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June 2023 Community Voices | The Homepage

Mobile Market coming to Glen Hazel and Hazelwood

Giant Eagle store on wheels will accept EBT

By Lutual Love, Pastor of Praise Temple Deliverance Church


A white pickup truck tows the mobile market.
The Giant Eagle mobile market. Photo courtesy of Giant Eagle

For three years, P.O.O.R.L.A.W, the Greater Hazelwood Coalition Against Racial and Ethnic Disparities and Praise Temple Deliverance Church have worked to address food apartheid in our area. Now, in partnership with Hazelwood Initiative and Arts Excursions Unlimited, the Giant Eagle Mobile Market will become part of our efforts to increase food access in our community.

The mobile market sells a variety of food and will accept EBT. At both locations each week, 10 residents will receive $25 Giant Eagle gift cards; 20 residents will also receive a monthly bag of free household items from Praise Temple Deliverance Church’s Feed My People Program through a grant from the Pittsburgh Foundation.

The mobile store will be at 4915 Second Ave. on Saturdays, and Roselle Court in the Glen Hazel public housing community on Wednesdays. The hours on both days will be 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact Emily Higgs at emilyh3070@gmail.com or 412-791-3005, or me at lutuallove@gmail.com or 412-422-1983.


A new pastor and familiar face at Holy Cross Lutheran Chapel

By Vicar David L Wenndt


“You say goodbye, and I say hello.” Paul McCartney wrote these words for the Beatles hit “Hello, Goodbye” in 1967. The track made it to Number 1 on the billboard charts and is fondly remembered by many.

A light-skinned woman with brown hair and a long ochre dress holds a light-skinned, blond-haired toddler in a white shirt and smiles into the camera. A light-skinned, smiling man in a clerical collar and black clothing stands just behind her. In the background are houses with green front lawns and flower beds.
From left: Elizabeth, Benjamin and Nathaniel Janssen in July of 2022, at the end of Benjamin's one-year term as vicar of Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Chapel. Homepage file photo

But rather than the song, let's think about the sentiment. For every goodbye, there is a hello. We’re into June and the end of the school year is upon us. For some, it’s a transition as kids are now home for the summer and our schedules are altered. For others, it’s a major transition like graduating from high school or college. And those transitions can be sad. Many parents struggle when children are leaving and taking greater charge of their lives. Many children struggle to leave home and face the world, whether it’s a job, college, the military, or a family of their own. Yet these changes and transitions are good, as they show people growing and developing. The old gives way to something new. And while there may be regrets about missed opportunities, there is always hope for the future. Bright possibilities lie in front of the people who are transitioning. A new chapter will be written.

Holy Cross in Hazelwood is entering a big transition. For the last four years, vicars have provided a steady, if rotating, presence. They have been here to listen and offer guidance during their one-year stint.

But starting July 2, Holy Cross will have a full-time residential pastor. No longer will you meet a new vicar every July. Instead, a permanent pastor will be here in Hazelwood preaching God’s word every day, delivering the sacraments every week and being a consistent presence on Second Avenue and throughout Hazelwood at meetings and everywhere the community gathers.

My predecessor, Benjamin Janssen, will be ordained and installed into the office of holy ministry July 2 at 4 p.m. Everyone is welcome! Even if you’ve never been to Holy Cross before, you’re welcome to stop by and see what’s happening.

Hazelwood continues to change, and people continue to work very hard to make it a positive change. This change and transition for Holy Cross allows us to continue to be a presence in the neighborhood: feeding, clothing, caring, teaching, and preaching. As we continue to grow with Hazelwood we invite you to come be a part of this transition. We love all our neighbors and look forward to continuing to love you all in the days, weeks, and months to come!

David Wenndt is vicar at Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Chapel, 5319 Second Ave.


Gardening for the good of Nature

By Jim McCue


Jim McCue. Homepage file photo

I was always more interested in Nature than sports. I have a split lower lip from when I was more enjoying the clover and dandelion flowers than the game and got hit by a ball. When I was a paperboy, I sold garden seeds to my customers when I came to collect their payment.

