Schenectady Sunday

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and the roots spring up and make new trees”. – Amelia Earhart

Sunday we shared with 75 people. We had a new donation we have not shared before, spider plants. Our donor made cuttings of a home plant and carefully reported them all with care instructions for sharing. The plants were carefully carried through the line and we loved hearing g what window of room they were going into. Having a plant to care for and watch grow is a special thing and plants make a home special.

Our Community Table had amazing gently used kitchen items from strainers to silverware, and lovely gently used toys. We were ready to help care for our babies with generous donations of baby food from Zion, diapers and wipes.

Thanks to a donations from the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians of Hibernian Hall – Schenectady we were able to purchase drinks to stock our drink table. Drinks help our families have juice for home, juice boxes for kid’s lunches, and important drinks for those experiencing homelessness like Gatorade; which provides electrolyte which help prevent dehydration.

Thanks to a donations from The Schenectady Trading Company our Pantry Team had milk to share. We don’t always have dairy to share and when we do it is very popular and very appreciated.

Thanks to our account at Capital Roots donated by the First Reformed Church of Schenectady we were able to purchase fresh produce to share. We also received some wonderful donations from donor gardens which helps us to have enough important fruits and veggies to share.

Thanks to a donations from the Salvation Army to all three StreetSoldiers teams we had enough toilet paper to share with everyone; something we are not always able to do. This donation has stocked up each team for the next three weeks!

Using $200 of our GoFundMe account we purchased two trays of pasta with chicken and vodka sauce, a tray of chicken fingers and three pizzas from long time community partner, Home Style Pizza. Owner, Anthony extended our order to long trays, donating significantly more portions, and donated 4 pizzas. He discounted our cost, and paid the tax on our order. Thanks to everyone who donated to our GoFundMe, Home Style, and generous donor cooks we had enough hot meals to send everyone home with two.

Thanks to our volunteer, Bill our team receives a donation of breads and pastries weekly from Freihofer’s Baking Company Inc. Bill and our bread team have learned the favorites of the available donations and are ready to share. On our team strawberry mini tarts by Little Bites are a snack and breakfast favorite.

We set up our back to school table for a third Sunday with some of our remaining school supplies. Volunteer, Jodi talked with our kids and families to see what supplies might still be needed now that kids are back in school and had a chance to talk to their teachers. We shared some needed supplies to catch our kids up and new kids we met. We learned the most requested and needed item is help with lunch boxes.

Thanks to generous donors we were able to fulfill special requests for an air mattress, plates and kitchen items, and a toaster oven.

We met new friends experiencing homelessness and shared a camp stove fueled by twigs so our friend can heat water. We shared ready heat meals with pop tops, extra tuna and canned fruits and veggies with pop tops. We learned of a need for helps with men’s sneakers and this week we created a shoe shelf in our supplies where we hope to keep one pair of new or gently used sneakers in every size to be ready to help on the spot. Approximately 98% of our friends walk to reach us every Sunday. They are putting a lot of miles on often used shoes that already had a different wear pattern and miles on them. Proper footwear is so important as the health of our feet impacts our overall health.

Once we had packed up and volunteers had started heading home we met a new family that just moved to Schenectady. We had a gentleman join us late as he underestimated the time to walk, and we met two new people. Thanks to having our food pantry and supplies stored at Zion in our new space we were able to make them pantry and hygiene bags. We were also able to help with some school supplies. We are so grateful to Zion for moments like that and for all they do to support our team.

Thank you all for your support. We cannot wait for another great Sunday tomorrow