
I remember during school, my sister and I would get pulled from class and eat our lunch early. Then we’d work behind the cafeteria counter, helping prep and serve food to the other kids. At the time I didn’t think about why that was, but later I learned this was a program to provide us with free lunch in exchange for work.
On our family’s tight budget, there wasn’t much room for fresh produce. For years I thought I didn’t like vegetables, because the only kind we ate came out of a can. I hated the taste - I’d rather risk a spanking for not cleaning my plate than eat canned spinach.
After high school and college, I traveled to St. Bartholomew's Church in mid-town Manhattan, and for a year I worked there with volunteers to help the homeless, the hungry, the elderly and struggling families with young children. Quite a change from Texas, St. Bart’s was my first real experience with a ministry of providing emergency food, clothing and shelter.
Over the past 13 years serving as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex, I have been asked to join the SSKP Board several times. In 2016 the timing was right. Today I work with the rest of the Board, an entity that I liken to being the physician for SSKP - carefully examining and “taking the temperature” - making sure the agency is in good health.
If the Board is like a physician, then the volunteers, the guests, the pantries, and the soup kitchens are the heart. I wanted to connect more to that heart, so this year I’ve joined a meal site team at the Tuesday dinner at St. John’s, as well as volunteering once a month at the pantry in Old Lyme on Saturday mornings. At the pantry, I have been helping guests with their shopping carts as they leave and I enjoy helping them put their groceries in their cars. It kind of takes me back to the very first job I had as a teenager. Recently, I helped a mom who was struggling with several bags of food and two young kids. She asked me to watch over them as she brought her car around. As I helped her put the bags in the trunk, I was grateful for her trust in me, and for the overall feeling of family, community and caring that the pantry creates.
SSKP is one of the finest non-profits that I’ve ever been affiliated with - I have never seen one so professionally run. The bar is set very high - but together we always meet the need.