"The Food Pantry Helper"

In the parking lot of mercy, she learns the weight of giving.

She was perhaps the youngest food pantry helper or so she was there with her father with his ginger beard and she with her flaming ginger hair up in two ponytails as she watched daddy unload the van of necessities like oil and such for the cooks to use in the pantry on what would more likely be another busy day for the workers at Peekskill Salvation Army Food Pantry in the parking lot on Nelson Avenue.
 
For city of its size, Peekskill has a lot of food pantries.  You would think there is no need for anyone to ever go hungry here with so many of them and, of course, Salvation Army provides a hot meal, lunch Monday through Friday.  I heard they used to do breakfast as well, but they only have lunch now.  Sometimes the meals are pretty good when they serve stuff like curry chicken over rice, while other times not much when they chop up weenies and serve it over rice with beans, which is probably everyone’s least favorite meal…but when you’re hungry and have nothing else, I supposed it acceptable.
 
But there are other ways to get free meals in Peekskill when you’re in need of one.  For example, going to C-Town in the last hour can get you free meals that they give out at the end of the day when there’s food like chicken plates, pork chop plates are leftover and still warm.  I suppose that is better than wasting it and tossing it all in a bin.
 
Yet, it was the little girl in the parking lot helping her father at the Food Pantry by just being there and watching him was what warmed my heart the most.  As the last days of November approach Thanksgiving, the trees at the top of the hills take on a winter look. 
There is some color of Fall left in some of the trees, the most of them have now lost their leaves.  They look stiffer in the cold air on top of the round shape of the hills that looks like every hill has an Afro. The best part is you can now see through the trees, with clearer views of the river and houses that were once hidden by lush green leaves.
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A new Halal food restaurant is opening on Main Street across from Peekskill Plaza where Blondery used to be.  A fitting location for a town with a sizable Muslim community.