Facebook Post by Rabbi Perlin in the Time of Coronavirus (4/27/2020)
Monday Post 4.27.20: Snacks
by Rabbi Amy R. Perlin, D.D.
We live on five acres of woods. It is great in a pandemic to be so remote, except for the fact that I can’t go out on my balcony and cheer for first responders at 7 pm with the rest of the world. In our safety of isolation, we are able to survive and get what we need in the world thanks to the delivery drivers from Amazon and UPS. They make almost daily deliveries with everything from our prescriptions to food items. And I am so very grateful.
But, if you know me, you know that I believe we need to show our gratitude, not just talk about it. So, last week I decided to do something about it. I put a sign on our front door to thank the delivery people, and put out a basket with snacks, encouraging the drivers to take one. Now, this is not as easy as it sounds. First, I am taking a risk that the animals are not interested what is in the basket, as there are so many of them living out here in the woods. So far, so good. And second, we were planning to move, so my food and snack inventory is severely depleted.
With no grandchildren coming, we aren’t stockpiled with healthy snack bags as we usually are. I had chocolates for the realtors, who like them and say that prospective buyers like them. I have boxes of double wrapped mints in metal containers that we keep in our entryway with the logo of our house. And Gary bought individually wrapped pretzels the last time he went shopping a few weeks ago. I knew that home-baked or open treats wouldn’t be considered safe. And we don’t have enough toilet paper to put a roll in each Ziploc bag. So, I made snack bags with what I had, knowing it was the thought that counted. The snack bags were just a small way to say, “Thank you for being our lifeline in these trying pandemic times!”
And the bags have been disappearing! I made five more yesterday. I watched as one delivery person just beamed a smile, as he looked at the treats inside. “Make just one person happy…” according to the song.
But, running out of treats, I placed two orders for more snacks yesterday with Amazon and Walmart — not just for the delivery people, but because my sister church needs them, as well. My friend, Pastor Keseley, wrote in her weekly post with their food pantry needs: “Snacks (imagine being home all day with kids without snacks!), as she included the fact that everything on their pantry shelves is gone. So, I bought as many snacks as I could find that could be delivered in the next ten days. I will make bags for the delivery people. We will drop some off at the church for their pantry, and we will drop some at the temple for the weekly LCAC collection.
The kids at home need snacks. The people in our community, friends and neighbors, need food. Even as we struggle to make sure we have what we need in these challenging times, there are those who need the very basics… and there are kids, stuck at home, in food vulnerable households who don’t have the snacks that they would get at school.
Life is sometimes about doing the little things that make a big difference. So, my Monday word of the day is “SNACKS.”
