pantry challenge. I had been the director of a guardianship program for elderly patients at New Hampshire Hospital and the funding ran out. My last paycheck hit a snafu in the bureaucracy delaying my eligibility for unemployment compensation. I called my mother and she agreed to send me a check for $100 but it was delayed in the mail. And so one Monday I faced the week with $12.47 and almost nothing in the pantry. Since I had two pounds of pasta on my shelf I spent my last cash to buy pasta sauce and hamburger, enough to last until one of the checks came in. I skipped breakfast and ate pasta and sauce for lunch on Monday. That was OK. The next day it was still OK. By Wednesday I was getting a little bored with the menu but I was sure that help was coming at any moment. On Thursday I was starting to get really bored and a little anxious. After nine straight meals of pasta with meat sauce I was frantic so I called a friend and begged for a dinner invitation. She was glad to oblige and when I arrived at her warm cottage in the woods I imagined lentil soup, Brussels sprouts, hot dogs, anything but pasta and sauce! She met me at the door smiling and invited me in to a heaping plate of macaroni with meat and red sauce.
Both checks arrived the next day and I gleefully threw out the last sullen mass of pasta and sauce. I tell you that story from long ago and far away because it prefaces a confession. Even though I am deep into my self-imposed Pantry Challenge 2020 I could not face the fourth meal of spaghetti squash Bolognese and threw out the leftovers this morning. There, I said it, and am guilty as charged. We are having roast pork tonight.
Friends, I would like to take one more minute of your time today to beg for food. Now in the midst of the Covid-19 panic I urge you to think about kids in our community. Local schools have closed and so the Game Loft will be closing as well, but we will still need to care for kids in our community who are food insecure. At this moment we are setting the wheels in progress to feed kids with grab-and-go meals even as regular programs have closed. This is the kind of support that we provide the community. Please help it continue by giving generously today to the Game Loft. Please consider any amount, even $12.47 to help kids in need. We are relying on you.
