Barbara Sheppard and Judy Uerling

[00:02] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Hi, my name is Barbara Sheppard I'm 64. Today's date is March 18, 2023. I'm here in Taos, New Mexico, and the person I'm going to interview with is Jude Uerling And we are co workers at the St. James food pantry.

[00:22] JUDY UERLING: And I am Judy Uerling or Jude, like the Beatles song. Most of my friends call me, and I'm proud to be 71 and still vertical. It's March 18, 2023, and we are fortunate enough to be in Taos, New Mexico. I am having a conversation with Barbara Sheppard who is a friend and a co worker at the St. James Episcopal Church food pantry. And that is how we met. In fact, for me, it was three years ago last month, and I was thinking the other day, Barb, what was your introduction to the food pantry, and what was your first day there like?

[01:18] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Okay, well, it's. My memory isn't as great as it used to be, so it was in 2017. However, before that, I was a little bit familiar with St. James Episcopal Church for various reasons. But I met Sandy Olson and father Mike Olson in 2013, and Sandy was part of PFLAG. And as things went on in years and I became pretty good friends, close friends with Sandy, that in 2017, I was looking for something different, more direct service. And so she suggested I might contact Marilyn Ferro, who I did. And so it was, I think, around now, maybe February of 2017, that I came. And my first day was wonderful. I mean, all the days have been wonderful. There's been moments when it's been kind of stressful, but it was just very welcoming. I didn't really know what I was doing, and so I just kind of asked where I could help. And over time, things changed, and I got more familiar. And so my roles kind of shifted into more predictable what I would be doing. And it was a wonder. It's always been a wonderful experience.

[02:46] JUDY UERLING: I remember coming in my first day, and they put me with Janice in the backpack program, and fairly familiar with that because a lot of communities have it. And it's hard for us to imagine going home. Nothing in a refrigerator, nothing in a cupboard. And so the fact that we are able to reach out and help elementary, middle school, and high school kiddos with nutrition really is heartwarming. And then after that, I did that for several weeks.

[03:30] BARBARA SHEPPARD: And I remember that. I remember you being in there in the Santiago room.

[03:34] JUDY UERLING: I remember you being in there, and it was great fun. And then I. Because I am a retired chef, my direction kind of mogated into the kitchen, and I noted that people were volunteering to serve lunch to the volunteers every Thursday. And so I got involved with that and have kind of been doing that ever since and doing a little bit of the coordination of who's going to cook every week so we don't have to spend money or a lot of money on that. And I think the thing that really, really gets to me is the high level of food insecurity in northern New Mexico. In New Mexico, period. But for the Taos area, the stats are pretty high.

[04:38] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Absolutely. I think over the time I've lived here, one of the most heart wrenching experiences that I feel almost on a daily basis is the disparity of income and the disparity of housing and food insecurity. Definitely. And I want to go back for a second, though, and just give you a shout out. You have nurtured so many volunteers through lunchtime. As you know, as Marilyn would say, ah, Barbara likes to eat. And that you, you guys just do such a great job. You have a whole team of men and women, mostly women, who come in and they either bring their own food that they've cooked, prepared or they prepare it there. And I can't thank you enough. And all the volunteers that feel every week that we all get up in the morning and when we head to St. James, we know our bellies are going to be full. We know our day is going to be blessed by the food that is served to us. And it's not just the food, but it's the love that goes with it. So I wanted to really thank you for that.

[05:54] JUDY UERLING: Very nice of you. Thank you, Barbara.

[05:56] BARBARA SHEPPARD: And it's not to say that the folks before you, I've always appreciated the food that was cooked for us. And I worked in the kitchen in a different capacity once Marilyn kind of decided where she wanted me. And back before the pandemic, we used to get tons and tons of sweets and breads. And one of my jobs with a few other volunteers was to divide them so they would go farther. Because one of the pieces that's really important to me is that we offer food to everyone, no questions asked, but that there's something for everyone. And so there's times when we have to, you know, make it stretched. And just as we know, they, when they go home, they're gonna have to make the food stretch quite a bit.

[06:41] JUDY UERLING: We're still doing that, particularly with the bread stuffs, but occasionally we'll get an unusual contribution. A couple weeks ago, a gal brought in some bulk items that her former fiance, I think she said, was stockpiling. So there was a big container of, like, beautiful sea salt. Well, rather than giving out five pounds of sea salt, we broke it down into half pound portions. And we've done that with a number of other things, which you do weekly because you participate in the bean and rice and oats distribution, too.

