Volunteering During Winter Break: Mimoza Januzi, Volunteer of the Month

When school was out for winter break, Mimoza did not relax at home like most of her peers. Instead she volunteered her time at Met Council, assisting low income seniors to get housing. Not many high school students exhibit the type of dedication and maturity that Mimoza Januzi has shown as a volunteer at Met Council. And for this reason we have named her Volunteer of the Month for March 2012!

Mimoza discovered Met Council as she was searching online for volunteer opportunities in geriatrics, a field that interests her as a future career. “I did many online searches and Met Council's mission caught my eye,” explains Mimoza. “I admire the organization for aiding many seniors who have limited resources.”

As a volunteer, Mimoza has served hot meals to seniors at our Senior Lunch Program and has spent over 150 hours working with our Housing Department providing administrative support to ensure that eligible seniors have a chance at receiving low income housing.

“You can always count on Mimosa to go the extra mile.” Temima Dublin, Director of Leasing, said. “We could not have accomplished all this without her help and are so grateful that she chose to volunteer at Met Council.”

Thanks to Mimoza’s hard work and compassion, hundreds of seniors have been aided in finding affordable housing and ensuring that they receive the community programming they need. We are so grateful for her time and work. Congratulations to Mimoza for being Volunteer of the Month!

For Seniors and Volunteers, Met Council’s Lunch Program Provides More Than A Free Meal

For more than a year, Met Council's volunteer-led Senior Lunch Program has been serving up hot meals and good company to low- income seniors living in Manhattan. The program is based at Met Council's Third Avenue residence, which boasts 10 studios, 38 one bedrooms and a live in super in the Kips Bay neighborhood. The lunch program takes place every Sunday and is open to all the residents who live there as well as those who live in any of Met Council's 10 other low- income senior residences in Manhattan.

Since it began, the Senior Lunch Program has been very popular with both volunteers and with the residents, who enjoy not only a nutritious and Kosher hot meal, but more importantly the opportunity to socialize with their neighbors and the volunteers. on any given Sunday, the second floor community room where the lunch is held brings together people from a wide variety of backgrounds- including residents who are immigrants from Eastern Europe, China, and Latin America- as well as volunteer groups that vary in age, ethnicity and gender.

Stefanie Greenberg, Met Council's Volunteer Department Manager, explained that the program fosters an important sense of community among seniors. "This is not a nursing home or an assisted living facility," she explained. "It's simply affordable housing for seniors. For the most part they live independent, but Met Council wants to create a nice environment for them [to live in]...The lunch program gives the seniors an opportunity to come together with their neighbors once a week and catch up over a nice meal. If a regular [attendee] misses a meal or hasn't been seen in a day or two, their friends will know to look in on them."

It also provides an ongoing opportunity for volunteers looking for meaningful service opportunities. "It's a very concrete project with clear tasks," said Greenberg. "Greeting the seniors as they arrive, preparing and serving the food, and interacting with the seniors- there is something for everyone to do and at the end of the day everyone feels like they have accomplished something worthwhile. "

If you would like to be a part of this great program please contact the volunteer department at volunteer@metcouncil.org

A Leader in Food Justice: Emily Silman, Volunteer of the Month

Nutrition and food justice have always been important issues to Emily Silman. So when she went to a food politics conference at Columbia University and saw Met Council’s kosher food network booth, she decided she wanted to get involved.

“It was the first time I’d heard of a Jewish-focused food charity in New York City,” Emily recalls, “and I loved hearing that they took care of hungry Jewish New Yorkers, especially those who keep kosher.”

Fitting with her interests, Emily earned her stripes as a volunteer by handing out fresh chickens for 6 hours during the Passover Food Distribution event for families who have been victims of domestic violence. The Volunteer Department was so impressed with her commitment (not just anyone would hand out chicken for 6 hours) that she was quickly invited to become a volunteer leader for the Senior Lunch Program.

Since that time, Emily has staffed groups of volunteers once a month to serve hot kosher meals to low income seniors at a Met Council housing site. As a volunteer leader, Emily’s responsibilities include supervising volunteers, teaching them about Met Council, as well as ensuring that the lunch program runs smoothly and effectively.

“It’s great to be able to introduce people to Met Council for the first time,” said Emily. “Most of the volunteers from the groups I work with are new to Met Council, but as soon as they hear what we do and volunteer with us for the first time they say “I want to come back!””

In addition to leading volunteers, Emily has also taken a leadership role as an active member of the MVP Planning Committee, which steers a group of dedicated and motivated young professional who are committed to Met Council’s mission of fighting poverty in New York City.

Thanks to her hard work and dedication, Emily has ensured that Met Council clients gain access to the services they need to fight poverty and hunger in New York City.

New Program: Senior Lunch Program

Straight from the volunteering front-lines: Julia Fleisch's experience as a volunteer at Met Council's newest lunch program.

At Met Council’s free lunch for low income seniors, the food is not the main attraction. It comes in second to the opportunity to socialize with friends and volunteers. Sure, the seniors love not having to cook or pay for food on Sunday morning but they get much more when they come to the Met Council Sunday Lunch Program.

A few weeks ago, I volunteered at the lunch program for the first time. I went in thinking that I would just be piling meatballs onto spaghetti all afternoon. Yet, I found myself spending the bulk of the time sitting with the patrons, complaining about New York public transit. Yes, I did do more meatball piling than my average Sunday, but it was worth a little tomato sauce stain on my white shirt to bring some young spirit to the lives of the seniors.

As I left the building when the lunch was over, I felt good knowing that I had helped, and I was pretty sure that the seniors appreciated it too. I found out for sure when I walked into the Grand Central main concourse on my way home and bumped into one of the women, Maria, that I had just served at lunch. She was watching the Mexico versus Argentina game on one of the plasma screens set up around the information booth for the World Cup. When she saw me she exclaimed, spread her arms out, and gave me a hug. I knew then that she had appreciated my help.

My train wasn’t leaving for another half hour so I stayed and watched the game with her. She explained to me her conflict concerning who to root for. She likes Mexican culture, so she wanted to root for Mexico. But, she is from Colombia, and Argentina is near there so she felt obligated to root for Argentina. We continued to schmooze until my train was about to leave. I left her feeling like I had started a new relationship that I would cultivate on many Sundays to come.