Questions oft-heard around Bennington:

How can my household….

….stay warm with the rising fuel prices

….make rent (even with full-time employment)

….buy clothes for “back to school”

….deal with a sudden crisis (job loss, unexpected bills)

How do we help our neighbors in need?

During the weekend of September 5-6, 2008, the member faith communities of the Greater Bennington Area Interfaith Council gather for worship and affirm our common commitment to interfaith work and witness in the Bennington area. As part of this special emphasis, we affirm the most well-known aspect of our cooperative work: The Emergency Food and Fuel Fund.

In the midst of a fuel crisis in the 1970s, religious groups in Bennington created a fund to help people in need. Over the years, the diverse faith communities of the local interfaith council have worked together to address these needs. Now in another period of economic challenge, the Interfaith Council calls upon the community to give to the Food and Fuel Fund, so that persons stay warm this winter, have food on the table, and find help when the Fund is able to provide assistance for a sudden financial crunch that challenges a household’s ability to make rent this month.

Please consider giving this year to the Food and Fuel Fund through a tax deductible donation to our 501(c)3 organization. With the $50,000+ we raise each year, persons in crisis receive help, advocacy, and support to meet their needs. As good stewards of your financial support, we provide a part-time Food & Fuel Fund director, who coordinates with area service agencies to strengthen the web of support for individuals and families in crisis.

Religious convictions among us differ, but our faiths find common ground when addressing the issue of the social and economic challenges of Bennington, Vermont. Join us in the effort to spread hope where there is despair, joy where there is sorrow, and justice where there is adversity to be overcome.

Send donations via your faith community or to the mailing address:
Food and Fuel Fund,

c/o Congregation Beth El

107 Adams St, Bennington, VT 05201

As prices rise at the pump and people work hard but still struggle to meet their basic monthly bills, the Interfaith Council's Food & Fuel Fund is called upon often by area residents.  You are encouraged to make a financial gift as you are able year-round to the Food & Fuel Fund. The need is great!

Donations of food are also needed at area food pantries.  Consider donating to BROC's food shelf or the ministry of HIS PANTRY at Sacred Heart/St Francis de Sales parish here in Bennington.

Your desire to help begins a multitude of goodness!  Remember to help others as we weather the economic issues in front of us!

Are We Our Brothers’ Keepers?  (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE "SPEAKING OF RELIGION" COLUMN IN THE BENNINGTON BANNER)

By Ms. Sue Andrews, manager of the Bennington Interfaith Council Food & Fuel Fund

As the interim manger of the Bennington Interfaith Council Food and Fuel Fund I start each day faced by a paradox. I am a citizen of the richest nation on earth but part of my day will be spent in conversation with local residents who struggle to set priorities as they consider whether to pay their light bill or their rent or how to put food on the table.

I drink my early morning cup of tea as I listen to the news on the radio. There is always talk about our economy, which is considered healthy by many different measures, despite the fact that growth is not as robust as it might be. “What happens to the outcome of that economic growth”, I wonder? To whom do the benefits accrue and how do they trickle down into our economy? Discussions about President Bush’s veto of the child health insurance bill intermingle in my head with dialogue about the pros and cons of tax cuts, and concern about the stability of the stock market. A bigger concern to me by far than the rate of economic growth in our society is the impact of the inequitable distribution of that growth.

Managing the Food and Fuel Fund has pointed out all too clearly to me that our society has devolved into several economic sub-cultures in recent years. The first group is prospering and producing in this new information age, and coping well with new economic challenges. In the Bennington area, we see all too few examples of this success.

Declining incomes and the outcomes of global economic competition is squeezing the second group, those formerly referred to as the “middle-class”. Members of this group worry about their jobs and whether they will be there in the future. They worry about health insurance, and whether they will be able to afford the rising premiums. They worry about college and whether it will ever be a reality for their children. All it takes for members of this group to stumble and have their world crash around them is a single unanticipated financial crisis… the loss of a job, an unexpected surgery, or a failed furnace.

A third group is growing ever more discouraged and despairing. Increasingly referred to as the American underclass, their children are growing up desperately poor in the richest nation on earth. Their question at the end of the month is whether they can afford the rent or groceries or heat or electricity. In Bennington, many of these people and their families get by on less than $1000 per month. And I say “get by” intentionally, as the quality of life is grim at best.

I talk to people in these last two groups every single day. Many are just an unpaid utility bill away from being homeless. They are frightened. They have often never heard of the Food and Fuel Fund until referred there by the local churches or social service agencies. They call in absolute desperation, hoping that some small miracle will get them through the month. And frequently, we can and do help out. Just today we have given out vouchers for food and gasoline to ten people. In addition, we have paid an electric bill, a past due rent bill, and an overdue mortgage payment. We have referred people to the local food pantries, as well as three different social service agencies that may be able to provide more systematic assistance. And we have provided clothing to a former inmate now searching for a job.

