Luck ‘o the Irish

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone who celebrates the holiday! “Everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day” certainly rings true for so many folks.

Genetically, I am a mixture of Scottish, Irish, English and, thanks goodness, a tad of Viking heritage. Culturally, our family had roots in Northern Ireland so my mother would have us wear orange on St. Patrick’s Day. Tough to win a classroom prize that way, with classmates vying for who had the most green on!

This all makes me think of the neighborhood I live in, here in the Old North End of Burlington VT. The first people here, the Abenakis, fished and planted and foraged along the nearby Winooski River (meaning “onion river land” in Abenaki).

The Old North End (ONE), a low-income part of the City, was then filled with Jewish, French-Canadian, Italian, African American, German, and Irish neighborhoods. Churches and synagogues, schools, shops, clubs, restaurants, and park space tucked in around the many homes. Residents, though often living within their own cultural areas in the ONE, helped each other out and worked together. For example, a French-Canadian family lived in my home for the 100 years prior to my purchase. Their youngest son, Clarke, worked for a Jewish neighbor as they delivered groceries by horse and cart.

Since then, people have also moved here from Bosnia, Vietnam, China, and many African countries. Although Vermont is mostly Caucasian, my own neighborhood has an elementary school where 55% of the students are from minority communities and over 40 languages are spoken. Many of these children live in multigenerational households with a myriad of cultures represented by the older adults who now call Vermont home.

Sadly, far too many of the households in our area struggle with food insecurity. In the past year, HANDS has spent dedicated energy on the older adults who live in these immigrant and BIPOC communities. We will continue to make every effort to help out where we can to get healthy, fresh, culturally-appropriate food to these seniors.

So, cheers to St. Patrick’s Day….”Sláinte!” as the Irish say! May we all embrace the wonderful cultural differences between us—-those differences make the world so much more interesting. And let us also celebrate the similarities. Each one of us wants to have enough food in our pantries, the meals we love and sometimes miss from our childhood, fresh veggies and fruits, and spices that evoke a memory. Our mission at HANDS is to provide just that. Thank you for helping us along the path. Gratefully, Megan