Filed under: project updates, where the flour went | Tags: Chicago, flour, industrial harvest flour, st. columbanus food pantry
So far this has been the first handwritten bit of documentation that I’ve received. It came earlier this week and I’ve been saving it up for a Christmas day post. It came from an unfamiliar name and address in Chicago.
First off, because I’m the sort who thinks a Christmas card with a sorta-cross-eyed kitten on it is way cute, I had to stop and think: do I know the person who sent this?
And then, surprise! When we coordinated the donations to St. Columbanus, although we labeled the flour using the standard label I made up – that has my name, email and mailing address on it – the food bank clients received the flour without any sort of explanation or context. So I hadn’t really expected to hear from any of them. Getting a bag of flour that instructs you to correspond with its maker is slightly random. Perhaps I, also, made some assumptions that people who were getting food from a food bank were not the types to care about an art project, or were not inclined to want to document the act of trying to keep food on the table. Having these assumptions be made apparent through a single note is humbling.
At the same time, it gave me immense satisfaction to hear that the flour was appreciated by somebody out there. Mom (who trained me from a young age to write thank-you letters, something I’m not always so good about now) was right: it just feels good to be acknowledged for a gift. It put me in the holiday spirit like I have not been in many years.
However you celebrate the winter holiday season, hope it is filled with love and friendship.
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