Glenolden volunteers prepare food for addicts
GLENOLDEN » The living room in the North LLanwellyn Avenue twin had been completely overtaken by two foldout tables containing a salad-making station and rows and rows of brown bags, all intended for drug addicts and homeless in Kensington.
Maureen Kelly Kilmartin Carreno had about 20 people ranging from the age of 6 to their 70s in her house Saturday packing turkey and cheese, bologna and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches among other items into 100 bags to be handed out as part of “Operation In My Back Yard” today.
“They’re somebody’s children and sometimes people can turn their lives around,” Carreno said.
Nicole Bixler of Philadelphia founded “Operation In My Back Yard” in December as a harm-reduction advocacy group, giving addicts meals and access to medical supplies. Bixler works in the addictions field and her husband is a nurse.
Members of her group go to Kensington two to three times a week to care for those with addiction, whether it’s wound care or grilling some food.
Bixler was thankful for Carreno’s efforts.
“She’s great,” she said, adding that they were really appreciative. “It gets expensive and time-consuming.”
Bixler said all of these have positive impact.
“It helps them remember that someone is out there,” she saaid. “Just because they’re struggling with their addiction right now doesn’t mean they are any less of a human than we are.”
Carreno, who did another food bagging prior to Saturday and plans to do one every month, said the effort began weeks ago with collecting non-perishables. Then, Friday, she went to the store and made pasta salad so there would be a fresh homemade meal to give the Kensington community.
On Saturday, the food operation went live with stations of salad-making, sandwich-making and bagging and clean up.
Jessica Carreno is Carreno’s 27-year-old daughter who grew up with a givingback mentality, having volunteered at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and was assembling salads Saturday.
“I hope that it gives them the ability to think clearly,” she said. “I hope them gives them enough to have time to not worry about where their next meal is going to be.”
She wanted this act of kindness to potentially provide a second of serenity for the addicts.
Borough resident Donna Franz was making and bagging turkey, bologna and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“I believe that everybody should feel like they are loved and appreciated, and to give them a sense of value of life,” she said. “Even though they’re drug addicts, they’re somebody’s son, they’re somebody’s daughter. It’s an addiction, it’s a sickness ... They’re people too.”
Over the past five years, Franz has been volunteering with St. Gabriel’s Parish in Norwood through Catholic Social Services to distribute clothing and toiletries to the homeless in Chester.
She recalled meeting a woman there who had been a stewardess for 30 years. An alcoholic, she lost her job and everything she had and wound up on the street.
Of others she met, Franz said, “A lot of people are mentally ill and I feel like we don’t do enough to help the mentally ill.”
Carreno herself began her volunteer efforts back in the 1980s when she was working the ticket counter and baggage for Pan American Airlines.
“Sometimes we had lost luggage that we paid people out for and they didn’t care about having the stuff back and they were throwing them out,” she said. “So, I would grab all the lost luggage in a van and drive it down to Chester and would give it to the homeless ... That’s where it started.”
Then, in the 1990s, when she was going through a divorce, she thought she’d be of service on holidays when her daughter was with her dad.
“I didn’t want to sit around miserable,” she said.
Her efforts have continued through Saturday making the lunches and brownies to the delivery today.
Carreno said she’ll be collecting items for her next food bagging at the Aug. 25 Llanwellyn Avenue block party.
“I’m in it for the long haul,” she said. “A lot of our Delco kids end up there. So, we’re all in this together. If it’s ‘Operation (In) My Backyard.’ It’s my backyard. Our kids are going there.”