Dale of Cumberland County has enjoyed being of service to others his whole life. For 47 years, he worked a job in finance at a large medical center in New York City. There, he often spoke with vulnerable patients and families who could not pay their medical bills and found resources to lighten their load. Now, as a retiree and volunteer at New Hope Ministries, Dale is happy to use these same skills to help people in a different sort of vulnerable place get nutritious food. “In helping others, you help yourself,” he tells me. “It makes you feel good, to get to bless somebody else.”
Perhaps Dale feels this spirit of giving most at New Hope during the winter season. The volunteers do their best to make sure everyone has a happy holiday filled with joy, laughter, and good food. “We give them all sorts of holiday food items!” Dale gushes. “Cans of cranberry sauce, potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes…We really make Christmas for them. And they feel very blessed.”
When I ask Dale how he manages to make everyone coming to New Hope Ministries feel welcome during this special time of year, he pauses to reflect and then speaks.
“You treat them just as normal people, not as being different than any of the rest of us. Just last week, or two weeks ago, a person from our church came (here). I was so glad that he was able to come, but I knew he was super embarrassed because he didn’t want to think that he needed the food. So, I made him comfortable as far as getting him signed up and going through the line, I walked him through it…You just give them dignity,” Dale smiles.
We truly are, Better Together.