food insecurity and apples....and some conviction
I want to write about something called "food insecurity"....but first....I want to write about food.
A few weeks ago, Precious and I went and picked some apples from a friend's trees. It was a warm and breezy Sunday in September. I decided that if she and I did this together, it would give us a chance to connect, bond, and do something seasonal. These kinds of experiences are so so good for our brains. We breathed in the fresh autumn air, we reached high to pick apples, we dropped them in the bucket.....I had plans for apple sauce and apple crisp and all things apple....because it is fall in Iowa.
We got home that day and the apples stayed in the garage because other things needed to happen. The apples stayed there for a couple of weeks.....and eventually I felt a burden to deal with these apples. Last week I peeled a bunch of them and tossed them in the crock pot to cook down for apple sauce. Days earlier I had gone down to my fridge to FINALLY get the bucket of apple sauce I had purchased weeks ago and bag it up and freeze it for later. The daggum bucket of apple sauce had mold. I waited too long. I paid $25 for a bucket of apple sauce to help build a home for women and children in Haiti....and because my life is busy.....and I didn't make it a priority.....it got moldy. So I decided to try make my own with my free, picked apples. Guys, you need a recipe.
My apple sauce smelled great.....but it separates and its watery and I don't really know what I will do with it. It was only a few bags worth and some in the fridge.....maybe I'll add it to banana bread or something else. Ugh. And there was a bowl full of apples left on the counter.
In Iowa, in October, fruit flies come out. They settle on apples and bananas and tomatoes and anything that sets out on the counter. They stay here until there is a frost and then they disappear.....
I HAD to deal with the rest of these apples. I tossed the over-ripe bananas in the freezer this morning, chopped up the last of the garden tomatoes in a salad this weekend, and there were these sad, little apples.
Today I had one of those hard days where the social disease of the world, the hard situations of people's lives and the truth of our depravity all revealed themselves. Families are struggling. Children are hurting. People are hungry. People in my community don't have enough food to eat. That's a really hard gulp to swallow. One family had only beans to eat for 2 weeks until the next pay check. Another family I met with had one singular goal for showing up....to not go home without formula for their infant. Another family would love to visit the local food pantry but doesn't have transportation....another wants to cook for her family but doesn't know how to use ground beef....or whatever is in the bag they get for free from the food bank.....she needs meat. Chicken, pork, beef roast......its all she learned to cook with, and she doesn't have money to buy it.
I ended my 9-plus hour day today by coming home to pillage through my freezer and fridge and pantry to help the family that was eating beans for 2 weeks......and then I saw the apples. Free apples that I was neglecting and wasting while I was sending out my bagged apples from the store to this family who had much much less. After my 9-plus hour work day I decided to peel those over-ripened, 3 inch across, soggy apples and slice them and cinnamon them and mix them into a baking dish with oatmeal and flour and brown and white sugar.....and bake me a fairly mediocre, maybe-noone-will-eat-it apple crisp. It. Smells. Amazing. 4 minutes left on the baking timer. I cannot wait.
Food insecurity is a real deal. It means some people don't know if they have enough food. It means some people don't know when more food will be available. Take a moment....please....and read that again. Some people don't know if they have enough food....and they don't. Some people don't know when more food will be available.
Politics aside. Opinions on silent. I live in the bread basket of the world. I live in the land where Bald Eagles can be seen scavenging on roadkill in October. Its true. I saw it today. We can and we should and we will feed people.
I met a young mama today who would like a ride to the local food pantry on Wednesdays at HOME. It is the Hope Food Pantry and it is open from 2pm-6pm. She is allowed to get food every other week there. If anyone reading would like to meet her and give her a ride and help her get food there, please let me know. She doesn't speak English. Get over it. Hunger is universal.
I refer many people to this food pantry. Please consider donating food to their ministry? In addition to ground meats, many of our local peeps are more familiar with cooking chicken, pork and beef roast. These donations would be very very helpful.
Well...the apple crisp is done. Gosh it smells good. I will likely and tragically throw away leftovers that we didn't eat for our meal tonight. It was chicken and biscuits and not everyone loves that. Isn't that a shame. To be so food-secure that you can say "no thank you" just because, and know there is other food available.
