El Centro + Food Pantry

Another one of my main missions has been my working at El Centro.  El Centro del Inmigrante is an organization that is part of Project Hospitality, but yet its own separate entity.  It is located about 3 blocks away from the main offices of Project Hospitality, in a neighborhood which is mostly populated with Latinos, primarily families of first and second generation immigrants.  Its mission statement is "advancing the rights of all immigrants until they achieve full civic participation in the US."

While most of the clients are Latinos and Spanish-speaking, they offer a variety of services that are open for all immigrants and the public.  These services include, but are not limited to: English classes, afterschool tutoring for students, day-worker program and referrals, food stamp assistance, DACA and Dream Act, Immigration Reform rallies, community events, Single Stop aid, Consulate assistance, GED classes, worker safety programs and a food pantry.

The food pantry has become my project.  Every Thursday, my day begins at noon with lunch and a meeting at our main food pantry location, 514 Bay St.  From there, I go to El Centro to check on the delivery.  You see, almost every week we get a delivery from the Food Bank with donated food - usually it's non-perishables like cans and boxes, but sometimes it includes a large amount of carrots, onions, potatoes, etc.  Usually it's enough to stock us for a pantry on both Thursday and Saturday.  Sometimes it's only enough for a Thursday pantry.  Sometimes, it's not even enough for that.  When that happens, the main food pantry supports us with some of their excess stuff.  Often, we have enough stuff in excess that if for some reason we ever don't get a truck delivery, we can open the food pantry anyway.  Sometimes, it's iffy... sometimes, like before this last week, we are well-stocked.  In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the pantry was always well stocked and there was never a shortage.  However, as relief has been cut back, our food pantries are feeling it.  Anyway, I assess the amount of food we have and if we need more, we either get it from the basement or from the other pantry.  The rest of my afternoon is either spent organizing the basement or organizing the upstairs.  That is, until 5:00p hits.

People have been lining up for food pantry since the morning.  We start passing out food at 5:30p, so at 5, the tables come out, food is put on tables and the volunteers get ready for a busy couple of hours.  The normal pantry is: meat (frozen or canned), rice, pasta, potato, fruit, vegetable (fresh or canned), juice, beans, bread.  Sometimes we have cereal, milk, or pasta sauce... and we really never know until the day we get it.  And based on the normal amount of 150 clients, we try to make it last for everyone.  For an hour and a half, we have a pretty steady group of clients that come through.  At 7p (or if we run out of food before then), we pack it up.  The leftovers get taken downstairs, dated and put on the appropriate shelf.

On Saturday, it's an early morning.  I'll usually get to El Centro around 7:30a to make a list of what we're bringing up for the day and to keep an eye on the line.  At 8a, my volunteers arrive.  We form a line and start hauling boxes and bags out of the basement.  They're never lightweight boxes, of course, so we get a workout.  The set-up is usually the same and on Saturdays we usually serve 60-80 people.  The goal for Saturday is to not bring anything back down to the basement.  Anything that is left over, we bring back down... and on Thursday, the process is repeated.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy :)

This was my first day - when I organized the entire basement for 4 hours.

One day, we got a lot of carrots.

The next week, we got a lot of watermelons.

A couple weeks later, we got a lot of EVERYTHING.

 including fresh vegetables - carrots, onions, cabbages, potatoes and more onions.