One type of seed I sold was Sakurajima Giant Radish seeds, which can grow to 5 pounds or more. I once planted one in a big container and my brother Pat told me later it took the family three days to eat it.

My dad was proud of the 13-foot Mammoth Russian Giant sunflowers I grew. I learned to stay away from synthetic fertilizers because they grew skinny sunflowers that fell over at the first good wind. These fertilizers used on huge industrial farms destroy the microbes that convert nutrients in the soil into something the plants can absorb. The nitrous oxide they emit is bad for global warming and the ozone layer.

In my 20s, I worked with a family farm in northern West Virginia raising cows, horses, hogs, goats and sheep. We made our own butter (hard work). I used a plow pulled by a horse. The whole family and I grew and harvested potatoes and helped with the birth of lambs. They were fine with me taking from the outhouse to add to other fertilizers for the garden right beside the house; competition between microbes and the Sun's ultraviolet light made for a safe and effective manure.

Human manure has been used all over the world since farming began. Like other animals, we provide rich nutrients to the soil. The Chinese have used "nightsoil" for thousands of years. In this country, Milorganite, composted Milwaukee sewage sludge, is sold as a fertilizer.

Farming was an education for me, not always about good things. There is less wildlife in West Virginia – fewer birds, woodchucks (groundhogs), insects, beavers, bears, frogs, toads. Pollution, climate change, and habitat loss have so altered this new age that it is being called the Anthropocene. The whole earth is changing rapidly.

There is a spiritual aspect of reality that escapes description. Einstein said he believed all reality was miraculous. Hazelwood legend Sam Strati – who, at 20-some years older than me, outworked me in the last growing season of his life – talked to his plants and said a prayer for the animals he had to kill so they wouldn't eat his crop.

Whether you call it the Great Spirit, God or a Hologram doesn't matter. God is God. To me, God, Love and Science are three different words for the same thing.

Jim McCue is a composter and biotech researcher. Read more of his writings at http://bioeverything.blogspot.com.


Poem: The Power of the Push

By Andrea Coleman


On left, the word PUSH and a green figure pushes a wall; on right, the word PULL and a red figure pulling a door
Image courtesy of Andrea Coleman.

It takes a motor and some force of power, being electric or gas to control a lawnmower.

There were times when a manual lawnmower, was just pushed with human power to get the job done.

Grass hacked down, so new birth of grass can implement itself in the landscape.


The same scenario is used in a changing and growing of the Community...

The P>U>S>H>, but who is doing the pushing?

And what type of power is being used?


If the landscape is not maintained it becomes unhealthy and is unable to produce its worth.


Uninhabited…

Displaced…


Let's hear this word: GREEN, which has become the metaphor for clean and good, with new growth to being sustainable by the Power of the PUSH…


It is our Community responsibility to keep the Landscape, Maintain, and Sustain it.


It is with this that we hold on to the Hope of the Beauty within…

Andrea Coleman is a lifelong Hazelwood resident and founder of the Garden of Different Abilities.


Call for artists: 4800 Gateway

By Hazelwood Local


A three-story brick building has grimy white paint on the first floor. A stamp on the upper left corner of the building bears the number 1886.
4800 Second Avenue. Photo courtesy of Hazelwood Local

Hazelwood Local and Hazelwood Initiative are collaborating to deliver a sculptural art piece on the north and/or east building faces of 4800 Second Ave. The 4800 Gateway will welcome those entering Hazelwood at its northern boundary and mark the nexus of Hazelwood Green and the historic Second Avenue corridor.

The formal call for artists is open until midnight on June 9. Review it at www.hazelwoodlocal.com/4800gateway.

Individual artists and teams in the Greater Pittsburgh area or with ties to the Hazelwood neighborhood are encouraged to submit portfolios of previous sculptural works using metal, resins or other outdoor appropriate materials. Metal work is contextually relevant and preferred. An artist selection process will follow the call for artists. A formal design proposal will be requested.

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