Full Meal

Of all the harbingers of spring there is one that evokes not a smile but a sense of sadness: The end of the community suppers.

Each community supper, held on different weekday nights during the winter months at houses of worship around the Island, has a different feel. They range from soup suppers to large meals. There is even a periodic klezmer jam. But they do have one thing in common: All are welcome.

Some come for the supper, which is always free. During the difficult months of winter, when jobs are either scarce or nonexistent on the Island and savings are depleted after years of recession, the ability to get a free meal each night of the week is more than a gift. It is a necessity.

Some come for the community. There is a reason the Island lights up at each new sign of spring. The long, dark winter can be extremely isolating for anyone, but especially so for those living alone, both young and old.

To be hungry or alone or both is, unfortunately, an ever increasing fact of life. The decline in community has long been documented. The polar extremes of rich and poor in this country, the gap ever increasing, plus the cuts in social services, also ever increasing, have given rise to a greater number of people living in such poverty that basic subsistence is no longer a given. The Island is not immune to this trend.

It is against this backdrop that the community suppers have come to serve as lighthouses beckoning all to the safety of a shared meal and conversation. For this we give thanks. But we should also remember that the sight of ospreys hunting in our waters again, the croak of pinkletinks in the ponds and the coming return of our summer economy do not necessarily mean the realities of being hungry and alone have been erased.