By Kaylene Bishop
If you are familiar with downtown Nampa, Golden Glow Tower (GGT) is the tall, white building on 7th St. On Tuesdays, I roll up with produce and bread. On the lookout, distribution manager Roseanne then makes a call to activate the helpers. Before long, Sharon, Janis, Marie, Karolyn, and Dana are enthusiastically ready with carts to peruse our donated goodness. They then head to the community room to divide and bag items to ensure fair distribution. It’s clear they enjoy the camaraderie and team effort. One day, someone said he enjoys taking the stairs to smell the different foods that people are making with the food we bring. This is the spirit of GGT—friendship, care, and community. Learning this has touched my heart, and so began a mission to write about GGT and the lucky 62+ who call it home.
I met with this amazing distribution team who told me GGT is a special place because it’s a community within itself; people take care of each other. The events committee organizes group birthdays, potlucks, and games. Each floor has resident captains responsible for checking on and updating folks. Naturally, we mainly chatted about food, and I learned that everyone went crazy for some flatbread I brought. They loved it so much that they needed to figure out where they could buy it! Fruit was a group favorite, and they said eating a variety of produce is vital for them to stay healthy. Rolling Tomato deliveries help them save money on a limited budget; Marie reported our weekly food drops save her $20-30 per week!
My time as Rolling Tomato’s first Idaho HealthCorps AmeriCorps member has gifted me the opportunity to directly support my community at large and feel like my time is well spent. I have also learned many things—thanks to Janis, who likes asparagus, I know how to tell the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. Thanks to Karolyn, who loves rye bread, I learned about Welcome Wagon that came around in the 1950-80’s, which brought soap, groceries, coupons, and movie tickets to new Idaho residents. It has really been a pleasure for me to get to know these folks and be one small part of their special community. I hope one day to finally bring Roseanne some okra!
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