Congratulations to our Volunteer of the Month!

To start off the New Year we’d like to acknowledge May Lai as our Volunteer of the Month! May has been an integral part of our Senior Fitness Program in Brooklyn and her dedication and enthusiasm have brought so much to the program.

May has been living in New York City for three decades, having previously attended high school in Hong Kong and lived in the Dominican Republic. It was her good friend that sent her the link about Met Council’s volunteer opportunities. For almost a year now, she has be the volunteer leader for the Senior Fitness Class at the Carlton Residences in Fort Green. Every Monday morning, for one hour, Mai leads a fitness class for low-income seniors living in this Met Council housing site.

For seniors, staying active is linked directly to staying healthy. May volunteers because she believes that many community projects need the extra help. The most rewarding part, May states, is “self fulfillment and meeting new people. I feel great helping the community!”

We are happy to have her energy and enthusiasm being used in this capacity to keep our seniors active, healthy and most importantly engaged in regular exercise that they enjoy. May, we thank you for your time, patience and commitment to the community as well as its seniors. We are extremely grateful for your dedication!

Game on, Day on! - Martin Luther King Junior Day of Service

Martin Luther King Junior Day: “A day on, not a day off.” And what a day on it was! Yesterday, for Met Council’s MLK Day of Service, almost two hundred volunteers distributed twenty thousand brochures across New York City in order to raise awareness about the food benefit programs available to New Yorkers in need and to debunk some of the common misconceptions and stigmas related to them.

Volunteers gathered together at 80 Maiden Lane in the morning to learn about the details on SNAP food benefits and poverty that they would need to communicate to business owners and people on the street as they distributed materials. They learned about the most common misconceptions about the food program. Many people, for example, think that they are not eligible if they own a car, or are immigrants. Upon reflection after the event, one volunteer remarked that he was surprised at all of the assumptions that people made around the program and glad that he was able to become more informed so that he could talk to them and clear up confusion.

After the learning portion, volunteers then went out to all parts of the city and distributed the information. The information distributed had immediate impact. People on the streets as well as business owners quickly began to view the materials and ask questions to volunteers about the program. And guess what? Less than 24 hours later, we are already receiving dozens of phone calls from people around New York City who saw the flyers and wanted to apply! Good job, volunteers!

Do you want to see our volunteers in action? Click here for pictures of the day’s events.

What did YOU do on MLK Day?

“Over 200 Met Council Volunteers Set for MLK Day!”

On January 16th, 2012, over 200 volunteers will join together to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a day of service. This year, Met Council has partnered with the Hunger Free Communities Consortium to distribute materials that encourage struggling New Yorkers to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other entitlement benefits.

"Last year, we coordinated a similar outreach campaign and it was a huge success. according to SSUSA's analysis from July 2010 to Jan 2011, there was a 55% increase in the number of clients coming to Single Stop sites because of outreach flyers."

This service learning project will be targeting underserved neighborhoods throughout NYC – Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Our dedicated volunteers will be engaging in conversations and distributing information at local libraries, grocery stores, community centers and churches. A half-hour training session about public benefits and food access will be provided to the volunteers before the event.

Together, we will learn how increased access to public benefits such as Food Stamps can be a powerful tool to combating hunger and poverty in New York City. This is a hands-on learning service project that will have volunteers go out directly into the community and make an immediate impact. They have committed to making it a day on- not a day off!

In the afternoon, we are looking forward to reflecting with volunteers and celebrating the success of our day of service at 80 Maiden Lane!

As the late Dr. King once said-

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”

As a tribute to his legacy, we will try to make sure that less people experience hunger in New York City this year.

We want to acknowledge all of our volunteers who chose to give back on this day!

The Jewish Week

Check out Stefanie Greenber's (Volunteer Department Manger at Met Council) and Susan Kohn's (Executive Director of UJA-Federation of New York’ Volunteer & Leadership Development Division) opinion piece in the the Jewish Week.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/opinion/making_mlk_day_day_service

If this inspires you and you would like to volunteer on MLK Day please e-mail volunteer@metcouncil.org. We would love to have you.

Senior Lunch- Holiday Extravaganza!

For more than a year, Met Council’s volunteer-led Senior Lunch Program has been serving up a hot kosher meal every Sunday to residents at our housing site in Manhattan. Sunday, December 25^th was no exception. Our volunteers learned that giving on Christmas doesn’t have to cost money.

Over 20 volunteers participated in our Holiday Extravaganza by decorating the community room with festive balloons and streamers, cutting out paper snowflakes, and hosting rounds of Bingo. Clients enjoyed lunch with plenty of company and warm conversations led in English, Spanish, and Cantonese!

Although Met Council is a Jewish organization, we serve all New Yorkers in need- regardless of race, ethnicity, or background. The success of this ongoing program relies on the generosity of our volunteers who have devoted their time, even their holidays, to take action against hunger and poverty in NYC. We hope to continue to get such a diverse turnout of volunteers and clients going forward into 2012!

Thank you and happy new year!

Met Council thanks YOU!

Here at Met Council, we care about people who care about others. We appreciate the volunteers who give up their weeknights or weekends to serve at Masbia or help out at one of our job readiness workshops because we would not be able to carry any of these programs without them. We are known for sending our birthday cards and, as you can see from reading our blog, for recognizing the volunteers who have really gone the extra mile in our "Volunteer of the Month" section.

But how much does a THANK YOU really matter? According to a study by volunteer organization New York Cares on its own volunteers, it matters a whole lot. 16% of their volunteer opportunities in 2009 were filled just because they showed that they were thankful to volunteers for their service. Volunteers who were thanked served 27% more and became leaders at a rate 25% faster than those who were not.

All of these numbers prove what everyone has always known: that it's nice to feel appreciated. So, to all who have volunteered with Met Council before, we absolutely appreciate you and will continue to show how much we love you. We couldn't have done it without all of you!

What do YOU think? How far do you think a word of thanks goes? Feel free to leave a comment and let us know!

Here are just a few of our many awesome volunteers hard at work serving Seniors, preparing clients for the working world, and helping out at Masbia.

“Festival of Lights Shines a Light on the Youth”

Chanukah is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem as well as the miracle of the oil. On the 25th day of Kislev, which may occur at any time from late November to late December, the festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a nine-branched menorah and it celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, and of spirituality over materiality.

Chanukah customs include eating traditional fried foods on this holiday because of the significance of oil to the holiday. Foods such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot (donuts) are enjoyed. Games such as playing with the dreidel are a significant pastime. The giving of Chanukah gelt to children reinforces the custom to give gelt (money) to children, so that we can teach them to give some of it to charity—and just to keep things festive and happy!

In the spirit of charity, volunteers from our MVP group hosted a Chanukah Party and Cheers for Volunteers event for families affected by domestic violence. It was well attended by over 20 clients and 16 volunteers from the community. Our volunteers assisted with activities such as arts and crafts, dreidel games, sports games, and distributed chocolate gelt and Chanukah toys to the children.

Providing opportunities through our youth enrichment projects allows our volunteers to make an impact, engage and instruct children, as well as have fun! Our volunteers brought innovation and grassroots changes to an already existing program by showing up and being role models to the clients. After the event, the volunteers went out for drinks.