Volunteering

When I deliver food to hungry people, people say I'm nice. When I avoid polluting, they call me extreme. Yet both actions come from the same place in my heart and mind, which I can best characterize with the phrase "love your neighbor as yourself." Whether you're Christian or not, that advice has stood the test of time for a reason. Acts of love for neighbors are rewarding. I just got back from delivering a big load of food that would have been thrown away to the Bowery Mission---a soup kitchen on the lower east side that feeds the hungry. People call me lucky that I have time to volunteer, often disparagingly or condescendingly implying I'm privileged---note: not privileged relative to the people I'm serving…

I've shared about my annual cooking workshops in Drew Gardens. Last time people recorded videos. Recording was impromptu, so I didn't bring a good microphone, so sorry the sound isn't great, but you can see something of the experience. https://youtu.be/X2lmbTrc7tk https://youtu.be/OVOJ8Fj8Kpg https://youtube.com/shorts/4qYbEfH0-og Some students from Fordham University were making documentaries of Drew Gardens as a class project and I ended up in them: https://youtu.be/qip5I8h9e0c https://youtu.be/FO74Mp7Wrfw EDIT: Here's a news clip of Drew Gardens reopening to the public in July 2025:

These pictures are from volunteering delivering surplus food to the community center a couple months ago. I don't usually take pictures so when I do I sometimes post them here. I like alleviating suffering. I don't like watching TV or scrolling social media so I volunteer instead. I don't understand how people find so much time for social media when we can volunteer.

A practice in the volunteering I do is to take a picture of what we deliver and post it to a message board. People thank each other and it makes everyone feel better. It builds community. I haven't posted many pictures lately. I like just delivering the food and the thanks of the people who receive it. Still, the pictures end up on my phone. I usually delete them since the reward has already happened, but for some reason this time I sent the pictures here. Here are some pictures from recent deliveries to the community fridge. They're in no particular order. One or two might be from a different volunteer, but I think they're mostly mine. I recommend volunteering. more

I've talked about my volunteering: Stores throw away perfectly healthy food as part of our broken system. A group of us pick up that food and bring it to a community center called the Chelsea Fridge. Anyone can take it from there for free, usually poor people, though anyone can. I've meant to make a video of me bringing the cart to the store to pick up the food, bringing it to the fridge, unloading it, and walking home. Last night, I hauled a large load. I asked someone there to record unloading. It's dark, though they turned a light on partway through, but you get the idea. Everyone enjoys the free food. You can't see the people at the store I interact with when…