About 2 and a half years ago 2 women in my Book Club described the work they were doing at their church, Gethsemane Methodist Church, on the Northside of Syracuse.  They said that their church was situated in a neighborhood of low income people that were predominately immigrants.  Many of these immigrants are from the Middle East, Africa, and South East Asia and some are from Cuba. The majority of them are Muslim.  They had decided to serve these folks by providing a food pantry, a personal items project, a diaper bank and a thrift store which would both provide clothing and household items at a very low cost (much lower than say the Salvation Army or Rescue Mission) and also help provide funds for the food pantry and the personal items project.  I thought it sounded like a wonderful project and asked how I could help. 
For the first year and a half, I primarily worked in the thrift store on Thursday mornings with members of the Gethsemane Methodist Church.  We accepted donations from anyone who left them, sorted them,  priced them,  and put them out in the store for display.  It became apparent to me that having more donations would be very helpful, and with the help of Julie Daniel, Kevin King and Rev Jo, we solicited many donations for the thrift store from May Memorial and from other friends and various sources.  Many weeks, I brought a car full of donations to the thrift store,and I was happy to see several folks from May Memorial who began to collect donations and bring them to Gethsemane too.  It was wonderful to see people who obviously had very little money be able to shop for their families and spend only a minimum.  When people came with dire circumstances, the chairs of the thrift store outfitted the family with necessities. For example, one family came to the food pantry and had been burned out of their home in Cortland that week.  We brought them down to the thrift store, and they chose several changes of clothing for each family member as well as items such as sheets,towels, blankets, pots and pans, silverware and dishes. The same thing happened when a family came for diapers and food and we discovered they had just arrived after spending 2 years in a Refugee Camp.  It was winter and no one had warm winter clothing, so the folks at the Thrift Store outfitted them without charging them a penny.
 During this time, I also learned to do registrations for the Food Pantry and subbed fairly often in this position.  Many of the people coming through to shop for food or to get diapers or personal items are mothers with young children, neither of whom speak English. I am a retired preschool special education teacher, and I thought it would be great if we could provide simple picture books parents could read to their children.  Even if they couldn’t read the English words, they could tell the story by looking at the pictures and telling it in their own language. Julie and I sought donations of simple picture books from May Memorial, local libraries,friends, and social media. Thousands of books have been distributed to children and parents in the past two years, and we continue to seek out sources of books for this project. 
Over the past year, I have spent more time distributing the Personal Items Bags than working in the Thrift Store.  Each week 55 of these bags are distributed to people in the 13208 Zip Code,and they contain such necessities as toilet paper, soap,laundry detergent and tissues.  These are distributed first come, first serve,and there are never enough bags.  In fact, there is a two hour window for distribution, and I rarely have any bags left after the first hour.  I love getting to know the regulars who come every month, and I try hard to make people feel welcome when they register. But I feel badly about the long line of people who wait for this bag, especially when we run out. 
I love working at Gethsemane.  The people who run the “missions” there are all lovely ,and appreciate the help of volunteers.  And I feel like what I’m doing really matters.  There’s a lot more that could be done there to help the folks who come to get the services at Gethsemane.  I’d be happy to talk with anyone who is interested in helping in any way.  In particular, they could use more able bodied folks who can unload food,  anyone who speaks other languages, particularly Arabic, Spanish, or Somali or is good with Google Translate, people who could make signs in various languages, people who are availailable Friday mornings, even as a sub.