You’ve all heard of start-ups that get launched out of someone’s garage.  Well, Thrive blasted off out of a coffee shop, Bloc 11 in Union Square to be exact.  And, we continue to do some of our best thinking, our best drinking (caffeinated beverages only), and our best connecting there.

Yesterday’s Bloc 11 conversation centered around key topics for the coming months. Top on our list is planning out the details of our upcoming fundraiser at The Independent on May 16. Big, over-the-top, fancy events are not my cup of tea (or pint of beer) even though I know that they often provide needed funding for worthwhile non-profits.  So, rest assured this will not be one of those big fancy events.  It will be big.  And it will be an event. And it will raise much needed funds.  And it will bring together as many non-fancy people as we can find who care, and who want to have fun building community while feeding hungry kids. As the saying goes, “Be there or be square!”

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In reviewing recent donations to our fundraising site, I came upon a donation in an unusual amount. As always, I sent the donor a personalized thank you, and noted that if s/he were able to tell me, I’d love to know the significance of the donation amount.  Here’s what I heard back.

“My daughter is a student at PHA and the donation really came from her. We divide her allowance between 4 categories, Spend, Save, Give, and Invest. It had been a while since we discussed any gifting, so when she suggested PHA Thrive be her ‘Give’ for the year, the amount was what she had saved up. We’d done some of the math and our daughter was happy to find that her donation would cover one of her classmates for the rest of the school year and beyond.”

Given the state of the world these days how often do we hear about “collateral damage”?  It’s heartwarming to learn that PHA Thrive’s efforts to feed hungry children encourages such “collateral good”, allowing all of us the chance to experience the importance and reward of “Give”.

I am happy to report that as of today, March 6 we have provided needed food support to 20 children over 1 school vacation week and 3 weekends, providing 320 breakfasts and 320 lunches during times when these children may have gone without.  Pretty great, hunh?

But don’t take my word for it.  On Monday, March 2, Nurse Maureen received the following email message:  “Hi I  would just like to contact you to say thank you for the PHA THRIVE program. Its is so nice of you guys and it has helped us. … Thank you again so much.”

Meanwhile, though we started off pretty rough, and without much help from the winter weather, the process is getting better and a bit smoother each week.  Our patron saints at Food For Free upped their contribution with two cases of 100% juice boxes to accompany our weekly produce allocation. (Have I mentioned yet today how much I LOVE Food for Free?)  And we’ve worked out some better systems for packaging and distribution.  Just take a look at the neat packages put together for today.

Next up – we’re working on a variety of fundraising ideas for the spring.  Not to give anything away but one of them involves hors d’oeuvres and drinks of the adult variety in a local establishment that starts with “Inde..”.  Another involves a night out listening to music performed by our own Ms. D and her band in another adult venue.  Stay tuned, and quietly chant “hunger free PHA”…

So it’s another Thursday night of preparing packets of weekend food to go home with PHA children tomorrow.  Mostly it is busy work, pulling items from boxes and bags to put into other boxes and bags. Making sure that each packet has the right collection of healthy breakfast, lunch and snack items.  Bagging, wrapping, packing, loading them into the car.  You’d think it might be tedious work, work in which I would not find peace and joy.  But the opposite is true.   Here’s the deal – I currently work in an organization that is undergoing dramatic and disruptive change.  My day is filled with angst, confusion, frustration both mine and others’, and mostly around work that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, or having any real impact.  My work with THRIVE is work that matters, that hopefully is making a difference in the lives of children and families in my community. It’s work for which people regularly express appreciation.   It’s work that connects me with other’s in a rich and rewarding way. It’s work that opens doors to the school environment where my daughter spends her days.  And it’s work that puts other challenges, including those of my current day job, into perspective.

I like doing what matters.  THRIVE is helping me to thrive as well.

…like a herd of turtles down a cobblestone street.”  This was a refrain of my father’s whenever our large and somewhat chaotic family was finally getting out the door.  And it seems apt as a tribute both to my father and to all the wonderful people and efforts that have worked together to send our first 20 weekend food backpacks home last Friday.  In the midst of endless snow storms and resulting injuries, school cancellations, work cancellations, transportation challenges, supermarket lines, and other significantly challenging life events, we still got it done.

One of the things I like about this crazy weather pattern is that it can bring out a stronger sense of community, a sense that “we’re in this together”.  When I showed up at Food for Free this past week, two days later than my normal schedule due to the storms and my inability to get my car out, I was welcomed by Aida, Julio and Santana.  I had to leave my car with flashers flashing a bit farther out into the street than usual.  I had brought my friend Joanne along in case I needed help getting my car unstuck.  The folks at FFF, while always helpful, went the extra mile.  They insisted on carrying the cases of produce out and loading them into my car for me. And they insisted I take an extra case of produce which actually came in quite handy for the backpacks. Then, when I got back over to PHA, the facilities worker whose name I still don’t know, insisted on opening doors and carrying in the cases of fruit for me.  These helpful gestures made my day, and made me appreciate how much we are “in this together”!

This coming Friday kicks off school vacation week.  Let’s hope that we can make it through the snow to Market Basket, then through the snow-induced-panic lines.  And let’s hope that this Friday we can send home weekend backpacks of breakfast and lunch items accompanied by Market Basket gift cards to help the families get through the week.  Given what we’ve been able to achieve so far I think the odds are good.

