Today's letters highlight Footprints Food Pantry, COVID disagreements and Putin's motives

Footprints Food Pantry in Kittery, ME still remarkable after 30 years

Feb. 17 — To the Editor:

On a quiet little corner in Kittery on Old Post Road, you will find a small nondescript beige building bristling with energy every Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Volunteers will be setting up tables and setting out wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables, breads and pastries and all types of items to keep one’s cupboards stocked. Welcome to Footprints Food Pantry.

It all began in the Fall of 1991, with a group of parishioners from St. Raphael’s Church in Kittery. Over coffee, the group found themselves in a conversation on how family, friends and neighbors were being affected by the recession. This small group of parishioners determined to help their communities by opening a food pantry. On February 19, 1992 with $1,000 from Catholic Charities, a donated telephone, office supplies, a couple of home refrigerators and freezers and a truckload of food from the Biddeford Food Pantry, Footprints opened their door and began providing free food to families in need from Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot and at this time, South Berwick. The mission was to provide temporary help during the recession. The assumption was that once the recession ended, Footprints would no longer be needed. But as things have worked out, the need for food assistance has persisted for now thirty years and counting.

Footprints today has over 60 volunteers who come in every week to help set up, glean produce, organize, pack, and deliver food to over 100 residents of Kittery, Kittery Point and Eliot. Their dedication and the dedication of volunteers over the years has been incredible in carrying out a mission of feeding as many folks as need help. The volunteers at Footprints provide a warm and welcoming environment, recognizing that we all may need help at some time in our lives.

Distributing food has been the primary mission. What we have seen with weekly interactions between clients and volunteers is an environment of trust being built, which helps us to understand and help meet needs beyond food. Recommendations and directing to social services specific to helping with those emergency repairs, lack of heating, lack of housing, lack of transportation. This out-reach has brought out a wonderful sense of commitment from our local social services, which helps us all in meeting the needs of our residents.

The incredible support for the past 30 years from our residents, our schools, churches, local businesses, corporations, and Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn have allowed us to offer wonderful fresh and healthy foods to our clients. Local produce from our farmers and home gardeners keeps us supplied with the best in local vegetables and fresh eggs.

Footprints is truly a remarkable place on this quiet little corner in Kittery.

Karen Brown

President

Footprints Food Pantry

Putin's concerns in Ukraine the same as ours during Cuban Missile Crisis

Feb. 16 — To the Editor:

Sun Tzu, in his treatise The Art of War, said that in order to overcome your adversary you must understand him. So when I read David Ignatius saying that even Putin doesn’t know what he wants, I say he does and we must also.

We have plenty of historical precedent to understand it right here on this side of the pond – the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962 in which The Soviet Union placed missiles 90 miles from our border. Citing the Monroe Doctrine, Kennedy imposed a blockade of all Cuban ports, which is an act of war. If not for the restraint of one Russian submarine commander we would have had a nuclear war. In the end, Khrushchev backed down. We also have less successful and more controversial episodes of our efforts to keep Russians out of our sphere of influence in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Venezuela.

I don’t say this to justify Putin, only to say that we do in fact understand his thinking. Of course, an invasion of Ukraine by Russia is an intensely bad idea.

For another historical example, at the outset of WWII Stalin didn’t like that the Finnish border was only 20 miles from Leningrad, so he invaded Finland in 1939. Finnish resistance was stiff and came in all possible forms. The result was heavy Russian casualties frozen in the snow, and a settlement that moved the border a few miles but guaranteed Finnish independence. Undoubtedly Putin knows this history, thus we can hope that he understands that Russian troops will not be welcomed in Ukraine as liberators. Nor anywhere else. If war can be avoided, that’s the reason.

Jeffrey Cooper

Portsmouth

Question authority: Writer should address facts, not my character

Feb. 16 — To the Editor:

In response to Mr. Bill Kingston’s scolding of me and my opinion letter of Jan. 30, I have to say to you I am not a right wing extremist as you called me. I served my country in the U.S. Navy on a minesweeper, am a successful entrepreneur and a family man. I believe in classic liberalism that advocates civil liberties under the law, and the following of the Constitution and Bill of Rights as written.

My letter referred to a Rasmussen poll that reveals what Democratic voters believe in as far as mandates, fines even imprisonment , which I find to be extreme. These pronouncements are debatable Mr. Kingston, stop attacking people and screaming at your TV. Question authority!

I stated that the approved therapeutics, Paxlovid and Molinupira, effective 89% and 50% respectively should be fast tracked. What is wrong with that? I never read about this being touted along with Vitamin D and zinc by the two experts who are frequent writers of letters to the editor. Yes, I agree with you, talk to your doctor, ask him about these things, maybe they will be helpful to your health.

I suggested The great Barrington Declaration, a website dedicated to our better health that has “Focused Protection” at its core. The three doctors who created the GBD are from Stanford, Harvard and Oxford University, and they are academics, not politicians. Your default is the "Fox News Crazy” attack, which I find puzzling. You do not know what I watch or read, but I believe Bill you like a good food fight. As your president said, “we choose truth over facts," I like both. Question authority.

Mark Schlieper

Rye

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Letters: Footprints Food Pantry, COVID debates and Putin's motives