At Peoples Pantry we don’t just deliver food. We reconnect neighbours.
In his seminal essay ‘Body and the Earth’ Kentucky farmer, poet and theologian Wendell Berry critiques the disconnections in our modern conceptions of health.
‘Only by restoring the broken connections can we be healed. Connection is health. And what our society does its best to disguise from us is how ordinary, how commonly attainable, health is…
We lose our health and create profitable diseases and dependencies - by failing to see the direct connections between living and eating, eating and working, working and loving.’
When Elsa first came to the pantry she came from a cultural background where she felt uncomfortable just receiving food. Invariably she would relocate herself and her portions into our kitchen to just ‘whip something up’. Before long she was cooking lunch for volunteers and participants, with extras to share.
All this was shut down through the pandemic years, but as Pantry pivoted to a home delivery service to stay open, Elsa used her same community foodie energy to connect with households in her own neighbourhood.
Recently Elsa received the disturbing news that her long term rental was to be sold from under her for development. Her home filled with years of cooking, gardening and items rescued from op-shops to share with others was to be bulldozed for the kind of subdivision that characterises her changing suburb.
As we often hear, finding housing is difficult and through the drawn out process the anxiety was that Elsa may find herself homeless.
In what we describe as a pantry community ripple effect it was Elsa’s food delivery list who showed up for her. Some helped her in the overwhelming emotional and physical task of cleaning out her house; another pulled their knowledge to lobby local housing providers and even a politician to help her eventually re-settle, albeit an expensive one bedroom apartment!
This is what happens when we weigh connections not just kilos. A food delivery became a friendship. A friendship became advocacy. Advocacy became housing. When Elsa was vulnerable, the community carried her. Recipients become carers, and mutuality replaced charity.
Earlier in the year we told the story of an older man with very few family supports using the imagery of a ‘Psalm of Ascent’ to describe his physical battle to keep attending the food pantry.
This lead to meetings between new neighbours as random locals provided emergency ‘uber-ride’ style pick ups when he found himself stranded on the Flemington Hill.
Such connections means someones slowly deteriorating health get noticed as mobility needs change and our guests go from walking in, to needing assistance to needing a home delivery.
During this ‘World Cup’ football season a driver shared a story about a regular food hamper recipient who had once been a high level football coach. Unfortunately his circumstances has meant he has experienced a long term, toxic shared housing situation in which he has sometimes had to take the drastic action of choosing to sleep rough to preserve his mental health.
Knowing his love of soccer the driver invited this ‘semi-homeless’ man to his own grandkids soccer match.
The man was able to cheer on with the family and even offer some coaching suggestions and advice.
After the game he said ‘It was great to feel part of a normal family’
Next week as EOFY approaches we'll share some of the hard numbers in a difficult cost of living season of us all: kilos of food rescued, meals shared and households supported. Those figures matter. They help us measure the scale of the need.
But as Wendell Berry reminds us, connection is health.
What excites us most are the community ripple effects that can't easily be measured. A food recipient who becomes an advocate. A volunteer who becomes a friend. A lonely neighbour who becomes part of a community. Small acts of care that grow into networks of support that don't create dependency but belonging.
Healthy groceries help create healthy connections. And healthy connections build the kind of micro-communities of care that can transform lives, especially in those pockets of poverty and isolation that our delivery drivers can reach but often remain hidden from public view.
This work takes food, fuel, storage, vehicles, phones, coordination, advocacy and volunteers. But most of all, it takes people willing to show up for one another.
As we approach the end of the financial year, we'd love your help to keep these connections growing.
Donations are tax deductible via peoplespantry.org.au, and regular giving helps us plan with confidence for the months ahead.
Together we can do more than deliver food, we can reconnect neighbours.
Peace, Salām, Shalom.
Rev. Marcus, Tim & all The Pantry Peep’s!
