Halloween is the one day of the year when anyone in some sort of a costume can knock on your door and you are willing to open the door and speak with them – right? So what better day to go soliciting for the local food pantries?
Back in 2010, when Halloween was on a Sunday, three of us from Church of the Messiah in Chester made our first attempt wearing black cassocks as “costumes.” As we were just three adults with no kids, the householders gave us puzzled looks at first, but quickly their puzzlement turned to laughter when we said we were “Trick or Treating” for the food pantries. We had available copies of the list of the “most wanted” non-perishable items to help anyone who was unsure what to give, and we filled many bags.
One challenge was that Long Valley, the area we chose, has long drive ways and the houses are not very close together, so we had to move our cars several times.
This year Halloween was on a Saturday and five of us donned black cassocks loaned by our choir. This time we went to downtown Chester and parked behind the main street. A series of streets with very short driveways made collecting much easier. Again we received a large number of suitable non-perishable items.
The food pantries are always in great need of supplies. The people of Chester were very happy to join in the ministry of giving food to the needy with us.
Footnote: Our congregation is one of those participating in the Going Local process. While our trick or treating did not allow us an opportunity to listen to our neighbors, a major part of Going Local, it did give us the opportunity to get to know them a little better within the confines of a doorstep conversation, and laid the groundwork for future Going Local conversations.
