7 minute read
HER PASSION + sandwiches
Difference Maker: Sarah Marchall and Saying 'YES' to Doing Good for Others
BY SARAH NELSON KATZENBERGER
Walking into Sarah Marshall’s house, it quickly becomes obvious — she runs a tight ship. There are lockers with backpacks and bins, a wall of books and a wardrobe of dress-up princess dress es hung neatly in a row.
The sounds of little feet pitter-pattering on all floors of Marshall’s split level home fill the air. And some giggles too. But it’s peaceful. The kind of place anyone enters and immediately feels at home.
Sarah Marshall (right), holding Blake, 3, is pictured with her husband. Mark (left); Lucy, 5; Ava, 5; *S., 3; and Aubrey, 3. *S., whose name cannot used for privacy reasons, spent more than two years in foster care with the Marshall family.
If you asked Marshall what she “does,” you’d probably get a response along the lines of, “Well, what day is it?” Marshall is a pastor, a mom to four — Lucy, 5, and Blake, 3, plus Ava, 5, and Aubrey, 3, who she and her husband Mark adopted last spring. Marshall is also a foster mom, a mentor, periodically a stand-in daycare substitute, a friend to many and in her free time, she runs Operation Sandwich in the Brainerd lakes area.
Operation Sandwich provides lunches to kids who might otherwise go hungry when free and reduced lunch is not available through schools. For Marshall, the need is clear. “We help the most vulnerable,” she said. “Because it’s right and it’s what we are called to do.”
Marshall said there wasn’t a definitive moment where she said yes to all this, it just kind of happened.
Marshall and her husband, Mark, started foster care in 2015 not long after their first child, Lucy, was born. “We saw there was a need and said, “Let’s do this — let’s try it and see how it goes for a while,” Marshall recalled.
The Marshalls started out in respite care, taking children who were already in foster care or in homes that needed some reprieve for short periods of time. That eventually led to the family providing foster care for families in Crow Wing County. Over the last four years, they have had more than 50 kids in their home ranging from zero to 18.
Operation Sandwich began as a simple idea to provide lunch for schools for school-aged children during the summer months. It has since expanded beyond simple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to become a lifeline for lakes area families facing food insecurity.
“Our very first placement was supposed to be here 3 to 7 days and that ended up lasting just shy of three years,” Marshall said.
At the time this story was written, there were seven children in the Marshall home, at most there have been 11.
Marshall said the need for foster care in Crow Wing County is great and she is constantly working to recruit others to join them in their service, but she doesn’t mince words about it. “It’s challenging — all of it,” Marshall said. “It’s great, but it’s awful.”
At the end of February 2019, there were 143 kids in need of foster care in Crow Wing County.
Marshall said the most common response she hears to the need for more fos ter families is people are afraid they will get too attached. “You will,” Marshall said, pl ainly. “But it’s worth it.” Marshall said one of the hardest things about foster care is bringing trauma into their home and walking through the pain of that with others. “A lot of times we have kids who have seen more in three years than most will see in entire lives,” she said.
- Sarah Marshall
Despite the pain of sometimes hard goodbyes and having kids come in and out of their home, they have decided the kids are worth more. “We love them as best as we can for as long as we have them,” she said. “We send them home or to their next season knowing while they were with us, they were truly, deeply loved.”
Marshall said foster care has changed the way she views both her own family and her community. “We need each other to really make this work,” Marshall said. Being clergy, Marshall has Sunday morning responsibilities, leaving Mark with the task of
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Operation Sandwich
In 2013, Operation Sandwich began as a grassroots effort of churches and community members who were concerned about filling the gap in childhood hunger in the Brainerd lakes area when free and reduced lunches are not available through schools.
Now part of Bridges of Hope, Operation Sandwich continues to fulfill its mission to make sure children in the lakes area don’t go hungry.
From the beginning, the goal of Operation Sandwich was to provide children who are at risk for food insecurity with a wholesome lunch when school is out for the summer. Bagged lunches are available at schools making access simple for students who are at home dur ing the summer months.
