Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church

Every Friday, right around the same altar where Saint Gregory’s offers communion, we give away free groceries to all comers, as many as 500 hungry families. We provide literally tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, beans, pasta, cereal, bread; and we share our peaceful, beautiful space. The pantry is run entirely by volunteers --almost all of them people who came to get food and stayed to help out-- and there are no requirements for receiving food. Everyone is welcome to recieve and to give. To volunteer come any time from 9AM until 4PM; we share lunch around noon.

Sara Miles, founder of the food pantry, wrote in 2002, “Honeydew melons. Purple and green plums. Peaches, nectarines, spinach, yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, artichokes, lettuce, potatoes, onions, scallions, crookneck squash, pears, stringbeans, okra, apples, broccoli, mangoes, zucchini....on Fridays, our sanctuary is a vision of God’s ridiculous, over-the-top abundance. And packing up the leftovers to take down to the soup kitchen, or to serve at coffee hour on Sunday; wrestling boxes of watermelons or composting crates of overripe apricots, we can reflect with new understanding on St. Gregory of Nyssa’s observation that “the fruit of mercy yields much fruit.” You can watch a video interview of Sara - and other pantry volunteers - by clicking here.

Outside the pantry our people are gathering. A bunch of second-graders chasing each other up and down the sidewalk, screeching happily. A cluster of Moldavian refugees. A very sick prostitute and her faithful, exhausted friend, sitting together on the steps sharing a cigarette. Some gossipy Salvadoran moms; a few tattooed ex-cons; an old woman with her Bible. We set up a table outside with pitchers of cool water and glasses, and talk with everyone. People start to go in to get groceries: some give us stacks of plastic bags, or offer to take a turn helping at the table. A few have brought food—a couple slices of birthday cake, a box of powdered milk, some extra cans of corn-- to share.

It takes so little to see God in this world. You just have to open the door.