Malachi Storehouse Celebrates 20 Years of Giving

Facial expressions speak a universal language.

No words are needed to understand that the smile of a Hispanic woman picking greens from the charity garden at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church on North Peachtree Road says happiness or gratitude – or both.

And when volunteers like Tracy Gilchrist see such a smile, they know that those cold winter work days spent tending the five garden plots beside the church parking lot were worth the chill that sometimes numbed fingers and toes.

To Tracy, the scene of a woman and small child picking greens and vegetables is a familiar one. The volunteers see it every Wednesday from 3 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. when Malachi’s Storehouse at St. Pat’s opens its doors to families in need.

The line begins forming well before 3. As it grows and snakes along the sidewalk, it may eventually include 130 families. Most are Hispanic. Many are children. All are in need.

In what volunteers suspect is a place-holding system the families have worked out among themselves, some break away from the line in ones or twos. They hurry over to the five plots of what has appropriately been named “The Garden of Eatin’” to pick perhaps the only greens they will get all week.

It’s hard to tell who enjoys the process more … those who did the growing or those who are doing the picking!

It’s easy to see that each takes great pleasure in learning about the other’s culture. The Hispanics who are bi-lingual patiently teach the eager-to-learn Community Garden volunteers Spanish words for the vegetables they grow. And the volunteers have quickly learned what the Hispanic families like and don’t.

Contorted faces, for example, say more clearly than words in any language ever could that arugula can go home with the volunteers! Red lettuce is a less-emphatic thumbs down.

Inside the church at Malachi’s Storehouse, among the clothing and food donated from local stores, are more vegetables. These were picked from plots in the Community Garden in Brook Run Park across the street.

This year Malachi’s will celebrate its 20th year. Special events are planned in May and October to celebrate the milestone.  If you would like to make a donation, gifts of diapers, toiletries, detergent, hearty soups, foods not available from the Atlanta Food Bank, gently used clothes, children’s books for summer reading, and new toys for the next holiday season as well as cash would be most appreciated.

If you would like to volunteer your time or make a donation, please email one of the co-chairs: Mary Louise Wilson (marylouisew1@aol.com) or Kathy Malcolm Hall (kmalcolmhall@yahoo.com).

To donate vegetables from your own garden, contact Tracy at tracygilchrist07@yahoo.com or Pattie Baker at sustainablepattie@comcast.net.