New Hope Center Food Pantry

Kansas – Wednesday, November 21

I had stayed on the north side of Topeka, and there happened to be a lot of walking trails in a park near the governor’s mansion which was only a short drive away. Tula and I walked on all the paths, and there were fishing ponds, and I even saw a couple of horses and wagons – some with people, and the other looked like it had a Christmas tree in it. We did a couple loops of some of the paths, and got in 3 1/2 miles. Then I headed straight north toward the town of Holton. I wanted to do a food pantry donation today and it looked like there were a couple in Holton. I had tried calling the phone numbers before I left the motel, but no one answered, so I figured I would try again later. The next time I called, I got a lady at a church, who gave me yet another phone number. And then I finally reached Jennifer at the food pantry. The New Hope Center wasn’t even usually open on Wednesdays, but they happened to be there to take delivery of several dozen Thanksgiving turkeys for the people who wouldn’t have them otherwise. Jennifer told me they could use some pasta to go with all the spaghetti sauce someone else gave them, and some cereal and oatmeal too. I found a grocery store and did my shopping, then took it over to the food pantry. They were very gracious and appreciative to get the food. They wondered how I had found them, and as I explained what I was doing, they were very supportive of my journey. It was a special stop – one of those that seemed like it was meant to be, since they weren’t even supposed to be open today. Jennifer even sent a very kind email later to say thank you. It’s wonderfully heartwarming for me to meet some of the people I do 🙂 Tula and I then walked around town – there was a pretty town square and most of the streets had names of different states, so it was a good town for me to be walking through!

We only walked 5 miles today, but it was time to head to the southeast corner of South Dakota for a little Thanksgiving family time.