The Take and Eat Food Pantry of North Chatham, with dozens of combined volunteer efforts to provide food for eligible neighbors, has been challenged recently to meet client needs.

The pantry has provided food for 18 to 35 household representatives of up to 100 family members on recent Tuesdays, according to the Rev. Donna Banks, pastor of Evergreen United Methodist, the host church on U.S. 15-501 just south of Cole Park Plaza, where the food pantry is located.

"Recently, we have had to scramble to come up with adequate quantities," Banks said. "There are indications that the numbers may even increase in this busy fall season."

The pantry is managed and staffed by volunteers from five churches in North Chatham: Chapel of the Pines Presbyterian, Chatham Community Church, Lystra Baptist, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist and Evergreen.

Individuals and businesses regularly provide bags of canned and boxed foods. Two area businesses donate fruit, vegetables and bakery items removed from sales.

One church family has increased its garden size so they can provide fresh vegetables during the growing season.

Volunteer shoppers use donated funds to buy available items at reduced prices from the North Carolina Food Bank three days a month. The food bank, however, has had such strong demand that its offerings have been limited recently. Shoppers also look for specials at area grocery stores.

On any given Tuesday evening, there are at least 12 volunteers handling paperwork, assisting clients, and bagging groceries. The Food Pantry Board of Directors meets monthly to address needs, policies and plan for the future.

Donations are received at Evergreen during regular office hours, 9 to 11 a.m Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, on Sunday mornings and by arrangement. Persons interested in volunteering or donating or referring those who need the services may contact any of the five churches or the church office at Evergreen, 968-0198 or info@evergreen-umc.org.

Choir concert to benefit injured teen

The Duke Chapel Choir will give a benefit concert for a teen member of the Congregation at Duke Chapel at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Michael Arneson, the 15-year-old son of Judy and Ken Arneson of Chapel Hill, suffered a traumatic head injury last June when he fell from his bicycle. He was in a coma for several weeks at UNC Hospitals and then was transferred to the Shepard Center in Atlanta.

The Arneson family has been very active in the Congregation at Duke Chapel's children's ministry, youth groups as well as serving in leadership roles on other committees, said Karen Witzleben, vice president of the Duke Congregation Council.

In what members describe as "amazing progress," Michael is home and back in school at East Chapel Hill High where he is taking two courses, calculus and Latin IV. He is continuing to have therapy.

"He has made miraculous strides in regaining his strength and cognitive skills," Witzleben said. "We want to help the family with ongoing medical expenses, so we are thrilled that this November fundraising concert is coming to fruition."

All the proceeds will go to Michael for his continuing medical needs.

The one-hour concert, titled "In That Great Getting' Up Mornin,'" will include many of the Arnesons', the choir's and the congregation's favorite anthems and hymn tunes. The choir, its conductor Rodney Wynkoop, organist David Arcus and harpist Anita Burroughs-Price are all volunteering their time and talent for the effort.

Neighbors and friends of the family are helping with ticket sales, which are now under way.

Tickets, 100 percent tax deductible, are $25. Checks for tickets and/or donations should be made to The Congregation at Duke Chapel with "concert" in the memo line.

Tickets will be available each Sunday after the 11 a.m. worship service at the chapel. They also are available at the Regulator Bookshop on Ninth Street in Durham, at Womancraft at Eastgate Shopping Center in Chapel Hill and at the office of the Congregation during office hours, Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Buddhist author gives talk on relationships

The Durham Shambhala Center and the Buddhist Community at Duke University will host acclaimed author and Buddhist teacher Dr. Judith Simmer-Brown, who will give a free public talk on meditation and relationships on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy. The program is titled "Romantic Fantasy, Everyday Disappointment, Meditation and Relationships."

The public lecture will provide an introduction for a weekend program Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10-11, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Duke School, 3716 Old Erwin Road.

The event will include guided meditation, talks and discussion groups, loving kindness practice and meditation practice. Participants will explore the expectations of love relationship and how through meditation to work more closely with masculine and feminine energy, independence and intimacy.

Cost of the weekend program is $175 ($100 for students) and is open to all. People may attend with a partner or alone, in love or out of love.

For more information, contact Tekla Jachimiak, Durham Shambhala Center co-director at 688-8744 or teklajb@hotmail.com.

Guest speaker opens Creation Season

Creation Season at Binkley Baptist Church, 1712 Willow Drive, begins Sunday, Oct. 11, at 9:30 a.m. with special guest Dr. Ellen Davis.

Davis is a professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School and will lead a discussion during the Sunday school hour on her recently published book, "Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible."

She also will preach on texts from Genesis 1 and Colossians 1 at the 11 a.m. service. All are welcome.

Buddhist teacher leads public events

Buddhist teacher Therese Fitzgerald, who is co-founder of Mindful Living in Berkeley, Calif., and together with Maxine Hong Kingston started the veterans' writing and mindfulness group, will lead three public events in the area during October.

The first is a meditation and talk on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Zen Center, 5322 N.C. 86.

Her subject is "True Freedom: Practicing the Seven Factors of Awakening." The Seven Factors of Awakening are original teachings from the time of the Buddha. Fitzgerald teaches that this original teaching is deeply relevant to cultivating true freedom in modern life.

A second event, set for Monday, Oct. 19, from 7 to 9 p.m., is an interfaith discussion of the relationship between spirituality and activism. She will be joined by Sterling Freeman, director of Wildacres Leadership Initiative; Claudia Horwitz, director of stone circles; and the Rev. Mel Williams, pastor of Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham. All of these are spiritual leaders from various traditions who have spent much of their lives working for social change.

This discussion will be held at the Durham Friends Meeting House, 404 Alexander Ave. in Durham. Suggested donation is $5 to $15.

Fitzgerald will lead a third event on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. in the Commons Room at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 4907 Garrett Road in Durham.

"Aloneness on the Path of Awakening" will be her topic, inspired by the words of Buddha, "Walk alone and do no evil, at ease like a tusker in the woods."

She teaches that these words point to the crucial aloneness encountered on the path of awakening and that individuals come to peace by relying on their own inner knowing.

The program of meditation is at 7 p.m. followed by a Dharma talk at 7:45 p.m. that will be devoted to remembering this aspect of Buddhist teachings.

Suggested donation is $5 to $15. All are welcome.