Give food to the hungry

When I see people on the streets looking for money, I'll usually give them a couple of bucks and ask them if they know about St. Francis House, a shelter for those experiencing poverty and homelessness where I've been involved as a board member (until last year) and a volunteer for 25+ years. If the person I'm speaking with is a woman, I'll usually ask them if they know about the Women's Lunch Place. 

St. Francis House is open to anyone 18 and over, but the population we serve is largely male. When I've looked at the numbers in terms of people who come through the doors at some point or another during the year, the M-F ratio isn't all that skewed. But on a day to day basis - and I'm there on plenty of those day-to-days - the men way outnumber the women. I don't keep a formal count, but off the top of my head, I'd say that it might be as high as 8-1, maybe even 10-1. 

In our 56 units of SRO (Single Room Occupancy) housing, I think there's only one woman living in the building. One of my volunteer gigs is signing people up for showers, and the ratio there definitely runs 10-1 most days. That may be changing a bit, as we're seeing an influx of Haitian refugees, and many of them are young (really young) women. But, based on my pretty unscientific eyeball observations, we work with a ton more men than women.

We do have a women's center, a room where women can get away from the fray and chill, but, as the women I talk with on the streets often tell me, the crowd at SFH can be rough. Not that SFH isn't safe. I've been kicking around there for years and, while shit sometimes happens, I've never felt unsafe. 

Still, as I said, the crowd can be rough. 

Which is why I always make sure that women I see on the streets know about the Women's Lunch Place. 

WLP is a lot more than a lunch place. Like SFH, it provides many different services: breakfast and lunch, counseling, housing support, healthcare...In general, it's a place where women can feel comfortable and at home. 

I've been in there a couple of times over the years, mostly to drop off something or other. But I didn't really know much about them, other than that they have a sterling reputation. 

So I was delighted to see a recent article in the Boston Globe on Inna Khitrik, the WLP chef. 

My St. Francis volunteering regularly takes me into the kitchen, so I do know that it's a huge task to turn out hundreds of meals every day - at SFH, that's often as many as 700 between breakfast and lunch - and also make and distribute sandwiches a couple of times a day. The chef at SFH, Seth Green, is an absolute genius. The meals are nutritious and pretty darned good. (I've been known to take leftovers home; I've been known to be disappointed when one of my favorites is on the menu and there are no leftovers.) 

Inna Khitrik sounds like an absolute genius as well.

And what a story she has to tell.

Khitrik comes from a family of Russian (Belarus) Jews who fled to Israel. There she married, and when she was in her twenties, she and her family immigrated to Boston, where her husband had family.

Her first job in America was as a checkout clerk in a market owned by fellow Russian immigrants. She always loved to cook, so she began noodling (kugeling?) around with prepping food for the market's deli. This turned into a stint running her own salad bar. When that failed to take off, she worked as a personal chef and went on to run the food programs for a couple of senior living communities. 

Then she and her son Alex:

... opened Inna’s Kitchen in 2011, preparing global Jewish cuisine from scratch. It was a hit throughout Newton and beyond, known for gorgeous salads, soups, and abundant Kosher options. But, after 11 years, she sensed it was time for Alex to take over and for the mother-son pair to revert to a more traditional family dynamic. (Source: Boston Globe)

Khitrik then found her way to WLP, where she gets to stay in the food biz, planning meals for their guests, while also letting her help women in need - a particular concern of hers.  

“I wanted to serve women because it’s hard to be a woman. But it’s even more important serving somebody who is underprivileged, who cannot afford it. We not only have homeless people — we also have people who just cannot afford to live,” she says.

The menus she comes up with sound yummy. And she even bakes desserts. (At SFH, dessert = piece of fruit. On candy-related holidays - Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter - I buy giant bags of candy for the folks who hang out in the Resource Center, where I spend my Monday and Thursday mornings. But other than Thanksgiving and Christmas, when pie is served, SFH is a no-dessert-other-than-fruit zone.)

In grammar school, we had to memorize the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. There was even a little ditty we sang as an aide memoire. 

The chief corporal works of mercy, they number seven
Practice the corporal works of mercy, and go to heaven

First up for the corporal works of mercy: Give food to the hungry.

Whenever I work in the kitchen at St. Francis House, I realize how lucky I am, and how very hungry - and in need - the folks who come through our doors are. Same goes for the Women's Lunch Place. 

Thankfully, there are organizations who meet this need,

I believe the works of mercy are a Catholic thing. Inna Khitrik is Jewish (as is Seth Green). If there's a heaven, then she's going to find her way there (as will Seth - and I can't wait to tell him so).