Food brings my community together
OPINION: When my family first moved into our neighbourhood, I was stoked.
We were no longer helping to pay off someone else’s mortgage, the commute wasn’t terrible, and we finally had somewhere to call ‘‘home’’ . . . which was especially important because shortly after the move we discovered we were expecting our second child.
There were a fair few cons though.
We didn’t know anyone in the neighbourhood, we’d barely even driven through it before, and the house needed a lot of work (and has consequently cost us a lot of money).
Then one day, as I strolled through the local park, I discovered a little food pantry tucked under the eaves of the community centre. Suddenly, my perception of my little corner of New Zealand increased in leaps and bounds, so much so that I’m not sure I want to leave.
Our food pantry literally brings my community together. It’s always filled to overflowing with fresh produce, canned goods, bits and pieces from the pantry, and dollops of love to serve it all up with. During lemon and feijoa season there are more ingredients for preserves than you can shake a sterilised jam jar at. Every morning (and this is probably my favourite bit), a local supermarket delivers yesterday’s unsold bread to the pantry. And whenever someone adds something new to the booty, they pop a note on our Neighbourly page so anyone who’s hungry, strapped for cash, or simply not organised enough to have gotten something out of the freezer that morning won’t go to bed hungry.
A few weeks ago, I strolled past the community pantry and noticed that a fridge had moved in.
A note on the front asked pantry deliverers to avoid using it for the moment, but that it had been donated to the pantry by a local business and would be functional soon.
Sure enough, after a thorough spray-and-wiping, the fridge was up and running a few days later –
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and almost at capacity with yoghurt, cheese and neighbours’ leftovers that were too good to throw away.
Now, in addition to all the dried, canned and don’t-have-tobe-in-the-fridge goods, my community has a way to keep food chilled.
Just tonight I saw a man cross the road holding two bags of fresh(ish) bread. He’d obviously nipped down to the pantry in search of something to fill his cupboards (perhaps his tummy) and thankfully there was something waiting for him there.
I don’t know this man’s history or living situation and, frankly, it’s probably irrelevant.
What I do know is that if our community can pool our leftover resources to fill the tummies of anyone who lives nearby, we’re doing a good thing.