It takes a village to spice up life

Contributed by Joan Davis —

This spring, as usual, the Owego Elks held its annual food challenge to collect food for all the food pantries in Tioga County. Local service organizations such as the Owego Elks, Kiwanis and Rotary, and other groups participate in this food drive. 

One week at Owego Rotary, the suggestion was made that the food pantries could use spices. That was an unusual suggestion, but spices are expensive, so they would not easily be on a food pantry recipient’s wish list. 

Meanwhile, Penzeys Spices has been running advertising asking people to “choose love.” The “About Us” section of their website asks, “What if your business, just by being its best self, could make a whole lot of the problems the world faces a chunk easier to solve?” Furthermore, they state, “We are trying to make the world a better place. And with your help, there are days where we actually seem to be doing that. Our goal now is to have more of those days.”

So a request was sent to Penzeys asking if they would match a $100 order for spices donated to the Owego Elks food drive challenge and send spices to the Tioga County Rural Ministry (TCRM). Penzeys considered the request, and last week, packets of cinnamon, garlic, and Tuscan Sunset (salt free Italian seasonings) arrived at TCRM. Amazingly, Penzeys sent 144 packets of each spice for a retail value of $1,190.88 and that doesn’t include what they paid for shipping. So what was delivered was 100 times more than what was requested. 

Sr. Mary O’Brien, Executive Director of TCRM, said, “It’s such a joy!” Currently, nutrition classes are being held at TCRM by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier and by Tioga County Cooperative Extension. Sr. Mary said she will ask the nutrition experts to offer and work with some recipes that use the spices.

She also said, “We are used to the food we’ve grown up with. If we have never had the opportunity to learn how spices enhance the flavor of food, we’ve been deprived.” 

Until one tries, one never knows what good one can do.