Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Maria Jorgensen (right) delivers and unpacks groceries for Trudi Hampton as part of a program at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.
Volunteers shop for homebound Saratogans
Program is ministry of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
By Shari Kaplan
Symbiotic relationships do not exist solely in the plant and animal worlds. They also exist among people, businesses and the community. The grocery ministry program run through Saratoga's Prince of Peace Lutheran Church is a fine local example.
The program, headed by church secretary Carol Gobby and founded in part by Associate in Ministry Karen Idler, provides homebound Saratogans with groceries and sundries delivered by volunteer shoppers.
Idler, a lay person who directs the church's Center for Wellness, says the grocery ministry had its genesis six or seven years ago as an offshoot of the Center, a 10-year-old program that offers a variety of services for all ages, including licensed counselors, nutritional consultants, classes in yoga, tai chi and drama, voice coaches and massage sessions. Part of the program also includes bringing groceries to homebound church members.
After employees of Gene's Quito Market on Cox Avenue began calling the church to tell them of more and more elderly or disabled regular customers who asked if Gene's had a delivery service (it doesn't), Idler and staff decided to act upon this need. First, the church had a phone line installed at Gene's staffed by volunteers who wrote down callers' orders, shopped at Gene's and delivered the items to the callers' homes.
To reduce the time loss for volunteers staffing phone lines that rang on an irregular basis, the calls were soon being forwarded to the church office, where the secretary at the time wrote down orders and then contacted people on her list of volunteer shoppers. Today, people can call Gobby on either Monday or Thursday mornings, knowing their groceries will be delivered sometime later in the day.
Gobby says about half of the grocery ministry's 12 current shoppers are Prince of Peace members. Volunteers of all ages, faiths and backgrounds are welcome. Also, grocery recipients need not be members of the church. The service is open to all local residents who are unable to shop for themselves due to illness, disability or advanced age. Because the recipients pay their tabs with Gene's directly, volunteers save time by not having to pay for the groceries at check out.
"It's amazing to me that we're not imbalanced all the time. We don't usually have more calls for shopping than we have volunteers to do the shopping," Idler says of the popular program.
Savvy shopper Gobby sometimes fills in as a volunteer herself and says what she enjoys most is the personal contact the task offers.
"Visiting with [recipients] and often getting to hear their life stories is extremely interesting to me," she says. She also gets a kick out of fulfilling special requests. One time, she recalls a Scottish woman asked for "nice cookies," to which Gobby laughingly thought, "aren't all cookies nice?" It turns out the woman meant a British import by the brand name of Nice, and Gobby actually found it in the cookie aisle.
Another time she found herself buying several different brands of ice cream for an elderly woman who was throwing an ice cream- tasting party for her friends and neighbors.
Anyone interested in serving as a volunteer shopper or who would like information on being the recipient of groceries can call the church at 408.253.7167.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