A few weeks ago, Precious and I went and picked some apples from a friend's trees. It was a warm and breezy Sunday in September. I decided that if she and I did this together, it would give us a chance to connect, bond, and do something seasonal. These kinds of experiences are so so good for our brains. We breathed in the fresh autumn air, we reached high to pick apples, we dropped them in the bucket.....I had plans for apple sauce and apple crisp and all things apple....because it is fall in Iowa.
We got home that day and the apples stayed in the garage because other things needed to happen. The apples stayed there for a couple of weeks.....and eventually I felt a burden to deal with these apples. Last week I peeled a bunch of them and tossed them in the crock pot to cook down for apple sauce. Days earlier I had gone down to my fridge to FINALLY get the bucket of apple sauce I had purchased weeks ago and bag it up and freeze it for later. The daggum bucket of apple sauce had mold. I waited too long. I paid $25 for a bucket of apple sauce to help build a home for women and children in Haiti....and because my life is busy.....and I didn't make it a priority.....it got moldy. So I decided to try make my own with my free, picked apples. Guys, you need a recipe.
My apple sauce smelled great.....but it separates and its watery and I don't really know what I will do with it. It was only a few bags worth and some in the fridge.....maybe I'll add it to banana bread or something else. Ugh. And there was a bowl full of apples left on the counter.
In Iowa, in October, fruit flies come out. They settle on apples and bananas and tomatoes and anything that sets out on the counter. They stay here until there is a frost and then they disappear.....
I HAD to deal with the rest of these apples. I tossed the over-ripe bananas in the freezer this morning, chopped up the last of the garden tomatoes in a salad this weekend, and there were these sad, little apples.
Today I had one of those hard days where the social disease of the world, the hard situations of people's lives and the truth of our depravity all revealed themselves. Families are struggling. Children are hurting. People are hungry. People in my community don't have enough food to eat. That's a really hard gulp to swallow. One family had only beans to eat for 2 weeks until the next pay check. Another family I met with had one singular goal for showing up....to not go home without formula for their infant. Another family would love to visit the local food pantry but doesn't have transportation....another wants to cook for her family but doesn't know how to use ground beef....or whatever is in the bag they get for free from the food bank.....she needs meat. Chicken, pork, beef roast......its all she learned to cook with, and she doesn't have money to buy it.
I ended my 9-plus hour day today by coming home to pillage through my freezer and fridge and pantry to help the family that was eating beans for 2 weeks......and then I saw the apples. Free apples that I was neglecting and wasting while I was sending out my bagged apples from the store to this family who had much much less. After my 9-plus hour work day I decided to peel those over-ripened, 3 inch across, soggy apples and slice them and cinnamon them and mix them into a baking dish with oatmeal and flour and brown and white sugar.....and bake me a fairly mediocre, maybe-noone-will-eat-it apple crisp. It. Smells. Amazing. 4 minutes left on the baking timer. I cannot wait.
Food insecurity is a real deal. It means some people don't know if they have enough food. It means some people don't know when more food will be available. Take a moment....please....and read that again. Some people don't know if they have enough food....and they don't. Some people don't know when more food will be available.
Politics aside. Opinions on silent. I live in the bread basket of the world. I live in the land where Bald Eagles can be seen scavenging on roadkill in October. Its true. I saw it today. We can and we should and we will feed people.
I met a young mama today who would like a ride to the local food pantry on Wednesdays at HOME. It is the Hope Food Pantry and it is open from 2pm-6pm. She is allowed to get food every other week there. If anyone reading would like to meet her and give her a ride and help her get food there, please let me know. She doesn't speak English. Get over it. Hunger is universal.
I refer many people to this food pantry. Please consider donating food to their ministry? In addition to ground meats, many of our local peeps are more familiar with cooking chicken, pork and beef roast. These donations would be very very helpful.
Well...the apple crisp is done. Gosh it smells good. I will likely and tragically throw away leftovers that we didn't eat for our meal tonight. It was chicken and biscuits and not everyone loves that. Isn't that a shame. To be so food-secure that you can say "no thank you" just because, and know there is other food available.
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