‘Thank you, I am humbled.’ That’s what the man said as he stood there holding the bags of free groceries. They were full and heavy and his arms extended long past the cuffs of his parka – kind of like Rubber Man. He was one of about 25 clients at the Island Food Pantry on that frigid winter day. He looked at the volunteer who’d given him the food — a can of green beans fell out and rolled around the floor. He said it again self-consciously, but with clarity: ‘I am humbled.’

Three afternoons a week in the basement of the Stone Church in Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard, volunteers gather and distribute groceries. They bag up staples like sugar, beans, soup, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, pasta & rice, and produce like carrots, onions, oranges, apples and bananas. This food pantry subsists solely on cash and food donations. They’ve nothing to do with the government – or the church that’s their landlord. It’s all about community giving and community feeding. Sometimes a hunter donates a deer and venison is available for those who want it, or a fisherman drops off frozen filets from his stash and once in while, a restaurant will contribute some vegetables, herbs and day old breads.

Just inside the entryways of most of the local grocery stores there are purple-painted collection boxes and sometimes an astute shopper will donate feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, deodorant, shaving cream or diapers, as well as baby food, a bag of Oreos. The Hebrew Center and the churches make weekly announcements encouraging contributions but there’s a typical lull in donations after the holiday season and the cupboards quickly go bare. There’s not much to go around. A school may have a mid-winter food drive and those 100 or so bags of groceries will be gone by the week’s end. Volunteers sort through whatever comes in and toss out any — what they call Estate Food – like a can of Newburg sauce with an expiration date of 1992, a butterscotch cake mix with Betty Crocker sporting an 80’s hairdo, a rusty can of black pepper or an open jar of stale, mixed nuts. And then they’ll ponder whether or not processed nacho cheese sauce falls under the category of ‘Food’.

The Pantry is meant to be used as a short-term fix but because about half of the clients are the elderly or the disabled on fixed incomes, they rely on those bags of groceries. And when work is harder to come by in the winter — landscapers, painters, parents between seasonal jobs and those who are just trying to pay the rent, use the service as well. The only requirement for receiving food more than once a month, is a letter signed by a doctor or the clergy stating that a person or family is in need.

Like a lot of social services, there are some who people abuse it, but the Food Pantry organizational network handles it. As one volunteer put it – ‘There are people who take just because they can and The Takers make you so mad. But most of our clients really do need the food and they appreciate it. That’s why I’m here to help. It’s humbling.’

originally broadcast Feb. 23, 2005