Thanksgiving Hunger Program Info

November 6th, 2011 | Uncategorized

This time of year encourages us to pause and be thankful for all the blessings in our lives. At the soup kitchen and food pantry, we are especially grateful for the wonderful outpouring of support that has helped us feed countless numbers of people this year. Thanks to an incredible group of volunteers and the generosity of many donors, between 70 and 80 people are able to enjoy a delicious, healthy hot meal every Wednesday night. We currently provide an average of 500 bags of groceries per week to hungry people. Unfortunately, recent cuts in Federal government food assistance have taken their toll on the pantry this past year and have meant that people are not receiving as much food and that we often run out of food.

Here’s how hungry folks will celebrate Thanksgiving in Greenpoint this year.

Wednesday Nov. 23 at the Greenpoint Reformed Church, 136 Milton St.
10am-7pm – Food pantry will be open for people to receive groceries.
6-7pm – Turkey dinner with all the trimmings will be served.
* Volunteers are needed Tuesday from 4-8pm and all day Wednesday from 9am-8pm. There is no need to call or email ahead of time if you want to volunteer – just come and we’ll have enough work for everyone to be involved.

Thursday Nov. 24 at the Church of the Ascension, 127 Kent Ave.
12non-6pm – Thanksgiving Dinner
* Volunteers can contact Ascension at 718-389-3831, and more info is here.

The Food Pantry will have a special Thanksgiving distribution of food on Wednesday Nov. 23 from 10am-7pm.
The pantry will be closed on Nov. 25.

Want to help feed hungry people at the holidays? You aren’t alone. This is the busiest time of the year for most soup kitchens and food pantries. Most soup kitchens and pantries can’t accommodate all the volunteers who want to help at the holidays. It’s a cruel trick, though, because most of the other times of the year we DO need volunteers. Here are some ideas we have for how you can help:

1. Advocate. Please contact your member of Congress and ask him or her to protect emergency food and Food Stamps. Pantries like ours rely heavily on government funding. It would take thousands of can drives and fundraisers to make up for the gap in just the TEFAP program alone. You can read more here.

2. Make a financial donation. Because we are members of the Food Bank of New York, we are able to purchase donated food at a steep discount. For example, with $50 we can purchase 200 boxes of cereal. Of course, we will always accept donations of canned and other dry goods (and these can be left in the donation bin on the church steps). But if you are going out and purchasing food specifically for the pantry, your money will go a lot further by donating it to us to purchase food through the Food Bank. And as a special bonus, the Food Bank even delivers right to our door. Donations can be made through PayPal or Facebook Causes.

3. Organize a fundraising event for your local soup kitchen or pantry. Here are some recent fundraisers that have helped our pantry and soup kitchen include: a penny drive by students from a local school raised $900, the Brooklyn Kickball League had a buy-a-run day, a woman held a craft-making party with friends, a couple getting married asked their guests for donations in lieu of gifts, and a group of friends put on a trivia night at a local bar.

4. Contribute something off the wish list. There are some things that we cannot purchase from the Food Bank, and we have a wish list:

* Large 12″ heavy duty Chinette paper plates
* Coffee
* Iced tea or lemonade mix
* Olive oil
* Ziplock bags (both freezer bags and sandwich bags)
* Heavy duty clear recycling bags
* Large heavy duty garbage bags
* a new toilet for the women’s room

5. Volunteer. We need volunteers, especially after the holidays are over. You can be most helpful if you volunteer on a regular basis, either weekly, every other week or monthly. We are especially in need of additional volunteers with the following special skills:
* electrician
* plumber
* Polish language
* marketing and publicity
* web design and maintenance

Thank you all again for your love, care and support. We wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

Occupy Wall Street – Bail Out Our Soup Kitchen

October 7th, 2011 | Uncategorized

We just got a wonderful call from a kind soul saying that she had seen a photo of Rix and his “my soup kitchen needs a bail out” sign at the Occupy Wall St. march. She wanted to make a donation, but the link on our website was (GASP!) broken.

We’re an interfaith bunch, and the person who does our website is Jewish, which wouldn’t mean a thing except that today is Yom Kippur, so she’s not available for a quick fix. Hopefully, we’ll get it fixed asap. But, in case anyone would like to make a donation, you can do so via PayPal. Or you can send a check to Greenpoint Hunger Program, 136 Milton St. Brooklyn, NY 11222.

Once again, the link to DONATE is http://bit.ly/f5kgK9.

And for those who are unfamiliar with the work we do, we serve a hot meal to between 50 and 60 individuals each Wednesday. Our food pantry provides free groceries to between 500 and 600 people each Thursday. We have a food stamps outreach work who is available on Mondays to help people apply for SNAP benefits and to guide folks through bureaucratic hurdles with the City’s Human Resources Administration which administers SNAP. Thanks to programs like HPNAP’s Produce Link and generous donations from local CSAs and community gardens, we’re able to provide fresh fruits and veggies in an attempt to help our neighbors eat healthy. And since some of us don’t know how to cook those veggies, we have a veggie educator onsite and hold healthy cooking demos.

Greenpoint Reformed Church Celebrates Marriage Equality in NY State

June 24th, 2011 | Uncategorized

Tonight the New York State Senate voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. The consistory of the Greenpoint Reformed Church has voted to encourage committed same-sex couples to prayerfully consider marriage, and pledge our support to couples wishing to get married in our church. If you would like to be married at the Greenpoint Reformed Church or would like one of our ministers to officiate at your wedding, please email us at info [at] greenpointchurch [dot] org.

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