Stone Soup

A kindly, old stranger was walking through the land when he came upon a village. As he entered, the villagers moved towards their homes locking doors and windows. The stranger smiled and asked, why are you all so frightened. I am a simple traveler, looking for a soft place to stay for the night and a warm place for a meal.
"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "We are weak and our children are starving. Better keep moving on." "Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his cloak, filled it with water, and began to build a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a silken bag and dropped it into the water. By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come out of their homes or watched from their windows. As the stranger sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their fear. "Ahh," the stranger said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat." Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a small cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Wonderful!!" cried the stranger. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king." The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for everyone in the village to share. The villager elder offered the stranger a great deal of money for the stone, but he refused to sell it and traveled on the next day. As he left, the stranger came upon a group of village children standing near the road. He gave the silken bag containing the stone to the youngest child, whispering to a group, was not the stone, but the villagers that had performed the magic."

Xcel Energy lights up our coupon program!

Store To Door collects manufacturer coupon booklets as part of coupon/customer matching fundraiser and Xcel Energy (Rice St. St. Paul location) is our newest coupon booklet collector partner! Thank you Xcel!

Recent Customer Quote

"I just love my new volunteer order taker!. He’s very patient with me and takes the time to pay attention to my special diet and makes sure I"m getting the right items. I"m very happy with him!"

Cargill Cares!

They sure do! Thank you Cargill Cares for including us in your last four newsletters!

The Cargill Cares Retiree newsletter and Cargill overall have been wonderful supporters of Store To Door so we wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU!

Not only do they regularly advertise our volunteer opportunities they also share how their employees and retirees help us at quarterly newsletter mailings, as shoppers and as volunteer order takers!

Corporate partners like Cargill are so helpful and necessary for Store To Door operations!

New Food Resource Information Hotline through Hunger Solutions!

Hunger Solutions Minnesota has launched Food Helpline - a statewide food resource information and referral helpline. The Food Helpline can assist callers in locating food resources such as a food shelf, accessing SNAP (formerly food stamps) or other resources. The website below includes more information and posters. Please share with programs or clients who might be interested in learning more. Thank you.

www.hungersolutions.org/hsm-food-support-enrollment-specialist-katie-clarkson

Thank you MAAA for providing us with this recent update!

Volunteer Profile - Ann B.

Volunteer Order Taker: Ann B.
1. What is your Store To Door role/s? Volunteer Order Taker
2. How long have you been with Store To Door? How did you first hear about Store To Door? 1 1/2 years - I heard about Store To Door via the volunteermatch.org website.
3. What is your favorite thing about Store To Door? Being able to volunteer from anywhere provided cell phone technology and a computer are available.
4. If you could only eat 5 things for the rest of your life what would they be? Chicken Fajita, Chips & Salsa, Pineapple, Creme Filled Doughnuts and Ribeye Steak
5. What is the most interesting item you have seen in a customer order? As seen on tv items one of which was the Debbie Meyer Green Bags.
6. Share a story or comment about one of your favorite people you have met through Store To Door: One of my favorite people passed away in April 2009. He had Parkinson's disease and other medical problems. Yet he always wanted to be the one to give the order every two weeks. He taught me patience in that he wanted to talk some, it took him a while to give his order and on many occasions he didn't have the item numbers for his order. He looked forward to giving his order in the midst of all his medical problems.
7. When you aren’t promoting senior nutrition and volunteering, what are you up to? I enjoy boating, fishing and work in the Information Technology field.
8. What has surprised you most about volunteering with Store To Door? How easy it is and the reminder that I receive each week from my customers to not to take my life for granted.
9. Describe Store To Door with 5 words: A 'real', rewarding, humbling, and service opportunity.

Cub Foods and our Volunteer Program

As many of you know, Cub Foods is a major corporate partner of ours, we shop at 5 of their stores, but did you know that they offer support to our volunteer program specifically?

Cub Foods:
Provides a specially trained cashier at every shopping shift to process orders!
Donates gift cards for our volunteers - last year each volunteer received one during the holidays!
Has their own volunteer team that shops at the Maplewood store and will soon be shopping as well at the St. Paul and Crystal store!
Each of the 5 stores we worked with donated funding for the Volunteer Picnic that we held in May!
Supplies our shoppers with coffee and donuts for each shopping shift, yum!
Has unbelievably helpful staff that help shoppers find order items