We spotlight Marjorie Stockford, chair of the Faith in Action Committee at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, a Wayside partner. Wayside-supported neighborhood dinners are served the first Sunday of each month from 5-6 p.m. at the church’s 425 Congress St., Portland location.What do you do with Wayside?I coordinate the monthly Sunday night neighborhood dinners that First Parish holds in our basement community room. I partner with Don Morrison and Laura Hamilton of Wayside to identify the food that’s available for our meal that Sunday, to get the word out to residents of our neighborhood and community about the meal, and to move the food from the Wayside warehouse to our kitchen.How long have you been involved with Wayside?First Parish began partnering with Wayside about nine months ago when we started our monthly neighborhood dinner program. How did you come to be involved?I have an 11-year old daughter, Kanha, whom I wanted to involve with a social action project at our church. The Wayside-supported neighborhood dinners have been great for that – she has helped chop carrots in the kitchen, set the tables, put the flowers out, welcomed our guests, and helped clean the tables.What has the experience been like?It has been both a lot of hard work (nothing like being on your feet for seven hours straight!) and a lot of fun. We are getting to know people from our church and from our neighborhood that we might not have met otherwise.What have you learned through your work with Wayside?I think Kanha and I have both learned how important it is to share our time, energy, and skills with our neighbors, no matter where they live or what their job is. We’ve learned that people are people, that everyone appreciates a good meal and a friendly conversation.Is there a particular story that stands out?Through the generosity of one of our First Parish volunteer chefs extraordinaire, we celebrate everyone’s birthday for that month at each of our monthly dinners by lighting candles on the homemade cake our volunteer has baked. To see the lit-up face of a 3-year-old birthday boy at one of our dinners as he blew his candles out made the atmosphere in the entire room shine a bit more brightly.If you could let people know one thing about hunger in Maine what would it be?You don’t have to be living on the street to feel hungry or need an extra meal at times. Many of our guests have apartments, some have jobs or are attending college, but they don’t always have enough money to buy groceries for a complete meal.
