Made on the last weekend of the month! Cut it so close! But super glad I got it.
NYC Rescue Mission: http://nycrescue.org/
What a nice shelter. It was kept so clean, the stuff wasn’t broken, it was well lit and by-and-large everyone was calm and friendly. It really looked great. The place also has other homeless services, including classes and learning centers, beds, recovery programs and medical services. It seemed really well put together. It is apparently 130 years old, opening in 1872. It just recently opened a women’s shelter, 30 rooms, in 2014.
The food in the kitchen seemed pretty good. I was surprised at the amount of food wastage. I’m never the one to leave anything on my plate, but some people threw out near entire meals. I tried to use the coffee in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn type deal to justify but it still seemed a little wasteful. We did have a compost bin for the food though so at least we were composting!
I guessed we served probably 200ish people? They let ladies eat first which was really sweet. Most everyone was very nice and polite, lots of thanks yous and stuff. No kids, though a couple teens.
I am surprised of various diversity that the kitchen served. Teens to very old, men and women, lots of demographics. Dress was the main distinguishing factor; some people looked much more put together and others were more disheveled. There was this lady with crazy joker make up, a heavy white powder foundation extremely big and exaggerated red make up and eye shadow. It was very much like the Joker. And though she loitered for much longer than just eating [heavily discouraged by the staff, to keep it moving, though they gave way less shit to the women and were much harder on the men] she returned my smiles and greetings, so she seemed nice. She also sported a white shaw.
My favorite was the early group of ladies who came in. They posted up on a table and just hung out for half an hour, chit-chatting and laughing. It seemed like they were actually sharing a meal. In point of fact, as the demographic changed from women to men, people ate in smaller groups or alone and the atmosphere was definitely less warm, though not necessarily bad [except for two disturbances by some more excitable patrons, both male as well.] I also saw a lot of men with headphones, again particularly the men. No BEATs. Duh.
One of the staffers who I chatted with briefly was talking about how he himself was homeless and had found a place in the Bronx and was moving out, which was super cool. I hope he does well for himself. He knew quite a lot of the guests as well.
I used DEED, an app that lets your sign up for volunteer events. There’s this bit of a social/young people meet up vibe that allows you to feel millennial and that you’re making friends. The events aren’t all amazing out of it, but I did enjoy at least meeting friendly faces. I would do it again and it’s great for more last minute sign ups.