A personal connection
Asked what inspires her to continue running the food pantry, Martinez fought back tears, remembering how such assistance helped her own parents when she was a child growing up in Humboldt Park. “Our model is to do unto others as you want them to do unto you,” said Martinez, 61. As at other pantries in the city, the people lined up for food were racially and culturally diverse, ranging in age from babies in strollers to the elderly. The pantry, one of the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s partner agencies, serves more than 550 people and more than 350 households per month, numbers that spike around the holidays. “This little church does so much for the community. We never turn anyone away,” said Barbara Boubin, a former parishioner who moved away but returns regularly to St. Thomas of Canterbury to volunteer.Nutritious food and respect for every guest
Volunteer Barbara Boubin assists Andre Porter with his allotment of food at the St. Thomas of Canterbury Church in Uptown.
“I just realized that I can’t worry about what happened last month, last year, 20 years ago,” Porter said. “The only thing I have is this moment. And I don’t have any more time to waste on negativity.”As with other guests, Martinez knew Porter’s name. She anticipated their needs, knowing bits of their life stories and treating each person with respect. Without him saying so, for example, Martinez knew another man’s wife was in the hospital and made sure he got enough food for his whole family. She listened patiently as an elderly Romanian woman, clearly distraught, lamented family members who recently died. She laughed and traded quips with others. And she and Boubin kept moving, a blur of constant activity until the work was done. “We’re here to work,” Martinez said. “That’s what motivates me.”
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