[Announce] A report from NW 21st Street. . .

[Robert Waldrop]

A report from NW 21st Street in Oklahoma City. . .

The trend in requests for help is up.  

Food supply is adequate, but nothing to write anyone and brag about.  

Powdered milk disappeared long ago.  

Typically, the bag of groceries we distribute has cereal, 4-6 miscellaneous cans, beans, rice, pasta, tomato sauce, peanut butter, 2-4 miscelaneous boxed/bag foods (mac and cheese, ramen, etc.) 1 or 2 frozen meat items.  Sometimes there is bread for all, sometimes bread for half, sometimes there is no bread.  

If people want to bring extra food -- not canned green beans -- that would be fine too.  We spend more money on peanut butter than we do any other item.  We get 40-60 pounds of ground beef every month from members of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.

Families of 4 or more get an extra bag filled with whatever we have the most of.  Sometimes its families of 5 or more.

At Thanksgiving and Christmas, we would like to add flour, cooking oil, sugar, pumpkin, holiday candy, potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, and a turkey or ham.  Realistically, that is $3,000 anyway, depending on the deals we can get.

We are doing grocery deliveries on Saturday Oct 20 and Oct 27.  On the 20th, we will do deliveries to the public housing apartments.  On the 27th, we will do deliveries on the various routes. (NE OKC 1, 2, 3; Near NW 1,2; Far NW 1,2; North NW; SW 1,2,3,4; SE 1,2,3; Far SE.  People have their favorites and often ask for them and that's fine.)

We need more people on the 27th than we do on the 20th.  On the 20th we mainly need help making up the grocery bags.  It would be helpful to have three or four people go along with the deliveries to the apartments.

On the 27th, we need as many folks as can come.  I won't be there, I am speaking in Aledo, Texas to a group of Texas farmers and ranchers interested in holistic agriculture, about the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.  But Rev. Lance and Ashley Schmitz will be there and the job will get done. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the Father's only begotten Son, full of grace and truth."  

Marcus Evans tells me that a gas grill is being installed at the Dorothy Day Center.  So sometime we could make some food while we are sorting groceries and have a bit of a meal in the midst of the "run".  

We appreciate everyone's support and prayers, and be assured of ours in return.  We can use financial donations too, because all of this activity costs money.  And we need volunteers, people who will come and share in the work of distributing 150,000 pounds of food to more than 9,000 people in 12 months. 

If you think I personally am driving all this food around, you're wrong.  There are a lot of people that help.  If there weren't, there wouldn't be a way to deliver 150,000 pounds of food. If somebody didn't get up and go to the Dorothy Day Center and put out the groceries, our work would be more difficult.  And then there's those willing to come back and clean up afterwards.  Before anything happens, the food has to be ordered.  And then paid for.  

There's a back story to delivering 150,000 pounds of food to more than 9,000 people.  It involves manual labor, so we know how popular it is.  The people who do this are specially graced, though, I am confident of that.  If you can help with that back story, talk to Marcus Evans at 740-0697.  If you can help with the other back story -- retrieving help messages from our phone and entering the information into a spread sheet -- email me at robert at justpeace.org .  One day a month?  Two?

If you want to help with the delivery work, just show up.  

You can call ahead if you want or must but it is fine to just show up.  

I want to emphasize this:  you don't need my permission to show up.  Or, if you need my permission, I hereby give you my permission to show up. 

We do not have the administrative ability to keep track of reservations or schedules.  We can barely remember that the Creighton students always come during Spring Break. So we take the "very uncomplicated approach", and it persistently works. 

Trust in the Holy Spirit's guidance that we need help and you should come and help us. 

We meet at 9 AM at the Dorothy Day Center, 4909 N. State Street in Oklahoma City, which runs along the eastern boundary of St. Charles Borromeo parish.  The Dorothy Day Center is the brick building just south of the parish's clinic.  

Isn't that a wonderful example that the Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo shows for the whole archdiocese?  A center for food distribution AND a clinic for low income folks.  And a St. Vincent de Paul Conference. And their school. AND a policy against the use of sweat-shop sourced items in parish fundraising activities. Let your light so shine, Jesus said it.  St. Charles Parish heard it.  That settled it.

There's a lot of other people out there that make this possible. . .  OKC First Church of the Nazarene members are there every delivery day.  The St. Francis parish youth group has been there for us for years. . . ever since nobody knew about us and what we were doing. (St. Francis is the parish in which we live.)  Epiphany Church, its organizations, pastoral staff, and member volunteers and benefactors, does its part. Sisters of Mercy from the hospital are there for us. Many people from labor unions, the Community Forum, Central Oklahoma Labor Council. All of these people heard the same call as St. Charles, and answer it in their own ways.

The only problem with making a list like this is forgetting someone.  So let me also say that there are many others, not necessarily affiliated with a group or organization, who themselves come to the Dorothy Day Center to take personal responsibility for feeding the hungry and comforting the afflicted.

There are those who pray regularly for and with us.

Out there in the world, I couldn't even begin to describe the situation as viewed with Catholic Worker eyes.  Where there is hatred, let us so love.  Where there is conflict, peace.  Where there is injustice, let us make it visible. 

God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference. 
Living one day at a time; 
Enjoying one moment at a time; 
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; 
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life 
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen. 

Many thanks to all and may the God of grace and justice give you the peace which passes human understanding, in the midst of these collapsing ruins of the old. 

Bob Waldrop
Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
1524 NW 21
Oklahoma City, OK 73106
405-613-4688, 405-557-0436 (help line)

We also accept donations via PayPal, send money to justpeace at yahoo.com .
Donations to the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House are not tax deductible. But they will do some good for the least and forgotten of Oklahoma City and make our work go easier.
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