The Father’s Heart shines in Highland Park and elsewhere

Posted by [email protected] | Sep 28, 2015 | Human Interest, Social Issues | 0 |

[The Father’s Heart in Highland Park. 8/15/15 Photo: David Kramer]

August 15, 2015

This summer as I crisscross the city of Rochester on my beloved bicycle on my own pilgrim’s progress, I am frequently moved by what I find.

Today at the 2015 Roc Fest in Highland Park, I was greeted by several people at a food stand with free bread, vegetables and healthy snacks alongside a food truck providing hot lunches to all comers. I do not need the groceries, but I accepted them as a gift representing my own gratitude for the good work done by these people who simply say they are following the faith of Jesus.

David Kramer at the stand [Photo: Father’s Heart]

There is really no need to explain here the mission of The Father’s Heart. Everything is pretty much on the website. Except to say Father’s Heart’s offers food, clothes and more–and especially spiritual succor–to people all over Rochester and Monroe County suffering in poverty, from the scourge of drug addiction or just in need of a giving hand or a kind voice. You don’t have to be of any particular faith–or even none–to appreciate the milk of human kindness.

I was particularly moved because of where the stand and truck were — in the Highland Bowl.

Earlier this summer I wrote of the heartbreaking theft of the bust of Goethe in the Bowl. Sadly, there will be no “Happy Ending” in Highland Park this time Still today when I pass the Bowl, I glance at the Monument fantastically imagining the bust having been returned intact. In that post I wrote, “Today some light is gone in that part of Highland Park.” Today there is some more light in that part of Highland Park.

SEE ALSO

Healthy food stands stand for healthy communities

Sadly, there will be no “Happy Ending” in Highland Park this time

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.