[07:29] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Right.

[07:29] JUDY UERLING: Tell me about that.

[07:31] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Well, actually, when Sandy, when Sandy suggested, well, why don't you come and just check it out? And I don't remember if I talked with her or with Marilyn, but she said, well, the Monday group does this, and it's a very different group in a sense of who they are and their contribution, but it's invaluable. And then slowly but surely, I ended up volunteering to, I have an addiction, I think, to volunteerism, but to stamping all the bags so that we could have that as well. And so I did that. And I was always doing Thursdays, and I thought to myself, well, there's no reason I can't do both. And then during the pandemic, then it just increased the hours because there was more to do, especially on Thursdays. But, yeah, doing the rice, beans and oats is very important because that's such a basic staple. And even though some people don't take it every week, and certainly we learned during the pandemic, during the, especially when we had to distribute by box, that we were giving over amounts to people, but we didn't have any other way to distribute it because safely. But they really appreciate it. And speaking of things that get donated, a couple things I could say on that one is that we often, especially in the spring and summer, get a lot of eggs donated. We get a lot of produce. And it's wonderful that we can create kind of a little bit of a mini farmers market, I call it. I tell the volunteers, I go, well, you have a whole display here. And, you know, farmers around Taos will donate all kinds of fresh vegetables. And there's so much appreciated by the clients or the guests.

[09:26] JUDY UERLING: Sure. And we've even had a few the last couple weeks. I don't know if someone has, like, a hydroponic garden or what, but we've had fresh lettuce, kale, herbs, and then, of course, the eggs, which aren't as plentiful. So that's, we've been dividing them into half dozen. So it's better that ten clients get a half dozen and maybe five getting the full.

[09:54] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Right. And there are some people, and there's a, I didn't see her this week, so I don't know if it was her. But there was a woman that regularly comes in who donates, like, a big bag of probably maybe ten to 20 different smaller bags of various vegetables, and she has her own greenhouse and it's winterized. And she said, yeah, my husband made this for me or created this for me years ago, and it doesn't even take a lot of energy, and I have so much. So I always thank her because at times she said, I'm not sure if people really want this. And I was like, we always want that kind of donation. And when we get other donations, we always appreciate them. But I do want to make a comment about and what I try to encourage people that I didn't know this before 2017 and coming to the food pantry that for every dollar that somebody might go, actually go to the store and spend, we can actually make that go for $4. And so four times. And so if somebody wants to donate food from their own home or, you know, canned goods or, like, produce from their garden, that's one thing. But to go to the grocery store, it's better to donate money. And all of it, every cent of it goes towards feeding people. And it's four times as much, which when people hear that, they go, oh, yeah, I'd rather write a check.

[11:20] JUDY UERLING: Yeah, I don't think everybody knows that the food that we receive from the food pantry is weighed and we pay by the pound. So 25, that goes a long ways.

[11:38] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Absolutely. Some of the other things that, you know, since we're talking about the food pantry now, I hope we're going to get to our own journeys. But I, one of the things that I talked with Marilyn Farrow, who used to be the coordinator director, if you will, and she started in 2004, there was a pantry that existed at St. James for maybe, maybe up to ten years before that. But back when Maryland started, it was a big deal if they gave out 50 bags of groceries. Well, now that's exponentially has expanded. It's, you know, on a good week, it's 350 to 450 families get a bag or a box. And during the pandemic, that number was higher. And there are certain weeks now that it's even higher. So that's just amazing. That, to me, just speaks to the issues of insecurity of food, the issues of the need. And even the demographics have shifted from the six or seven years I've been there to where there's a lot of younger couples, more families that are coming in, and it's just much more diverse. And so, and then the programs during the pandemic just. We had quite a few volunteers, but the numbers of the amount of food, especially during that first year, Jill Klein, who oversaw the pandemic food distribution at St. James, we had school programs, and you mentioned the backpack program. And at that point, there were like 300. So probably when you first started, there were like 300 bags that were created for kids in programs at schools. And then there was a whole school program on top of that that we. So the rice, beans and oats, everything, the hours of time to put them together, but also the amount that we needed to have on hand just like doubled because there was a food program for the schools that was funded by the state as well as local government. And then there was also outreach programs like Tempenasco. And so the volunteers, I mean, they're all heroes in my life, in my book, because they did so much, and they just really stepped up. And every week for the first several months, it was a little different. The amount that we had to do or the issues that came up, how we were going to manage the safety issues. And everybody put their self first. Self first in a sense of coming forward. But then they took a step back and realized that they wanted to do this work, and they risked themselves by, you know, you did too, Jude, of risking the possibility of getting Covid or spreading Covid. So anyway, I think.

