Derek Felton
Photo: Erik Wilson
Everyone who lives in Philadelphia remembers Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009, when a record-setting snowstorm blanketed the city in nearly two feet of snow. Despite the hazards, Derek Felton decided to open his food pantry in West Philadelphia for business as usual that day.
"My wife asked me to take her to the grocery store the night before the big snowstorm, and it was packed. I don't know what it is in Philadelphia, but people go crazy as soon as you mention the word 'snow.'
We were standing in line, and I looked back at all these people. And I thought, look at how they're loading up their carts. I wonder what the people who come to my food pantry are doing. I wonder what they're feeling, because they can't run to the store to stock up like these people.
The snow on Saturday was really bad. None of my regular volunteers could come because the roads were so hazardous. Even my wife said, don’t go. But when I got up that morning, I had a sense of urgency that I needed to be there. I didn't give it a second thought.
I thought maybe I'd get four or five people, but I ended up handing out 35 bags that day.
One lady I won’t forget. She came with two kids, both about 10 years old. I knew she hadn't been there before. The lady had but a thin jacket on, so I thought she didn't live too far. I thought her kids came with her because they wanted to play in the snow.
When I gave her a box of food, she asked, ‘Can you tell me where to catch the No. 40 bus?’
I said, ‘What do you need the No. 40 bus for?’ She said, ‘I need to get back home.’
She lived at 57th and Addison, about three miles away.
I asked, ’What would have happened if I hadn't been here?’
She said, ‘My kids wouldn't have ate.’
I got a little upset at her. I told her, ‘You got two kids here. Don't wait till your cupboards go bare before you come back.’
But all day long, I felt good. I felt good about being there for them, that I really made a difference.
You know how people in Philadelphia stock up in case they get snowed in? For that lady and the 34 people who came to my food pantry that day, it wasn’t about stocking up. Bad as the weather was, they came because they just needed food."
Derek Felton is the Community Organizing Coordinator for the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. He runs Fresh Start Emergency Food and Resources Services, a food pantry in West Philadelphia, and has fed people in need for more than 16 years.