(photo credit: Yorkville Common Pantry and the Robin Hood Foundation)

Last week, the TILE staff woke up early to volunteer at Yorkville Common Pantry (YCP) in East Harlem. This day of service was made possible for us by the one and only Robin Hood Foundation. YCP is a grant recipient in Robin Hood’s Survival program. “Survival” is not an exaggeration. YCP serves over 1.1 million meals per year, providing social services to many of the community’s neediest residents as the city’s only food pantry open 24/7. Three days a week, YCP provides packages of groceries to between 1,600 and 1,800 needy families. Volunteers (like us) prepare each bag, which provides enough food for each family member for three days. In addition to the food pantry, YCP provides basic services like helping people get food stamps, medical screenings, showers and laundry, mail services, psychiatric consultations, tax prep and even pet food. (People unable to care for their pets is big problem.)

We arrived at the pantry on Thursday having no idea what to expect. YCP’s dynamic and inspiring Volunteer Coordinator, Gladys, welcomed us warmly and quickly put us at ease. She gave the TILE team a tour of the three floor facility, showed us the ropes, and explained how we could be most helpful (and get in the way the least) over the next five hours. I was paired with Al, a full time YCP staff member, checking people in as they arrived to collect groceries to take home to their families. People arrived *non-stop* and waited patiently (for the most part!) while Al and I got into a good rhythm of working together, greeting and checking people’s YCP ID badges. We saw over 300 people come through that day. Other TILErs were busy hauling boxes and bags of food, operating the elevator, calling out names, and packing fresh meat and produce into individually-portioned bags. Although there was pizza waiting for us in the break room, the day was so busy that most of us couldn’t slow down long enough to even think about lunch till the the groceries had all been given away!

I’m so grateful for TILE’s day of service at YCP. We stepped out of our comfort zone for a few hours that day to serve our neediest neighbors. We’re a group of people who work for a finance-technology start-up in downtown Manhattan – what were we doing in Harlem handing out food, anyway? It turns out that helping families access something as basic and essential as food is something we all can relate to, no matter where we’re coming from. As we left the pantry, many of us agreed that as much as we had (hopefully) helped the hyper-efficient YCP machine work its magic, we had also given something to ourselves in the process. Which reaffirmed for us why TILE’s approach to connecting our members to charities as donors as well as volunteers is good for everyone involved.

Robin Hood is a foundation that funnels 100% of donor money into specially-selected programs that fight poverty. You may also want to check out DoSomething.org for volunteer opportunities in your area.

- Gita