[14:57] JUDY UERLING: And people are still very cautious about that. And you still see masking.

[15:02] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Yeah, I wear my mask there.

[15:04] JUDY UERLING: And I think back two in where I have lived. And I remember being in Albuquerque, and I had my own restaurant and catering business. And it was a cold, windy, snowy day, so business was very, very slow. And I was kind of feeling sorry for myself and wondering how the bills were going to be paid. But I went back to the fridge and pulled enough ingredients together to make five gallons of vegetable beef soup, which I took out to Joy Junction, a mission that's still in existence in Albuquerque. And when we moved to Clovis, New Mexico, one of the first things I felt led to do was to check out the lighthouse mission, and so did some cooking at lunch and breakfast for them. So there's always, always a need.

[16:14] BARBARA SHEPPARD: I also. I mean, you know, I've just shared a bunch of the pandemic, some of the difficult parts, but I really feel blessed at this .3 years. Reflecting about the spirit of this community and the number of people that I met that I probably, including you, Jude, possibly that I would have possibly not met the numbers of volunteers from all walks of life that came. I mean, the young people, the high school students that they're home. You know, mom and dad said, well, hey, you know, do you want to volunteer at St. James? And we had high school students, we had college students come back, and they're home all, you know, from the spring until the fall or beyond of 2020. And they came, and they rose to the occasion, and I was really proud to work with them as well as there were doctors, there were business owners, there were teachers that I knew either from elsewhere or got to meet. One was a vet that worked with my kitty and my dog years ago, and she was a retired vet. And it was just. It was just so beautiful to see so many people step forward, and I.

[17:35] JUDY UERLING: Think we still see that. And I know that a few of our volunteers are in need themselves, but to see them come forth, participate in helping again, it's heartwarming that we hear so much negativity in the news and in the world, and there is a lot of very unhappy and sad things going on, but then kind of still believe in the good of people, I guess. Maybe I'm a little Pollyanna at heart, but.

[18:15] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Yeah. And a lot of the volunteers that are there now came during the pandemic, and they can't imagine not being there. And I recall just briefly, I'll tell this little story that in the summer of 2021, somebody from the Taos news came, and there was a group of us outside ready to distribute boxes to people lined up in all the way around the parking lot. And they gave us this plaque. And this plaque was actually a framed kind of somewhat of a thank you, but it was of all these pictures of us during 2020, different ones. And there was a group of us that mostly who had been there. And so we saw each other's pictures, and we just stopped for a moment, and it brought kind of tears to my eyes and maybe to others that we just. Just felt like in the midst of this chaos, this horrible tragedy, this horrible kind of nightmare that we were all going through navigating that we all came together in the spirit of Taos, and we couldn't imagine anywhere else that we would want to be. And it was just. We were grateful for the opportunity because so much we couldn't control, but we could probably muster up the strength. And it wasn't easy. And sometimes it was way over my head as far as being able to pick up some of those boxes. But it was worth it at the end of the day to have helped somebody rather than, as you just said, you know, go down the dark road of despair or get upset or listening to all the news, which I did all that, too, but trying to balance it out with. I've always, since I was fairly young, serving others has been my way to offer something to the world, and it's really been important.

[20:11] JUDY UERLING: And second that I feel like having a servant's heart couldn't be anything better. And I'm reminded of last fall when we had our empty bowls project. And just for any listeners that we may have, it is an annual fundraising that the food pantry does, but was put on hold for three years, two years. And artists, potters in Taos, of which we have so many talented people, donate bowls. And then patrons who are going to come and have soup with us, a bowl of their choice, and then they come in and have a warm meal of soup that's been either made by people in the church or donated through the restaurateurs in the community. And, gosh, Manuela, last year we raised over $20,000 for that. It was just, I mean, it wonderful that the people responded. We also had a silent auction where everything from handmade quilts to gift certificates were offered. We had some raffle baskets that Marilyn Farrell that you mentioned, and I put together a margarita basket, which was pretty popular. And so, yeah, Taosh has a giving heart.

