Thank You

"Please tell me there will be some food left."

There was a child in the back seat and an older woman beside her. The mother began to cry when I told her that cars line up around the other side of the block for the The Food Pantry at Central Presbyterian Church.

She apologized for crying, saying, "This is just so hard."

It is so hard. And it will get harder. The food pantries at the church and at Prodisee Pantry in Spanish Fort together served boxes of food to almost 1,000 families on Tuesday, a number that has grown every week.

Nonprofits are bracing for May and June when the stimulus money is long since spent, the household emergency funds are gone, and some people are still unable to return to work.

But in the food line, many said, "Thank you." A great-grandmother waited for two hours in the car line with her granddaughter and great-granddaughter. She lost two daughters to Lupus the past year, but said she was grateful to God to still be alive.

As volunteers sang the theme song from The Love Boat while pushing carts towards carts towards the cars, a man looked through his box of food and said, "Thank you, Jesus, they did me good. Chicken, broccoli, fish, and greens. Ooh, I am going to fry my fish when I get home."

As two men walked past the church, one said, "Thank you very much brother. If I don't say it every day, you better remind me to say it."

I don't know what he was thankful for, but I found my own reasons to be thankful for today.

Thank you to Feeding the Gulf Coast for providing tons and tons of food for the food pantries, including Prodisee Pantry and Central Presbyterian, to get us through another disaster. Thank you to the volunteers who sort and box the food or pass it out in parking lots in the hot sun that is only going to get hotter as the lines get longer. Believing as the Prodisee T-shirt says, “It’s about hunger.”

Thank you Dollar General for the $5 off coupon at the register to save customers a little money.

Thank you to the lunch makers who are feeding children from church parking lots, front porches, and in front of stores, just to show you care.

Thank you for the Blessing Boxes and Community Tables filled with food and supplies in front of schools, churches, youth clubs, and neighborhoods. Thank you to those who give the blessings and for those who receive them.

Thank you to the kindergarten teacher who spends her Fridays sitting in yards reading books to each student in her class.

Thank you to the journalists who are covering the stories during this difficult time while salaries have been cut or they’ve been furloughed altogether.

Thank you to the artists and musicians who are using their talents in new ways to give us hope. Thank you for the pop-up concerts at parks and at Krispy Kreme.

Thank you to the arts organizations who are getting creative to stay connected and to 92ZEW for the music that makes life still feel normal sometimes.

Thank you to priests and ministers who are preaching to empty pews in empty sanctuaries.

Thank you to the folks picking up branches in their neighbors’ yards after a storm.

Thank you to restaurants for providing curbside service to keep employees paid.

Thank you to the mask makers, and those who wear them.

Thank you to the two Daphne High School seniors at Blakeley State Park taking their own senior portraits and trying to make the most of the year that fell apart.

Thank you to those who are able to give to the charities that provide the help. You are the reason there is enough food to give.

Thank you to the non-profits weaving a safety net to help catch those falling off the edge, helping them find solutions to get back on their feet.

Thank you to the store clerks, who never thought they’d see themselves on the front lines of a crisis of this magnitude.

Thank you to the mayors trying to keep us informed and calm.

Thank you small business owners who have sacrificed so much by closing and who aren’t yet getting the help you need.

Thank you to the first responders who answer the call to duty and put themselves in harms’ way, even in the best of times.

And finally, thank you to the healthcare workers. We don’t understand this virus or know what you see, but we thank you for going back day after day, night after night to fight for us.

Thank you for making life not quite so hard.