Reweaving threads of community

It's a simple belief: every human being needs two basics, food and shelter. Out of this belief have grown two responses, a food basket program and support for housing needs.

It's a simple concept: Pay twenty dollars at the beginning of the month and get approximately thirty-five dollars worth of fresh vegetables, meat and cheese on the third Saturday of the month, just when the budget is a bit stretched. Two of the twenty dollars goes into a housing fund. Your commitment? Two hours of volunteer work for the food basket program, your family or community--or look for ways to offer random acts of kindness during the month.

This simple idea came from a community of people, and it helps to foster community in an ever-widening circle of people. People voluntarily come together to work on the food orders, distribute potatoes and carrots into each box and help each other out with the delivery. They call themselves the "Branches of Life" society and have named their food basket program "Sharing and Responsibility."

This group is one of the quiet gems in our area, simply striving to live faith-filled and faithful lives. I am just getting to know this group of people through their outreach to the small organization for whom I work.

Many of the women I know live in the land of loneliness. They are adrift, floating in a sea where they bump into social program staff, the criminal justice system, and the child welfare system. Many of the folks in these various systems are very caring individuals who do the best they can within their system constraints, but it's just not enough to fill the hunger. Many of the women have experienced grievous losses, and with each loss, a thread to community has been snipped. Some of them have lost children to the system, and many were abused as children. Some grew up in very broken families and were broken in turn. Some grew up in loving families, but were snatched from family security by pimps or drug dealers at a vulnerable time in their lives. Some have been beaten down by grinding poverty, others by soul-destroying addictions stemming from the losses and hurts in their lives. Many have been treated as lepers and have been distanced from the rest of the community.

Loneliness and community. The only letters in common are the "o," the "n" and the "i, which could be arranged to spell "ion." I looked in the dictionary to check on the meaning of ion. It is "an atom or group of atoms that carries a positive or negative electric charge as a result of having lost or gained one or more electrons." It's easy to see and feel the positive electric charge that sparkles when people get together to create hopeful responses to human struggles. The negative charge that comes from the loss of those electrons is equally powerful and much harder to handle. Both positive and negative charges ripple outwards, affecting others.

The Branches of Life community decided to offer our small organization $500 each month to use for housing needs for women. This means we can say yes to the request for a damage deposit, partial payment for rent, or emergency accommodation. It helps the women feel supported by community. In turn, we proposed to some of the women the idea of joining the food basket program. They immediately saw" the benefits, such as fresh veggies rather than food bank veggies. They also exchanged recipes and decided to get together for a time of sistership and sharing when they bring their money on the first Saturday of the month. The positive charge began to sparkle in that room as each one thought of another person who might join. The women know that two dollars from their purchase is going to help other women with housing needs. They become part of the helping community.

It doesn't stop there. The first time a woman participates, her basket is provided by a donation, either from our organization, or a caring person in the community. An elderly woman recently decided to send a twenty dollar money order each month for us to purchase a food basket. Another thread to the larger community is rewoven.

Kate Quinn writes from Edmonton.

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