Southwest Diaries – Day 3
A group of dedicated DPCers headed out west again this year to help at the Food Pantry in Gallup, New Mexico. What follows are some first-hand accounts of their journey as it unfolds. Let’s follow along and send prayers together as they help those in need!
The following communication is from Mary Lee Reiff:
Another very full day of tasks at the Pantry. On distribution days, we always begin with completing the commodity boxes the clients will receive through the day. And as always, there are other tasks. We sorted another huge pallet of potatoes, this time into large bags that the different agencies around the country come to pick up, filled commodity boxes, made 25 and 50 pound emergency food boxes, sorted diapers that had been donated by ANA from Baby2Baby, counted 2 pallets of cranberries into packets of 16 (a challenge to count and chat at the same time!). And have we mentioned cereal? Yes, we emptied many boxes of Frankenberry cereal into a large bin preparing it for packing into individual servings for the Food for Kids program.
We were blessed by a visit by two teachers from Mariano Lake Community School – Stacey (kindergarten) and Jerrod (2nd grade) Hunkus – while we were packing Food for Kids bags. They told us how important those bags are for their students and how grateful they are that Mariano Lake is in the program.
For all of us who are blessed with running water in our homes, it is sobering to watch the daily stream of pick-up trucks coming to the water filling station across the street from the Pantry. With 30% of the homes on the Navajo nation still without water and electricity, this is a regular task that needs to be done week in and week out all year long.
Since we eat lunch and dinner in the Pantry each day, this afternoon we quit work at 3:30 and treated ourselves to a trip to Zuni for a bit of sightseeing, shopping, and a delicious fried chicken dinner at the Inn of Halona. Misty and Vern, who both work at the Pantry and are Zuni, joined us along with several members of their family. God blessed us with a lovely evening to sit out on the patio and have some time to relax and enjoy a time of fellowship (without packing cereal at the same time!)
Blessings,
Mary Lee