Happy Tuesday readers!
Gogert (Katie Gogerty) here for a (late) Tuesday update!
First of all, I want to thank you all for reading about our little adventures in New York. Secondly, I would like to thank Megan for a) staying up late to perfect each blog post and b) letting me write a little “guest blog” for today.
Today, every group went to indirect service sites. Group A went to a clothing bank where they folded a copious number of “cow-patterned dresses”. Group B went to Yorkville Community Pantry where they stocked potato and vegetable bags, and group C went to the Food Bank of New York to sort and repackage food. This post is specifically about the site I served at, the Food Bank of New York.
The Food Bank of New York is not only about food; they also provide educational opportunities to teach people about money management, budgeting, etc. What I saw and what we were able to be a part of was a delicious but small taste of what this organization has to offer for volunteers and clients. In our few hours of sorting through palates of assorted donated food items, we packed 2.5 tons of food. Kenny (the site director) told us that the average person eats approximately 1.5 pounds of food at dinner, so we essentially packed enough food to feed a meal to 33,000 families.
To me, the best thing was not the number results of our few hours of frantic packing, but the idea that the Food Bank is running because people out there believe that it is important to help each other. It made me realize that we are not in New York to work just to do the work itself, but we are here to learn more about the world in which we live, to learn about specific problems facing homeless and hungry people to eventually find a solution.
Through working at food pantries and soup kitchens in different cities, I’ve learned that service can be uncomfortable, but our discomfort is key to helping us understand not only the larger issues of homelessness and hunger, but about others’ specific situations. We need to be uncomfortable with the injustice in hunger and in homelessness so that we can see why service matters and how we can make a long-term difference.
Our service didn’t stop at our work sites today because we headed back to YSOP to begin preparing for a dinner party with 10 guests from a nearby homeless shelter. Everyone was very involved in the preparation: some made mashed potatoes, salad, vegetarian stir fry, baked chicken, garlic bread, and ice cream and brownies.
The ladies from the shelter were quick-witted and very personable. They were all very easy to talk to, and some of them seemed like very close friends. Most of them met each other in the shelters and have gotten to the point of caring for each other and trusting each other in a deep capacity.
Before the guests arrived, we were told not to ask the ladies why they are homeless, but it came up anyway (not because any of us asked, but because that is how they know each other and that is a lot of what they have to talk about). They talked about certain shelters closing and new ones working on opening.
The leaders from YSOP asked for a few people to escort the ladies back to the shelter, and I was one of the Coe escorts, and I had a great conversation with one woman. The walk felt very quick, and it made me realize what I have been reminding myself everyday: New York is much farther away than other places I’ve been to, and I may never see her again. So why is service in New York City so important? Why does it matter that I came here as opposed to staying in Cedar Rapids? Why should I put myself in that situation--to get to know someone and face the awful fact that I will never see her again?
I believe feeling this is not only okay, but is necessary. It forces me to remember that she is a person regardless of any stereotype set against her, just as the people from Coe are people. If distance won’t stop a friendship between college students, how should it stop a friendship between this woman and myself? Fear of any kind should never stop us from doing the “little things we do.”
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