Go Giants? Go St. Bernard's! With 1098 cans and counting, they will be tough to beat!

St. Bernard's School has counted and boxed 332 cans of soup!! Keep counting, teams and thank you from staff, volunteers and clients of YCP!

Riverdale is checking in at 138 cans and counting! Email lnellis@ycp.org to have your school's "score" posted online!

Riverdale has 100 cans already! How is your organization doing? Go teams!

Let the chilly weather remind y'all of the comfort of a bowl of soup! We are collecting low sodium canned soup or stew and whole wheat noodles for our pantry and hot meal programs. Feel free to collect with your class, office, family or organization! A million thanks from YCP!

I am Chair of the Board of the Yorkville Common Pantry, and I am a regular volunteer who has been working in the Thursday Pantry for almost 20 years. Being a volunteer gives me joy. There are many ways to volunteer, donate, or otherwise be involved in the work of YCP, and you can find out about them on other parts of this website, but I am here to tell you that giving of yourself to YCP will make you happy.

What do I mean with that bold statement? I am inspired by a recent article about authentic happiness in the sense of life fulfillment, thriving, or flourishing, and not just fleeting emotion. It found that enduring joy comes from a group of factors, and I realized that I gain all of them from my work at YCP. You can too. Let me explain.

The research showed that true, lasting fulfillment in life came from a combination of things summarized by the acronym PERMA. I will define the letters in the acronym and how each applies to working for YCP.

P: Positive Emotion. This is the simple, transient happiness we get from doing something fun. It is fun to come to YCP to work: a pleasant environment, mostly simple tasks. We laugh and share stories as we work together.

E: Engagement. This is the feeling of "flow" we get when immersed in an action. When you are serving at a hot meal, or rapidly filling pantry orders, the continual stream of clients coming in fully engages you, so that you get swept up in the activity. Cares and worries of your daily life recede in your conscious thought as you are busily absorbed in the tasks at hand.

R: Relationships. The connections we have to other people are vital for life satisfaction. Every time you come in to YCP, you will meet someone whom you would never otherwise encounter. The friendships I have developed with other volunteers enrich my life. Even the transient relationships, with one-time volunteers, expose me to such diversity of humanity that my life is enhanced.

M: Meaning. We want to feel our life is meaningful. There is no question that food is a basic necessity of life, and helping to provide food to others is fundamentally meaningful in a totally fulfilling way. Even though the volunteer work at YCP does not always require skill, it is always evident that it is meaningful and important.

A: Accomplishment. The self-esteem we feel when we achieve something through work is a precious component of a fulfilled life. At the end of YCP breakfast or dinner, you know you have fed 300 people a nutritious hot meal. If you get engaged with YCP at other levels, you may find yourself wrestling with issues of hunger in America or policy, and working toward solutions is difficult but incredibly rewarding. Even if you write a check, you can know that it bought 50 turkeys, or paid for 100 kids to discover a new vegetable. That's accomplishment!

The sum of all this is simple: to gain authentic happiness, come to YCP!

- Wendy A. Stein

We are so thankful to our many volunteers: While I only became a part of the YCP family a few months ago, I have met so many incredible individuals and groups willing to give their time and efforts to help us reduce hunger. These folks have come from all over to partake in our volunteer opportunities: Hungary, Spanish Harlem, France, Texas, Brazil and Soho! They are students, teachers, athletes, businessmen and women and retirees. How lucky we are to form these hunger-fighting partnerships! Because of new and fantastic changes to YCP, we need more volunteers than ever! Please contact me at LNellis@ycp.org or 917 720-9010 if you or a group is interested in distributing nutritious foods to New Yorkers!

Summer associates from Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP joined us for a fantastic dinner service in late July, accompanied by YCP Board member, Gerry Meistrell, a partner at the Wall Street law firm. Because they were a large group, we were able to serve our hot meal "restaurant style." This means clients' hot and nutritious dinners and desserts were brought to their tables by enthusiastic volunteers! 316 meals were served to clients in our Project Dignity meal program that night, and we are so appreciative of the friendly and giving "waiters" and "waitresses." Thank you, Cahill!

For the past three Fridays, recent graduates (Congratulations!) from Harlem Children's Zone schools visited YCP to learn more about food insecurity and how to help!

The students took a tour of the pantry and kitchen and then discussed two questions that seem similar but are quite different:

Why might an individual be homeless?
Why is homelessness a problem?

The students had a fantastic conversation about what factors may lead to homelessness including lack of community or family support, tragedy and little access to resources.

This great group focused on our core values of dignity, choice, access and self-sufficiency. Thank you, HCZ for a great first visit!

On July 13th, summer interns from Legg Mason Asset Management firm volunteered at the pantry. They helped to organize, pack and distribute groceries to pantry members while experiencing our new client CHOICE pantry model! YCP thanks everyone who came out and spent a summer day helping YCP reduce hunger!