[21:59] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Right? And when I think about the empty bowls, and I think of last year in particular, because I've worked at a few of them now, is that I felt like, and I told Marilyn this after, I felt like I had the best kind of volunteer job of the day because I was the person who took their ticket. Once they chose their bowl, so many people had a story about the size and what they wanted to do with their bowl. And they were so excited that the empty bowl project was back. So they had an opportunity to give. And it just. It's just one of the best fundraisers, I think, that I've ever participated, and.

[22:38] JUDY UERLING: It is a national program. I didn't realize that until I did a little research and saw that empty bowls is a big, big international effort. And I was busy in the kitchen. We served over 30 gallon of soup. So it was.

[22:58] BARBARA SHEPPARD: It was delicious.

[22:59] JUDY UERLING: Yes, it was. And the wonderful homemade bread from the bakeries and desserts. Yeah, it was a pretty special day. And your rusty, our new coordinator, has given you, is it floor coordinator?

[23:15] BARBARA SHEPPARD: I'm the volunteer coordinator.

[23:19] JUDY UERLING: Okay. And what do you think is the most important aspect of that position, barbarian of your floor coordinator?

[23:30] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Well, I've been kind of doing it off and on since the pandemic, and I think that probably the most important role for me in that is to be supportive of all the volunteers and to balance that with making sure that we are coming from our hearts and can gracefully receive as well as offer help in the form of food and to also kind of coordinate and kind of orchestrate, so to speak, or choreograph. I don't know where people are best suited to make the day go as gracefully as possible. So that would probably be my.

[24:22] JUDY UERLING: What about challenges?

[24:24] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Oh, well, there's always challenges. I think there's a diverse group of volunteers, and so understanding people's needs is sometimes important or not. Sometimes always important. And then also sometimes having to set guidelines and sometimes not. Always being the most friendly person and not friendly. Meaning just sometimes I have to say something and being able to say it in a way that it can be heard and understood, because I have to think of the whole picture. I can't just think of one person, including myself. And some of the challenges, too, for me at moments is that somebody may have an idea listening to it and their idea might be a great idea and it works. And once in a while it won't work. Or during the. Especially during. Earlier in the pandemic, I would come up with an idea and we're doing this, and then five minutes later I would tell everybody that was not a very good idea. I admit to being able to admit that I don't have all the answers, and we're all working on this together. It takes a village. I said this last week at our meeting that it takes a small village and we're all in this together and we're a team. There's no one person that can make this happen. It takes many. When I count up the last few weeks, it's about 40 to 50 people that make this happen just on the Thursday part. And if you add the Monday part, so definitely be about at least 50 people that make this happen every week. Just from the boots on the ground type work, dedication.

[26:09] JUDY UERLING: Yeah, that's wonderful. I'm going to go off on another line if I made, I'm curious, what brought you to Taos?

[26:18] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Okay, sure. Well, it goes back quite a ways. I came to Taos part time to live in 2003 and then full time in 2005. But my journey goes back a little farther than that in that my wife and partner, we had been visiting since 94, and each of us had come to Taos before that, but we were visiting and we just really liked being here for various reasons. Loved the outdoors. We're both into the outdoors of snowshoeing hiking, biking, anything outdoors, just about. And so in 2005, we had the opportunity to relocate. I had been a clinical social worker for about 25 years. I was gifted the opportunity to not have to work for pay. And so we decided to move here. And so. And Jean Visa, my wife, is a writer, and she has written books and articles and different things and worked in the community as well. And so we came here basically for the outdoors initially, just the mountains just were calling us. And we came from the Bay Area, which is much more dense. I grew up in San Francisco and then worked in the North Bay for most of those 25 years and just felt like it was time. And my personality is such. I may be talking a lot right this minute, but I'm fairly quiet. I'm an introvert. And it was this calling to be in a more peaceful, smaller environment and more being able to explore the nature so I could go on and on. But how about you?

