Derek's Food Pantry

26 January 2010

I drove over to Derek’s cupboard at 42nd and Parrish at 7:30 this morning. Derek Felton works at the coalition creating Hunger Fighter Network. He has his own food pantry in the basement of a church in West Philadelphia. Derek’s wife, Marlene, and Ana, who is a VISTA at the coalition, were working too. On the third Tuesday of every month he has a group of about thirty to forty elderly citizens come for a free breakfast and a lecture on resources for themselves and their community. None of the elderly were homeless, but they all did not look well taken care of. I helped set up the pastries. I served juice. There were blueberry pancakes, fried eggs, grits, bagels, scones, pastries, juice, tea, and coffee. Derek raffles off bags off four bags of groceries and three casseroles for the seniors just for attending. Everyone gets a ticket when they arrive. Every month a new speaker comes to educate the seniors about a specific topic. There were ten lectures last year. A few were: how to get along with frustrating people, how to grow your own vegetables, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, health care coverage, and how to save energy. The attendants really loved being there. They were incredibly polite and sweet. One of the men asked me if I was from Philadelphia. He did not think I was because, “We don’t make girls as pretty as you in Philadelphia.”

There was no speaker at this meeting. Derek asked them what speakers they wanted for the upcoming year. One of the women there asked Derek to leave the room. She asked everyone if they could contribute something to Derek because he pays for all of this almost by himself. Most people have a quarter or a dollar. They were so appreciative. The whole experience was truly heartwarming. Derek said he had never accepted money from a client before, but that he would accept this as seed money because he was going to let it grow and give it back to them. He cried a little bit. When everyone left, we cleaned up. Derek’s wife was very interesting. She invited us to her church and told us about being a jazz singer in the shore towns of Maryland. I did a lot of dishes, swept, mopped, and cleared away all the chairs.

Ana and I drove back to the Coalition. At 3:00 I had a meeting with Rachel, Tanya, and Ana to discuss what I would be doing for the next few weeks. I am helping Ana out with the Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen Survey. They need 70 more surveys completed in the next 2 weeks. Ana gave me a list of FPs and SKs in South and Center Philadelphia to call. As I surveyed them, I would also set up days to go volunteer, interview the workers, and take my pictures. I would also be helping with the data migration for the launch of Sales Force. I finished up my follow-up cases till I went home.