A Snitch in Time

You needn't be poor to get groceries from SHARE. Just be good.

by Bruce Schimmel

Steveanna Wynn laughs with her entire face. Her eyebrows, cheeks and mouth all rise and form a giant smile. Sometimes, if she's really pleased, she crosses her eyes. But today Wynn's eyes are small and dark, and her tears flow down the furrows in her face.

Wynn is the executive director of SHARE, Philly's largest nonprofit food co-op, which sells primarily to families on tight budgets. It's the 22-year-old giant you don't hear about — the mother cupboard of some 550 neighborhood groups locally, which ships out some 22,000 cartons of groceries, from Maryland to New York, every month.

And every month, hundreds of volunteers converge on SHARE's warehouse to pack up those cartons. The warehouse is cavernous and dark. But it's brightened by murals — many of smiling people, holding hands — painted by members of churches and synagogues.

These volunteers are the heart of SHARE, and Wynn corrals them with laughter and hugs.

But now she feels betrayed.

For more than 20 years, SHARE has lived peaceably in its Tioga neighborhood, next to Tastykake headquarters. But early Monday morning, July 21, the burglaries began. On Wednesday came another; and still another early Sunday morning. Fortunately, police scared off these last two attempts, responding to burglar alarms.

But the initial assault came with no warning at all. The intruders had cut the wires to the alarm. And they knew just where to go in Wynn's sprawling purple office to find the safe.

They took the safe, laptops, a big-screen TV, a camera and a set of walkie-talkies. They took the canister of cash that sits on Wynn's desk — which belonged to a mentally challenged worker who stores his money there.

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

"It's someone who's volunteered here," she says. "This has been done by someone we've opened up our house to."

SHARE is a $5 million service organization that is powered by good works. And not only from its volunteers, but also from its customers. This is unique. To qualify for a discount on groceries, every customer must declare having donated two hours in service to the common good.

So, you don't need to be poor to get groceries from SHARE. Just giving. And, yes, taking your grandmother to the park serves the common good.

The quality of SHARE's groceries isn't just good for pantry food. It's really good. After declaring my good deed, I took home a carton with fresh broccoli, carrots, cucumbers and peppers, bags of onions, potatoes, oranges and plums, a head of lettuce, a carton of eggs, a cabbage and a cantaloupe. Much of it was locally grown.

SHARE says it's worth $40. (I've paid much more for less nice stuff at Whole Foods.) But every SHARE customer, regardless of need, pays the same reduced price of about $20. If they've served the common good.

As SHARE volunteers got ready to build baskets last Friday and Saturday, word had not gotten out about the burglary. Wynn didn't have the heart.

"I always treat people with human dignity and respect. But I found myself wondering, 'Are you the one?'"

But, after the attack on Sunday, Wynn went public. I asked a friend at TV29 to break the story on Monday, in hopes that other media will follow. To me, these attacks are as heinous as assaulting a church. If there ever was a time to snitch, this is it.

"These people are jeopardizing our ability to be sure that people don't go hungry," says Wynn. "I just know someone knows who's doing it.

"And I want someone to rat them out. Because," she says in a growl, "these M-Fers don't give a rat's ass."

(bruce@schimmel.com)

To report information on this crime, call Philadelphia Police at 215-686-8477 or Northwest Detective Division at 215-686-3353 or 215-686-3054. To buy groceries through SHARE, visit sharefoodprogram.org.