[28:24] JUDY UERLING: Well, trying to think. Brian, my husband, came up here before I did, and my very best friend at the time. And the old saying of, you shouldn't go into business with friends and family came true, sadly. But that's a whole other story that I won't get into. Anyway, I had visited her in Memphis, and Brian thought, well, if she's going to go on her own vacation, I will, too. So he came up to Taos, and we were living in Albuquerque at the time. And then he told me how beautiful it was and how wonderful. And so we made a few trips. And then the following summers, we made it a point to go up. We liked being in the ski valley because it was away from a lot of the tourist traffic and the other things. And we just both appreciate the beauty of the mountains. And so almost every year, I'll bet for 30, 35 years, we have come up to Taos, and we thought we would retire in Albuquerque. But then again, the traffic, the crime, so many things there kind of let us back up here. And right before he was going back to school, we came up. And as we were driving back to Albuquerque, I said, I wonder if there's any type of retirement or whatever village or home rentals for older couples? And so we got online and we're searching, and the Taosh retirement village, the name of it at the time, came up. And so the next day, we drove back up to Taos and looked at several units there and decided that's where we would come. And so Taos became our home. And I feel so blessed. I love it here. I love the seasonal change. I love the beauty. I love the artistic atmosphere. That Taos is lovely.

[30:49] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Yeah. It's so special. And I.

[30:52] JUDY UERLING: And I don't mind snow.

[30:54] BARBARA SHEPPARD: No, I don't either, because I like to play in it. And, yeah, speaking of the retirement village, or that's what it used to be called, I know people that live there, and I've known for the whole time I've lived here, and I didn't realize.

[31:09] JUDY UERLING: You lived there so well, actually, we don't now. We decided it really wasn't. I think we were maybe too young for it.

[31:17] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Okay.

[31:18] JUDY UERLING: So we did go back into homeowning and love that, but a little place, and I just am so grateful every morning, go out on the porch and have my coffee, even in the cold weather, and look at the mountains and the beauty. It's.

[31:36] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Yeah.

[31:37] JUDY UERLING: Absolutely perfect.

[31:39] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Right. Well, when I was talking about that, I felt gifted to be able to come here financially. What I didn't realize but now feel blessed, is that when I arrived, that my background as a social worker was able to continue. I mean, I have a lot of social worker friends back in California in particular, and they say you never really stopped. And the kind of running joke is you just stopped getting paid. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's. You know, I'm going on 20 years of service in this community of all different areas. And some of the proudest moments that I have been involved in were the LGBTQ advocacy and works in the school and really gaining a voice for myself as a lesbian in early, like, around 2010 or so, Anouk Ellis, who was the president of PFLAG House, who really helped me gain a voice to be able to share my story with others and to stand up and be proud of that. And another proud moment was being able to benefit from that when same sex marriage was possible in this state, and being able to be afforded that opportunity by a friend and former judge, Judge Jeff McElroy, who married us in 2013. So those have definitely been some proudest moments, as well as just my whole life, way back to when I was a kid, of standing up, trying to, in my quiet way, more vocal now for human rights, for everyone, that the importance of it, that people need to have a voice when they and sometimes don't have it, and that it's up to us who have some privilege to speak up and make things happen for them. So. And I'm sure that you have your version of that. Yeah.

[33:49] JUDY UERLING: Just the same thing of being able to take care of others. I think my faith with christian values says that you love and you serve. And to me, that is the greatest joy, to be able to return the gifts that I've been given. I think I started out in college administration with admissions work and then took a whole big step in opening the restaurant in Albuquerque. But I think that is probably my forte. And God has given me an ability to take a couple chops, maybe a limp carrot, and whatever else is in the fridge and make a meal for it. To be able to help people with just a simple, basic need in life is what I love doing.

[34:54] BARBARA SHEPPARD: And when you talk about your religious or spiritual journey, one of the things that I also attribute to Taoison coming here is my connections to the buddhist community. And I always had a thought of, I was raised a Catholic, but I always felt a need to develop my spirituality in a different way. But I also feel that the expansion of that all spirituality leads to the same kind of endgame, if you will, in that it's about love, it's about compassion, it's about giving to others, it's about being able to receive and very grateful over the last 1520 years of the community, Taos Mountain, Sangha, and all the teachers across this country in particular, that have helped me to live the life that I've wanted to live. And I think I have lived it, but I think I've gotten a little bit more graceful about it.

[36:05] JUDY UERLING: I see the joy in your face when you talk about it, and I think rather than hiding our beliefs or being afraid that we're going to hurt somebody's feelings, because Buddhism and Christianity are very different, but yet, at the same time, we share a commonality. And I have enjoyed this little experience we're having. Barbs, so much getting to know you better.

[36:33] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Yeah, it's been wonderful conversations.

[36:36] JUDY UERLING: So.

[36:36] BARBARA SHEPPARD: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.