Last year, the Food and Fuel Fund distributed almost $60,000 worth of help to people in the Bennington region. Much of the money came from local donations that ranged from $10 to $100. Local faith congregations, two small grants, and a variety of benefit events rounded out the income side of the budget.

Are we our brothers’ keepers? In the beginning of the Jewish Scriptures, after Cain has killed his brother Abel, God
comes looking for Abel. God says to Cain “Where is your brother?” And Cain asks a question that should be a key question for all humanity, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

In almost every faith tradition, there is reference to the concept of caring for others, or being our brothers’ keepers. In Judaism, there is the concept of “tikun olam”, or repairing the world, from a social justice perspective. Christians are reminded that at the end of life they will be asked “what did you do for the least of your brothers and sisters?’ In Islam the concept of “sakat” demands that faithful Muslims give of their resources to help the poor. In Buddhism, compassion for all God’s creation is central.

I would like to urge everyone to think about their brothers and sisters in our own, local community who might be going through hard times and contribute to the efforts of the Food and Fuel Fund. Direct contributions can be mailed to FFF, 107 Adams Street, Bennington, Vermont 05201.

Remember, we are all our brothers’ keepers. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You may one day be the person who is in need of help.

Sue Andrews is the Interim Manager of the Interfaith Council Food and Fuel Fund and an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bennington. She can be reached at the Food and Fuel hotline at 802 379 0149.

The Bennington Interfaith Council celebrates the installation of Rabbi Joshua Boettinger to the pulpit of Congregation Beth El, a Reconstructionist synagogue located here in Bennington.  Rabbi Joshua's installation featured a number of luminaries, including Madeline Kunin, former governor of the state of Vermont.

Coverage of this event is featured at the website of the Bennington Banner (www.benningtonbanner.com) for the next 14 days (through May 21, 2007).  You can learn more about Congregation Beth El at their website:  www.cbevermont.org.

“Adam was put in the garden to ‘work it and protect it.’  The two jobs are complementary, but they are also contradictory.  From what are we to protect Eden, if not from our own work?  The more we work the earth —by which I mean not only tilling but the whole spectrum of human meddling, from setting grass fires to splitting the atom — the more we are obliged to protect it.  If we fail to do either, we fail to be fully human.  The Ecology of Eden, Evan Eisenberg, p. 97.
 
    As clergy we believe that how we “work and protect” our world is the single most important theological challenge facing us today.  At the heart of this issue is how we use and/or waste energy. Our dependency on fossil fuel has morphed into a world threatening addiction that has contributed to global warming, more appropriately titled, “global scorching.”. High energy costs swallow up income and other resources that might be used to improve the quality of life for people here and throughout the world.  Though the problem seems too big for any little local effort to really matter, the truth it does matter. If every household in the USA switched one incandescent bulb for a compact fluorescent light bulbs (cfl’s) it would save enough energy to light 7 million homes and save 600 million dollars in utility costs.

   For years the Food & Fuel Fund has helped people absorb these high energy costs.  Last spring, after much discussion and soul searching, the Interfaith Council decided that we had a religious and moral imperative to do more.  As a result, we set in motion a plan to expand the mandate of the Food & Fuel to advocate, educate and promote energy efficiency. Thanks to grants from the Vermont Community Foundation, New England Grassroots Environment Fund and  Efficiency Vermont we will be launching several new programs in addition to the direct assistance we provide.
 
    Throughout the winter and spring we will distribute free cfls to people who receive assistance through the Food & Fuel Fund.  In addition to education about the benefits of cfls we will be explaining safe ways to dispose these bulbs We will also highlight seven ways that households can reduce energy expenses. We will be distributing refrigerator magnets with this information too.  In addition volunteer groups from participating faith communities will be making door snakes used to  stop drafts under doors that will be available free of  charge. Eventually we hope to partner with the owners of rental  properties to find ways to make their units as energy efficient as possible  within cost restrictions, for example, by installing set back thermometers, adding insulation, and encouraging more aggressive winterizing.
 
    With respect to the world, there is no “not in my backyard”.  Caring for the earth knows no religious differences, dogma or doctrine subtleties.  God’s holy presence fills the entire world.  As the age Jewish saying goes, “the day is short, the task is great….you are not asked to do it yourself; yet you are not free to avoid it…
 
    As people of faith, we believe, that “[T]he significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” (Albert Einstein)
 
Rabbi Howard Cohen                                    Mother Anita Schell-Lambert
Rabbi Emeritus                                            Rector
Congregation Beth El                                    St. Peter’s Episcopal Church
Bennington                                                 Bennington