We arrived at Masbia, a Kosher soup kitchen in Brooklyn, and were welcomed warmly by the kitchen's director Levi (pronounced Lay-vee), who was excited to meet a group of volunteers from a location as exotic as Iowa. He gave us a brief overview of Masbia's regular weekly activities. Divided among three locations, the organization provides hot meals Sunday through Thursday and food from the large pantry downstairs on Friday. We were then divided into a couple of groups. My group was led into the small kitchen space and shown how to pack a hot meal of rice, vegetables, and chicken which had already been prepared earlier that morning. My task was to seal the lids on the boxes. Levi stressed the importance of this task. "Take an extra minute," he said. "We want to make sure everyone feels like they're getting an intact meal." It took us about two hours to finish packing the 220 meals, which were being sent to Queens. While performing the repetitive tasks of sealing the packages and later scooping vegetables into the containers, I began to think about the end result of the work our little assembly line was doing. Sure 220 people in Queens were going to receive a hot meal, but what's 220 full stomachs when about 60,000 New Yorkers are spending the night in a shelter at any given point in time? I also thought it seemed inconvenient to prepare the food in one location and then transport it somewhere else. Why not just prepare the food in Queens where it was going to be handed out? It turns out, as we found out during our reflection at YSOP, that Masbia had actually lost the building at its Queens location. The organization now handed out the meals we prepared in Brooklyn in front of the old building. I was amazed; I had no idea how important those 220 meals were. Our willingness as volunteers to package the food in Brooklyn meant that the organization didn't have to fail its clients in Queens. It meant that 220 people who relied on Masbia for high quality Kosher meals wouldn't have to travel the distance to Brooklyn, find a new place to go, or go hungry. It reminded me of a conversation from earlier in the week, from which emerged a question that shifted my focus for the trip and for the class. What can I, as one individual, do to help those experiencing poverty and homelessness? It's impossible for one person acting alone to completely solve these issues, and many times our own efforts can seem too small. But through our work at Masbia on Thursday I learned that my efforts often have far-reaching effects I may not even know about. Even though 220 meals and 2 hours out of my day might seem small, it's actually big, bigger than I even knew.
On the other hand, my experience at Masbia got me thinking about pooling resources and the lack of communication and centralization among the organizations we have visited in New York. Couldn't another organization in Queens offer up its kitchen for Masbia, so that meals could be prepared on site? It would have taken me much longer to make 220 meals on my own than it did with three of my classmates helping. The same should apply to organizations, right?
My thoughts continued in this vein throughout the rest of our day. We ate the same food that had been packaged (and sampled what was for dinner) as a quick lunch, then spent the rest of the day chopping carrots and unloading donations amid a flurry of other volunteer activity around us. Earlier in the day, Levi had told us that Masbia usually sees about 120 volunteers a day, going in and out between 6am and midnight. At first, looking around the small dining area and kitchen, I thought, Really? What for? Seeing the amount of work to be done in the afternoon on "donation day" (Thursday) showed me what for. Once again I realized just how little a group of seven people could do on its own. It would take many more volunteers to unload all the extra food coming in for the pantry. We barely seemed to make a dent in the bags and bags of carrots that needed to be peeled and chopped. Working together with many others, however, all of it would get done. It seems only natural to apply this concept at an organizational level. It seems that many of those concerned with poverty and homelessness in New York have already decided that centralizing the city's efforts would be too difficult. My question is, what's the harm in trying? All it takes is a few people to lead the charge. Why was our group so successful at Masbia on Thursday? We had an encouraging and organized leader in Levi. It's a good idea and it makes sense; we can all see the effects of our actions reach further if we combine our efforts and work together. If a few people were to really get behind and organize a centralized approach in New York, there would be no shortage of hands to carry it out. With rising technology, there must be ways of connecting people who have never even heard of each other and moving them toward a more collective approach. We've all seen the difference a combined effort can make. Big change can be difficult, but who knows? By the time I make it back to New York City, things might be a little different.
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