“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!

Brown Bag: P&B Sandwiches Style

UJA-Federation of New York's Lawyer’s Division took time out of their busy site visit to volunteer for Met Council. Volunteers made over 40 peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunches packaged in beautifully decorated brown-bags. These sandwiches were distributed later that day to several low income senior clients in need. In this cold weather, we hope the homey comfort of P&B sandwiches serves to keep our low income senior clients happy and warm.

Thanksgiving Dinner with Low Income Seniors

On Sunday, November 21st, the Met Council Volunteer Department’s annual Thanksgiving extravaganza mobilized over 40 volunteers to feed a traditional turkey dinner to 60 low income senior clients at two Manhattan housing sites. This year we were bigger than ever – doubling our programming to reach more clients at more Met Council community locations.

The day began early on Sunday morning with volunteers from Met Council’s Valuable Players (MVPs), a group of young dedicated leaders in their 20s and 30s. MVP volunteers cooked dinner for 60 in our kosher kitchen and made a traditional Thanksgiving meal that included turkey, string beans, sweet potato and cranberries, parsnip-apple mash, and salad.

After the meal was done, individual volunteers and a UJA-Federation volunteer group served dinner at two of our low income senior housing sites in Manhattan. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, volunteers and clients got together to foster a sense of community and giving.

None of this could have happened without Monita Buchwald, the supervising chef who created the menu, came up with the list of ingredients, executed the cooking, and instructed the volunteers. Monita, a recipe tester for Martha Stewart Living, had been a dedicated volunteer with Met Council and has leaded many cooking classes for our clients.

Click here to see more photos of the event. Our holiday programming is not over yet - to get more involved email volunteer@metcouncil.org. Happy Thanksgiving!

MJE Volunteers in the UJA Newsletter

Who knew that volunteering could bring you fame and fortune? The good deeds of the MJE volunteers who made Shabbat packages for Seniors at the Met Council housing sites did not go un-noticed and here they are mentioned in the October 7th issue of the UJA e-newsletter! Good job!

Bringing the Beauty of Shabbat to Homebound Seniors
On Sunday, October 5th, 20 volunteers from Manhattan Jewish Experience led by Daniel Kraus made Shabbat packages for Met Council’s homebound seniors in the Bronx. The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty is a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation of New York. The volunteers, mostly young Jewish professionals in their 20’s and 30’s, made beeswax Shabbat candles, besamim, spice boxes, decorated Shabbat cards, and then tied everything together beautifully. The packages will bring some joy into each homebound senior’s Shabbat.