With being off on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving and being out of the office at trainings all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the week was hectic trying to sneak in phone calls and tie up all the loose ends before the holiday.
One of those loose ends was a guy from Tent City who called to say he'd never gotten a letter from Job and Family Services about a food stamps appointment. Uh oh.
After much holding and voice mails and calling around, it turned out he had moved and the letter was sent to his old address. He also may have reversed some numbers in his social security number because they had trouble finding his application in the system, or something like that...
Either way, I felt bad about the delay.
So when he mentioned he wasn't sure what he was going to do for Thanksgiving, I wanted to make sure he had a meal.
I gathered he preferred to fix something, no matter how small, at home for his family rather than go to a free meal at one of the churches or shelters. He said he'd tried most of the pantries in the area already, but I gave him some numbers he hadn't called yet and also promised to keep my ears open.
I thought about just buying him a turkey myself, but I know that's not really my job to solve problems that way. And I had no idea what size to buy. Or if he had the desire or ability to cook a bird or even store a bunch of meat until the big day.
A few days later, I asked if he'd figured out Thanksgiving yet and he was excited to report he had found a church that donated him a turkey, so that was good. Freed of the pressure of trying to work out the meat situation, I offered to try and round up some other fixings, like stuffing and potatoes, and he said that would be great.
By "round up," I really meant "buy with my excessive monthly allotment of food stamps." But I didn't tell him that, obviously. I don't need as much as they give me, so I felt better using some of it to help someone more in need.
We arranged that he would stop by one of my trainings and pick up the box, but he didn't show.
I refused to go home without seeing this through. I'm not sure I could have eaten my fill inside a warm house without knowing I'd done everything in my power to make sure at least this one family has enough food to celebrate. So I looked up directions to his house and, on my way home for the four-day weekend, I dropped it off anyway. He wasn't there, but I hope it came in handy and helped make their Thanksgiving a little more blessed.
I know mine was.
No comments:
Post a Comment