So much of what starts in our food pantries and soup kitchen — the centers of Project Hospitality’s web of care — extends forward.
Our soup kitchens and food pantries serve in ways not only related to food, but related to health, related to life, related to comfort, and related to basic human needs.
Last year we served almost 1.8 million meals out of our Community Service Center in Stapleton and through our network of 26 mobile pantry sites from the North to the South Shore of our borough — including new stops in Tottenville and Prince’s Bay.
On a recent day, in the span of just 24 hours, our pantries were the first stop for a family with young children whose electricity has been turned off for a week and whose service we helped get restored; for a family who had just received an eviction notice, and we made arrangements for the roof to remain over their heads, and for a woman who had recently had surgery and we brought to a doctor’s appointment.
These families and tens of thousands of other Staten Islanders will receive similar attention and care this year, thanks to money raised through the Poor People’s Dinner.
On November 20 at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, Staten Island’s largest interfaith event will celebrate 20 years of uniting Staten Islanders of all ages and backgrounds over a simple meal of bread and soup – a community gathering where guests draw nourishment from service, sacrifice and the words of inspiring keynote speakers.
This year, the keynote speakers will be Patty Ann McDonald and Conor McDonald – the widow and son of the late Steven McDonald. Steven McDonald was a New York City Police Officer who was shot in 1986 in the line of duty by a 15-year-old boy, and as a result was paralyzed from the neck down. A man of faith, Officer McDonald forgave his assailant, and became a motivational speaker and a role model for a life well lived. He died this year at the age of 59.
Project Hospitality was lucky enough to welcome the late Officer McDonald as the keynote speaker at Project Hospitality’s second annual poor people’s dinner, in 1998.
“If I had to name three spokesmen for forgiveness, it would be Jesus Christ, Nelson Mandela and Steven McDonald,” said Poor People’s Dinner Founder and Co-Chair Joseph Madory, during an event at Project Hospitality’s food pantry, attended by student volunteers from Susan Wagner, CSI International, Port Richmond, Curtis, St. Peter’s Boys, St. Joseph Hill Academy High Schools. The students are among hundreds of folks –young and old – expected to gather for the interfaith event, who are volunteering to make it a success by collecting canned food for our pantry shelves.
“If we lock arms together, if we pray and work together, someday this world will be a much better place for you, your family, and all of us,” said Msgr. Peter Finn, Poor People’s Dinner Co-Chair, as he addressed the room of high school student volunteers, community leaders and hungry Staten Islanders who had arrived to eat lunch at the Project Hospitality soup kitchen.
“This Thanksgiving we want a real Thanksgiving and hope for you, for our nation, for our world, and for all the people that are persecuted and suffering across the globe, and in some very special way, right here, on Staten Island, as well.”