“I’m here for help. They give produce, every Tuesday and Thursday. So many people come here from other countries,” said an elderly gentleman from Jordan at the Salvation Army’s Tuesday morning food bank in its parking lot on Arbana.
At the moment, though, Mr. Jaber wasn’t actually in the parking lot. Having spotted another, much fresher food source across the street, he was picking wild grape leaves at the edge of the jungly ravine that cuts across Arbana and had gathered a thick stack of them.
“Fresh is better than those packed in jars,” he explained. “We boil them, and then we stuff it with the rice and meat.” But why wasn’t he picking the largest leaves, which are so much easier to stuff? “The grape leaf–it’s like people, you know? The young ones are so much better.”
