I won't be back

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I just read this, after I sent the following email, on the Colorado Share website. They expect each participant to "volunteer two hours per month," in addition to paying for groceries. At $10/hr., that's an extra $20/month!

Here's my email to Colorado Share:

From Colorado Share website:
"The experience of picking up your "Share" of food at the host site is almost like a community party."
http://www.sharecolorado.com/index.cfm?action=how_does_share_work

But it wasn't. I sat and waited in a smelly, church basement, while two disorganized people scurried around the room, looking for their paperwork amongst maybe 15 boxes of food. Three people were ahead of me; they told 2 they were "short one . . ." and described the foodstuffs those people wouldn't receive until, maybe, next month.

My order was ready; it sat and waited mere feet from where I sat and waited. The volunteer couldn't remember my name, told twice, or find her papers.

My April box ($30) + produce box ($15) + spaghetti sauce ($1.45) were all crammed in one box, too heavy for me to lift. I started sorting through it, because I couldn't believe I'd paid $15 for so little produce, and surely, there was more to the April box than what I was seeing.

The produce couldn't be first quality, as promised on your website. The iceberg (no nutritional value) lettuce was wilted. The TWO lemons have mold on the skins. It's not, as stated on the website, food I would normally eat. I was hoping for locally-produced (as stated on the website) fruits and vegetables, and I got farm factory stuff in net or plastic packaging, mostly, with half a dozen oranges, 2 grapefruits, TWO tomatoes, 2 mangos, rolling around loose. The workers handled my food without gloves.

When I got it home, I read the can of spaghetti sauce, which cost me 50% more than I would have paid at a regular, retail grocery, on sale. It came from Canada: not local. The 2nd ingredient is water and the 3rd is HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, which is a leading cause of obesity & diabetes in the USA.

So, I spent $45 on overpriced, small-quantity, NONlocal, UNhealthy, molded and wilted junk I'd NEVER purchase at the grocery. When I usually spend $15 for produce, it's all highly nutritious and varied. It's enough to last 2 people 1 week. It's usually local and often organic. I have no idea where this stuff came from, but it was pitiful.

I ran a REAL, GOOD food pantry (and believe me, this FELT like a bad food pantry: I should be GRATEFUL for the chaos, short orders, confusion, mess and bad smells; they were doing me a FAVOR!) for TEN years. People got full orders, on time, without long waits. They were treted with dignity and respect. They got to choose individual items among catgories of foods, quantities based on stock available The food was wholesome, fresh nutritious and nontoxic. No, it wasn't "first quality;" It as from Roadrunner Food Bank. But we never gave out moldy, wilted stuff and we NEVER gave out high fructose corn syrup, lard, high salt or other toxins.

I'll be sure to tell all my friends.

-- Rogi Riverstone

another disappointment

You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com

the following are my comments to the blog post, http://narcissists-suck.blogspot.com/2008/04/pagan-priesthood-of-appeasement.html

Darn! I was really hoping I'd found a useful blog. You seem well informed and articulate, in some posts. Maybe you're just plagerizing, though.

I have to comment on this post. It's sooooo self righteous, intolerant, prejudiced, misinformed and unChristian.

Specifically:

"Paganism is not and never has been an elevating force in human societies."

Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Rome, preChristian Europe, preCaucasian Africa, preColumbian Central and South America....

"Just because some cultures have achieved some recognizable levels of sophistication by our standards doesn't disprove that pagan religions have consistently been the locus of moral vice and debauchery and have often led to the extinction of the cultures that practiced the most immoral of rites."

And the so-called, "Christians" haven't?

The Crusades; the Inquisition; War of the Roses; pedophile priests; Russian Pograms; Nazis (yes, they were "Christians"); Hiroshima; Nagasaki; invasian of Iraq; global warming; incest; wife beating; (statistics show most of these, two latter are committed by heterosexual, Christian men).

"Especially those which engaged in human sacrifice." See paragraph, above and add: war; capital punishment; slavery; environmental racism; international food hording; multinational corporate exploitation; the drug trade; organized crime. Almost ALL of these are perpetrated by self-proclaimed, "Christians."

Haven't we had ENOUGH religious jihad thinking in the past, ten years?

I KNOW you've been deeply hurt and angered by your personal experiences. But REPEATING the same patterns of self righteous abuse on others doesn't heal ANYbody, especially not YOU!

I thought religion was a source of love, not hate.

I'll have to side with Mark Twain about heaven for climate, but hell for community.

If your mindset is "salvation," I'll take my chances with the damned, thanks.

Great personal testimony! Briliant witnessing of your "faith!" Where do I sign up for YOUR religion?

yuck.

But this comment won't ever be published; you're too sure you're right(eous).

FIENDS of Albuquerque Tribune

You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com

Sigh.

To the yahoo group:

I will not be participating.

1) The meeting notification I received specifically requested volunteer journalists. When I got to the meeting, journalists were not required, even though, from the articles submitted and announced at the meeting, few were actual, hard news.

2) When I said I couldn't commit to serving as a co-editor, the facilitator insisted, repeatedly, that I do it, anyway, even as another member kept telling him, "she said, 'no.'"

3) When the printer suggested bundling the trial balloon in with New Mexico Voice for distribution, the meeting facilitator laughed, without explanation. I can only surmize he thought it ridiculous to be associated with a Queer-friendly paper. I write for New Mexico Voice. They pay me. They actually publish news. It's not funny.

4) Whether or not it would look formal enough, friends of the trib could have a blog, website or ACTIVE Yahoo (or other email) Group, right now, with news & other articles, to attract interest. Aside from notification of the next meeting, I've seen nothing from the Yahoo Group. The last time I saw a website for friends of the trib, it didn't even have notification of LAST month's meeting, 48 hours before it was scheduled!

5) When I suggested CCNS as a news source on nuclear weapons, someone asked me to explain what that was. Before I could finish my explanation, I was interrupted and told POGO would do. My idea wasn't even considered. What would have been the harm in having TWO news sources, referring to nuclear weaponry, waste, etc.? I can only infer that POGO is preferred as more "one of us" than CCNS, although I can't understand why and don't want to get into a pissing contest about who is more politically correct.

I wish you luck.