The "Newly Poor"

Alan Christian PR counsel for Frederick's "Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs" described the upsurge in demand facing Frederick County's 8 food banks as:

"An evolution of the newly poor"

Wow, that says it all doesn't it?

Last year in September 2007 the Frederick Food Bank served 700 people.
This September it served 1700 people.

Local churches are bringing in roughly half of the bags of groceries that they brought in last year (cost of food going up - fruits and vegetables are up 10% over last year).

When interviewed by the Frederick News Post, Sarah McLeavey, director of the City of Frederick's George Shields Food Bank on 14 East All Saints Street, Frederick, MD 21701. Telephone: 301-600-6263 said she is spending about $1,600 every week and a half on groceries.







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Frederick Community Action Agency

When I first learned of the Frederick Food Bank and the Frederick Soup Kitchen I assumed the operations where run by a church organization like Frederick's Religious Coalition.

I was surprised to find out the Frederick Community Action Agency is a quasi government/ Non profit set up that is actually staffed by City of Frederick employees.



The FCAA runs both a Soup Kitchen and the Frederick Food Bank.
Here's a list of what the Food Bank needs, list is from the City of Frederick's website: http://www.cityoffrederick.com/departments/CAA/needs-list2.htm




This box for private citizens to donate food the the Frederick Food Bank was found at the Walmart Super Center in Frederick Maryland.





Scene from the inside of the Frederick Community Action Agency's Soup Kitchen, the people serving food are volunteers, usually from local church groups.




Officer Johnson of the City of Frederick Police force helping serve food at the Frederick Soup Kitchen. The city provides security during dinner at the Soup Kitchen.

Having been a client of the Food Bank myself I can tell you this:

If you're going to donate canned food... some homeless people do NOT have a can opener!

If you can, donate cans that have pop tops.

Some semi homeless people rent rooms that share bathrooms... there is no toilet paper.
I'm not going to list rooming houses that offer shared bathrooms, but I can tell you that it's great to have some option to sleeping outside if you DO work, can raise the money to pay for a month's rent BUT cannot raise the money for security deposit and couldn't pass the credit check anyway.

Toilet paper, toothpaste, tooth brushes and shampoo is always in short supply at the Food Bank.

Neat bit of Frederick Maryland history trivia: The building that houses both the Frederick Food Bank AND the Frederick Soup Kitchen is the old train station from the Civil War Days.

Abe Lincon spoke in this building when he visited the Battlefields of both the Sharpsburg and Antietam Battles

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What are Muslims Doing in Frederick MD?

Don't get me wrong. What I mean is just that.

I recently had a need to visit the Frederick Food Bank run by the Frederick Community Action Agency. It was closing time... I almost didn't go because I had barely one minute to get from the C. Burr Artz library to the Food Bank on All Saints St & Market St.

The shelves were virtually empty, pretty depressing actually...









Shelves look pretty bare there don't they?

OK, upon finding that the Food Bank has even less on hand than they did when I wrote this article about them for Frederick.com:

http://frederick.com/Local_Food_Bank_empty_shelves-a-396.html

I figured that I'd pubicize the plight of the Food Bank and make myself look like a Good Samartian in the process... 2/3 good deed, 1/3 self agrandizment.

Look closely at the 'kind of people' are in the photo below:



Look at the clock!

These Muslim Girls belong to The Women's/ Girls Auxilary of a local Frederick Muslim Community Group

http://alislam.org/

These people intentionally did this anonymously.

They crept in after hours to donate all this food:




If I hadn't been there... and had my camera on me... and had batteries in my camera (I just got it, a web client of mine paid for it, I bartered for the camera - I did a website and he bought me the camera)

NO ONE would've known that these Muslim women went to the extraordinary trouble of doing this amazing act of charity.

I believe that God wanted me to be there, right at that time, to record this.

I almost didn't go, it was too close to closing time, I didn't think I was going to make it in time!


Matthew 6:4

If you're gonna donate to charity, it doesn't count (as much) if you take credit for it.

What ever you previously thought about Islam... this looks pretty Christian to me!

And here's another thing... We're (us, I mean Americans)constantly being told by our media that Muslim's treat their women as second class citizens.

We're told that in Muslim countries, women are relegated to mediocrity, they're allegedly not allowed to make decisions, not allowed to 'make a difference'

Well, it doesn't look that way to me.

Here's another thought...

You cant tell me that what I'm about to say is wrong:

The most Christ Like person of the last thousand years was Mahatma Ghandi

Without a Ghandi, there wouldn't have been a Martin Luther King

There'd never have been a Civil Rights Movement in this country when I was moving into adulthood.

... and Ghandi wasn't even Christian

We have more in common than we do that divides us.

David Bruce
Frederick Web Promotions

http://frederickwebpromotions.com




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