Community lends helping hand

By Sarah Pettigew
Guest Writer

To say that the current economic climate is tumultuous would be an understatement. For many of us in Michigan as well as around the nation, layoffs, plant closures and store liquidations are almost so common place that our ears no longer perk up with a jolt of shock when they're mentioned on the news.
When I drive through my once seemingly affluent hometown, the neighborhoods are dotted with auction signs on homes that have weathered foreclosure. The costs of our groceries escalate even as our ability to pay for them diminishes, and many of our neighbors wonder just how they'll keep it all together enough to move one day further.
However, I am exposed to another type of reality. For two years, I have been a part of a free community meal program that serves bi-weekly meals at First Congregational Church in Wyandotte.
As a regular, cook, server, greeter and volunteer coordinator there, I have almost seen it all – young women barely surviving beatings by enraged boyfriends, elderly folks sleeping in cars and traveling from place to place, children with no mittens in winter from homes where there is little to eat, couples who have worked all their lives suddenly faced with joblessness, victims of crime and sufferers of illness.
These are the images people expect to hear about when I tell them I am affiliated with a soup kitchen.
The unanticipated reality that overshadows these bleaker images, however, is a reality of hope.
People often ask me if it depresses me to share meals with those who struggle. In truth, I have been humbled, cheered, and inspired by not only the triumphs of those guests from our community meal program who overcome the adversity of daily existence, but also by the outpouring of generosity and support from local churches, businesses, and individuals that continues to foster our very important work.
When our larder is looking a little worse for the wear, a stranger will ask if we accept donations of canned goods.
Out of silverware? Here comes a woman who saw some on sale and thought we'd need some.
What's at work here is something reminiscent of that never-out-dated story of the loaves and the fishes with a little bit going far enough to reach all who had hunger.
The religious among us might say that this phenomenon we experience when we serve soup is God's hand providing again and again, while others might applaud the same spirit of humanitarianism that still motivates us to look out for one an-other.
What I know for certain is that something wonderful is at work here, in Michigan, where we're all supposed to have given up hope, where we're supposed to be washed up, fed up and given up for dead.
Even when we have little, somehow, our combined efforts are mighty and infallible. From the woman from the library who bakes when she can so that we'll have something to tuck into bagged lunches, to the soup kitchen “guests” who supplied us with produce from their garden to help stretch out a meal, to the mom and pop places that have a surplus they can share.
From the disabled students who scoop beans on a plate with infectious smiles, people who are your neighbors are banding together, usually anonymously, always without hope for recognition or repayment, and making a statement about a different reality here in Michigan.
That reality is one of selflessness and hope, and we've still got second helpings for everyone.
Last night, as I took stock of the few cupboards where we store our food stuffs, I couldn't help but notice the very bare spaces where rows of cans once overflowed, but I smiled to myself as I pulled out the components for an upcoming meal.
There is enough for tomorrow in our pantry, and I hold onto hope that our shelves will continue to bear enough goods to sustain us for the next meal and the next.
I have faith that our community will continue to sustain us.
Thank you, to our community of friends who are tireless in their commitment to compassion.
Sarah Pettigew is the director of a local soup kitchen. Waynewright Community Meals serves a warm meal and bagged lunch from noon to 1 p.m. at 98 Superior in Wyandotte on Wednesdays and Saturdays. To get involved contact,1-734 285-3540 or email teampetti-grew@hotmail.com