THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407020152
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
Would you like to double or even triple your food dollars? If your grocery budget could stand a little stretching, then SHARE Mid-Atlantic has got a deal for you.
SHARE, Self Help and Resource Exchange, is a national network that buys in volume and passes its savings on to SHARE participants.
For $13.59 with SHARE, you can buy an assortment of frozen meats, fresh produce and name brand groceries that would cost up to $40 at the local supermarket. Supplemental assortments of toilet tissue and paper towels also are available at $1.67.
Anyone can participate in the monthly program and buy as many food units as they wish. There is only one requirement. Participants must perform two hours of community service, doing volunteer work of their choice, for each food unit they purchase.
SHARE is not a typical food cooperative that exists only to save members money, executive director Don Lam explained. ``We are a cooperative effort to build communities as well as save money,'' he said.
Many participants earn their two-hour service credit by volunteering with SHARE, by working with scouts, their churches and other community service agencies or by simply mowing an elderly neighbor's lawn.
Paul Greggs, 33, a Churchland resident and youth counselor at the Chesapeake Boys Group Home, volunteers one Saturday morning a month at the St. Christopher's Episcopal Church SHARE site in Churchland.
``It really doesn't take a whole lot of time, and I love the camaraderie,'' Greggs said.
Each month, Greggs buys one food unit to take home to his wife, a Portsmouth school nurse, and their two children.
Why does he buy SHARE food? ``Look what you get for 13 bucks,'' Greggs said, pointing toward a carton loaded with meats, fresh bread and produce that looked like it came right from a road-stand produce stand.
``It just makes sense,'' agreed Deena Scintilla, a 45-year-old nurse from the Manor section of Portsmouth. ``It stretches your food budget, while allowing you to try new things, while you are doing something for your community.''
Scintilla buys one food unit a month, and when there is too much produce or too much meat for her and her husband, she gives away the extras.
Older folks on fixed incomes make up the majority of SHARE participants who come to the East End Baptist Church SHARE site in Suffolk. SHARE's monthly food-distribution days come at the end of the month, a time when those dependent on a monthly pension or social security check may find themselves short on food and funds.
``We do have a few young families with children, too, and the SHARE food helps an awful lot,'' said Dorothy Williams, SHARE coordinator at the East End. ``I am so sorry that more people do not participate.''
Although the SHARE program has flourished in Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Hampton since it began in March 1989, participation has remained level or declined in Suffolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake.
``People think it is a welfare program and stay away because they do not know it is a self-help program,'' Williams said.
Susan Garnett, SHARE coordinator at St. Christopher's in Churchland, said the program suffers because people mistakenly think that the food is a government surplus giveaway or wilted leftovers that did not sell at local supermarkets.
``A lot of people have no idea what SHARE is, that it is really more like a food co-op where you are pooling your money and pooling your labor,'' Garnett said.
Garnett, 33, and her husband, Don, 32, are Western Branch residents and SHARE participants. Incorporating SHARE food units into their monthly menu plan is one of several budget-stretching strategies the couple uses to allow Susan to be a stay-at-home mother to their two young children.
SHARE originated in San Diego, California in 1983 with 7,000 participants. Since then, the program has expanded to more than 25 U.S. cities, Mexico and Guatemala.
As of Friday, SHARE Mid-Atlantic, formerly SHARE Hampton Roads, became a non-profit program of the Food Bank of Southeast Virginia. The Food Bank will continue to provide emergency food assistance while SHARE will continue to be an economical, long-term food source for those able to be more self-reliant.
SHARE Mid-Atlantic, which has its headquarters in Norfolk, will serve not only Hampton Roads, but also an expanded area in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.
In order to participate in SHARE, you must register, in advance, at a local SHARE site once a month to order food units. At registration, generally in the beginning of the month, participants pay $13.59 in cash or $13 in food stamps and pick up a community service voucher to be completed by the food distribution day.
For more information on local SHARE sites, registration dates or other questions, call 627-6599 or 1-800-253-7842. MEMO: A typical food unit includes:
1 large package of frozen chicken wings
1 1/2 lbs. frozen fish
1 lb. salami
1 lb. pork sausage
1/2 lb. package of frozen meatballs
1 lb. hotdogs
8 oz. bottle salad dressing
1 lb. carrots
3 lbs. potatoes
2 lbs. onions
5 apples
1 cantalope
6 peaches
5 pears
1 head of lettuce
1 large celery stalk
1 box macaroni and cheese
1 box of pop tarts
3 french rolls
SHARE locations:
Calvary Evangelical Baptist Church
Effingham Plaza
Fairwood Agape Baptist Church
First Baptist West Norfolk Church
Happy Days Senior Center, Ida Barbour Tenant Council
JFK Community Center
Lincoln Park
New Berean Baptist Church
New Bethel Baptist Church
Noble St. Baptist Church
Oasis Social Ministry
St. Christopher's Episcopal Church
Trinity Episcopal Church
Victory Blvd. Baptist Church
Wesley Center
West Park Church of Christ
Zion Bethel UCC ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Susan Garnett and Paul Greggs check over the food that will be
distributed in the SHARE program at St. Christopher's Episcopal
Church.
by CNB