If we come to ask the question, we are either part of the problem or part of the solution.  It's either our need or our opportunity.  We are either hungry to eat or hungry to help.
"Where is the food shelf?" I asked.
"You go all the way through Chaska on 41 and turn left onto 169.  Then take the Canterbury Road exit and turn left again.  The food shelf is a short distance down the way, on the left hand side of the road.  It's in a big building, part of the CAP Agency.  Just walk through the doors until you find it."
I had called Elizabeth Diethelm of Victoria for directions because for years Elizabeth has hauled food contributions from the people of the St. Victoria Catholic Church, and I knew her phone number by heart.  As I tooled around town with cell phone to my ear, I was responding to a whim, a whisper, an inspiration.
With my whimsical afternoon rela-tively free, I seized the moment to check out the place so headed toward Chaska and Shakopee. It was easy to find.  The directions were perfect.  A volunteer at the very first door responded graciously to me though I had come empty-handed.  I had no food for the food shelf, no clothes for the thrift shop, and no time to volun-teer time.
As introductions were being made, we passed through an area where bags of used clothing were being emptied and sorted, another room where clothes were neatly hung and priced extremely reason-able for sale, a room where boxes of donated food items were being emptied and sorted, another room of shelves where shoppers were picking cans of pears and boxes of Stove Top Stuffing for their grocery carts, and an office room where lines of people were waiting to sign up for food, clothing, shelter, and other impor-tant things.
I noted, also, a large bin of stuffed animals for children, and a big box of toothbrushes probably donated by a dentist, and I saw all those jars of baby food and was reminded of the recent addition to my own family.
And then, at the end of a long hall-way, I saw Mary Riley.  "What?  This is where you work?" I asked.  "Are you the person that I am supposed to see?  Are you the PR person these volunteers were talking about?"
Mary has been a member of the St. Victoria Choir for several years, which is how we met.  In her other life, outside of choir, she is Deputy Director of the CAP Agency, which is the umbrella organiza-tion for the food shelf. 
We laughed upon this unexpected encounter, talked a moment, then set up a "real" appointment for the following week.  I had to get home, for choir practice among other things, and so did Mary Riley.
On the way back to Victoria I had a maze of questions about this world on our back doorstep.  There was much I wanted and needed to learn. 
Featured here are the questions as I asked them when I returned to the food shelf the following week, as well as Mary Riley's answers as she gave them.  We who can use the information as an opportunity to be generous.  We can put the food shelf on our Christmas gift list.

Who is it that you serve?  "The people of Scott, Carver, and Dakota counties.  Last year we served 1 out of every 18 residents in these counties."
So you  served close to 5% of the local population at one time or another last year.  Has the number of people in need increased or decreased?  "Increased.  There was a 17% increase in the number of clients in the first three months of 2003.  We get 40 to 50 families here per day, five days a week."
What is the population of the three counties?  "Dakota is the biggest by far with 353,675 people.  Scott has a population of 88,411 and Carver has 69,284.  Those numbers are from the 2000 census."
How many people did you serve in Carver County last year?  "In Carver County the CAP Agency served 1,539 households, a total of 4,873 individuals.  Many of those households received sever-al services, not just from the food shelf."

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