Over the years, Operation Sandwich has evolved from providing weekday lunches to helping assist families who need groceries over school breaks by working directly with school collaborative workers who have a pulse on family needs.
With school suddenly halting due to the COVID-19 concerns in March, Operation Sandwich responded by working with the school district to help supply lunches and groceries to families in need with the unexpected shift in everyday routines for hundreds of families across the lakes area. “We are feeding people beyond the scope of anything we have ever done before, said Bridges of Hope Director Bernadette Foh. With needs reaching far beyond school lunches, Foh said Marshall and her team have worked hard to make sure no one goes hungry by providing grocery deliveries for the most vulnerable and those with limited transportation, special diets, even in some cases, pet food.
“The quickest and more natural fit for Operation Sandwich was to fill the gaps for families and individuals who might not meet the criteria for food provided by the (school) district,” Foh said. “This is the opportunity to test the model of what Operation Sandwich can do.”
For more information on Operation Sandwich or to learn how to volunteer or donate to the cause find them on Facebook or visit www.bridgesofhopemn.org or call 218-825-7682.
Operation Sandwich bags ready for distribution to families through area schools.
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getting the kids to church. But he’s not alone. Church families have stepped in to help with the chaos of getting a gaggle of pre-school age kids in the door providing support, extra hands and on occasion dropping meals by the house to take one thing off of Marshall’s shoulders.
“We have tons of help,” Marshall said. “People come alongside and just get in it with you.”
In her own children, Marshall said fostering has created a spirit of love and acceptance and really, they don’t know life any differently.
“They have become very accepting of people,” she said. “They truly know how to love and care for oth ers.” Five-year-old Lucy Marshall loves to help with di aper changes and snuggles and singing to kids who land in the Marshall home for any given amount of time.
Operation Sandwich volunteers prepare bags of groceries for Brainerd lakes area families in need.
“There’s a beauty to foster care that is easy to miss,” Marshall said. “This part of our lives has changed the core of who we are. How we see others. Is it hard? Yes. Would I change it? Never.”
Bridges of Hope Director Bernadette Foh said she met Marshall when she was approached about Operation Sandwich and Bridges of Hope joining forces to feed the hungry. “I was looking to cre ate a work agreement and build proper pr ocedure and process and (Marshall’s) response was, ‘All I want to do is feed people — I don’t care what method you want us to use to do that.’”
Foh said she was taken aback by Marshall’s approach to caring for others. “That statement spoke volumes to me,” she said. “If someone takes more than one sandwich (Marshall’s) take is — they must be hungry, or they know someone who needs it. The process and the regu lations — those are of no concern to her.”
Foh said Marshall is not the kind of person who needs credit or recognition for what she does — in her home or in the community. “She doesn’t have time for that,” Foh said. “She just does it because she is selfless.” A few months ago, Foh and Marshall were at an event together and on the way out, Foh caught a glimpse of the Marshall van that seats 10. Curious, Foh questioned the size of the vehicle and Marshall casually explained their involvement in foster care and the need to fit “all of their kids.”
“These kids are her family. No question,” Foh said. “She doesn’t see this as temporary — she is invested indefinitely.”
Foh said she sees a consistent sense of purpose in Marshall and something that has inspired the work Foh does with Bridges of Hope. “Everything she does is motivated by how she can help others,” Foh said. “She is the embodiment of hope and stability for these kids.”
For information on becoming a foster parent or supporting foster families in Crow Wing County visit https://crowwing.us/593/Foster-Care. For information on foster care
Sarah Nelson Katzenberger is a displaced Californian who had no idea there were four seasons until she moved to Minnesota. She is a former missionary, law school drop-out, high school teacher and award-winning journalist with the Brainerd Dispatch. She continues to write for local and national publications and provides unsolicited grammar correction as needed. Sarah lives in Brainerd with her husband Chad and their three baby Vikings, Ellis, Meredith and Truett.
Operation Sandwich bags ready for distribution to families through area schools.
