The Food Pantry at CEC is taking a much needed break from its regular twice monthly food distribution for the month of January. It is never a good time to shut down a food pantry. Though, ours will still be making emergency food deliveries to individuals and to the small organizations our Food Pantry collaborates with.

We’ll still be picking up food from Earthlight on a weekly basis and from Price Chopper three times a week. Thus, fresh food will still be available without the trucks from Second Harvest showing up.

And as nothing about the Food Pantry ever completely halts, the reason for this one-month closure, to repair/renovate the rooms where the food is stored, requires volunteers on January 6, at 10 am, to remove everything from these rooms.

And on January 20, mandatory volunteer training will be held. If this is a ministry you want to participate in, and I highly recommend it, please be sure to take this training.

Working constantly in any ministry that helps others, whether it is caregiving or a Food Pantry, or tending to the needs of the unhoused requires time for self-care. A time for one’s own personal care giving when the needs of others are set aside to restore one’s self.

With this enforced cessation of work, now is a good time to rest. To take long walks. To sleep. To be there for yourself. As obvious as this example is, we too often forget it—putting on one’s oxygen mask first in an emergency means you are available to help others.

Take care of yourselves. The Food Pantry serves a vital role in hundreds of families lives. Doing God’s work is a blessing.