…”Snowmageddon” will deter us from launching our food backpack program this week.

Last week included lots of online price comparisons which resulted in my ordering a variety of shelf-safe food items from Amazon.  They’re not kidding – you really can find anything on Amazon!  And there’s something wonderful about having it all just show up on your doorstep.  Then this weekend my good friend and Thrive supporter, Oliver, took me on a tour of Costco.  He has a membership, I do not.  I thought it might be helpful to check out the product and prices.  So Sunday morning, leading up to the Super Bowl and the next in our series of intense storms, we trekked to Costco in Everett where we were able to enjoy the company of nearly everyone in the surrounding communities.  It was a madhouse! But who better to share the experience with than Oliver?

Now my downstairs den looks a bit like a shelf-safe food pantry.  I can hear Nurse Maureen saying, “I thought we had agreed to have the food delivered and stored at the school?”  What can I say except that the best laid plans sometimes need to be adjusted.  Given the number of snow days recently as well as the navigational challenges, somehow it just seemed easier to do it out of my house this week.

Today would normally be the day I pick up the weekly produce from Food For Free.  When I checked in with them, they explained that even they would be working a “limited schedule” today.  I can’t imagine the challenge of navigating vans through all this snow to all the various locations where they pick up food that would otherwise go to waste.  It’s crazy out there!!  So I will collect produce from Christian and Julio tomorrow instead.

• Shelf-safe food – check
• Ziplock bags – check
• Bins for carrying prepared food bags – check
• Completed forms from families – check
• Plans for initial distribution process by Nurse Maureen – check
• Produce pickup –  tomorrow
• Confirm final count  – TBD
• Food bags packed and ready to go – Thursday evening
• Food bags delivered to Nurse Maureen – Friday morning
• Food distributed to kids – Friday lunchtime

Countdown to kick-off!!

“Check this out.”  That was the complete content of a message sent from Maureen, the school nurse, to Nancy, the school principle.  That along with a link to this PHA Thrive website.

And the immediate response from Nancy?  “This page is fantastic!”

Wow!  It feels wonderful to know that what we have been working on for the past year is coming together, looking good, building community, and gaining momentum.

Some of the highlights that convince me that our food program is really happening:

• the first 12 families have signed up to receive weekend backpacks.
• the $5K grant check arrived from MIT’s Community Service Fund.
• an additional $820 in donations have already come into our fundraising site.
• a commitment of additional support has come from Food For Free – they have offered to increase the amount and variety of food supplies they give us each week to supplement the backpack program.
• the network of social media connections to our efforts keeps expanding our community.
• the enthusiasm from the school keeps growing. Everyone from the principle, to the nurse, to parents and teachers are engaged and excited.
• and last but not least, all this positive energy fuels Aswita’s and my efforts to plan next steps and develop sustainable practices.

What does all this mean?  Food will start going home with children in early February.  Kids will no longer be hungry on weekends.  Our community will be stronger and better for it.  Life is good!

Yay!

Since last spring, I’ve been making weekly food deliveries to the PHA Webster Ave campus.  For a while last year, the routine was for me to drive into the back parking lot and leave the cases on the back stoop and call/text Maureen the school nurse who would arrange to pick them up and haul them up to her second floor office.  Relatively easy-peasy. This year, Maureen spent the first weeks running between the 3 PHA campuses, so the routine needed to change.  I’ve been pulling up as close to the front door of the school as possible, parking illegally with my flashers on while I dodge Webster Ave traffic with heavy crates of fruit.  Then one at a time, I haul them in.

1. Down the few steps outside.
2. Buzz the outer door.
3. Wait for the click that tells me the door is unlocked.
4. Enter and up the few steps to the main floor. Wait and hope that someone, maybe the same person who buzzed me in notices me and unlocks the second set of doors.
5. Then through the second locked door straight ahead down the hall where I stack the boxes outside the nurses office.
6. Back down the hall, the steps and out the front door.

Repeat steps 1-6 for as many crates as I have.  I get my workout.  Earlier in the year, when most PHA staff were oblivious to my efforts, I would sometimes go unnoticed at the door.

But things are changing and doors are opening for me.  My last two deliveries were welcomed by staff responding quickly to my buzzes, opening the second locked door for me, offering to help, expressing appreciation.  Life is good.

Now I just need to recruit a couple of additional delivery volunteers as backup…

Yesterday was my parent-teacher meeting regarding my daughter’s progress so far this year.  I arrived a little early and was waiting in the hallway outside the classroom for the parents ahead of me to finish up.  It so happens that my daughter’s classroom is diagonally across the hall from the nurse’s office.  And, the nurse is a key partner of mine in getting this food effort going.  Since we started getting weekly produce donations from Food for Free, the nurse has distributed those donations by way of a small healthy snack station just outside her door.  Sometimes it includes a cooler to keep drinks and other items cooler and fresher.  Yesterday it was a large fruit bowl filled with apples and bananas.

While I waited, I watched a mother with two small children walk by, notice the fruit, and instruct her children to each take an apple to eat.

This is what it’s all about.