Supporting the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen
at The Greenpoint Church - 136 Milton St, between Manhattan Ave & Franklin St.
Soup Kitchen Meal…
..is held every Wednesday evening 6-7pm. If you are volunteering for the meal, set up begins at 3pm and clean up ends at 9pm. Depending on your volunteer shift, you will be helping out any time between 3-9pm.
The soup kitchen itself is located at the rear of the church – walk in the front door and to the room on your left. The kitchen is through some doors at the back of that room. So many people come and help at the soup kitchen and so much happens at the church, that they are used to people wandering in and out – so happily, (but politely in case there is a meeting in progress), walk on through to the kitchen.
When volunteering, be sure to sign in with Ryan or Chef Ann. They will get you checked in and get you started. The soup kitchen meal is a labor of love, produced from a kitchen that is WAY TOO SMALL to be producing such a fine meal. It is essential that volunteers @ the meal be critical thinkers who can work well independently and not need a whole lot of supervision. The following is a general guideline for tasks & needs during the various shift hours:
- 3-530: General clean-up & prep of dining room and backyard dining area. General meal prep (i.e. lots of chopping and washing of fruits and vegetables)
- 530-630: Prep and plating of dessert
- 6-7: Serving the meal. Cleaning the kitchen. Trash!
- 7-8: Dishes! Mopping! Cleaning! Trash! Paisley CSA drop off
- 8-9: Greenpoint-Williamsburg CSA drop off. Prep for Food Pantry
For more info and tons of images on the soup kitchen visit Craig’s Kitchen.
Saturday Unload & Prep…
The Greenpoint Soup Kitchen gets its produce from the Greenpoint-Williamsburg CSA. On a Saturday some of our volunteers are assigned to help unload the produce, clean it, chop it up and file it away, ready for the evening meal on Wednesday. This shift is on a Saturday between 12-2pm at the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen.We also clean the fridges & freezers, weed & water the kitchen garden in the backyard, churn the compost pile, make general repairs in the kitchen & garden, and tackle some cleaning projects. You will in general be working with the soup kitchen volunteers to get things ready for teh upcoming wednesday meal and thursday food pantry.
In addition, some of the Saturday shifts run until 4pm. During these extended hours we will be cooking, canning & pickling as much as we can! This is our attempt to put up as much produce for the harsh Winter months. It is the soup kitchen chef’s goal to serve as much local & organic produce in the weekly meals and we feel that these canning and pickling shifts will help the kitchen attain that goal.
People in the kitchen will be sterilizing jars and prepping veggies for processing. Any sugar & vinegar donations you can bring will really help the kitchen’s bottom-line. Before we leave, we have to mop and leave the kitchen one million times better than
Be aware that there is an AA meeting at the church which finishes right around Noon on Saturdays. You could arrive to a big crowd out front. Have no fear, just make your way through the masses, entering through the main doors, making a left and then heading back to the kitchen.
Side Dish…
For those of you who are preparing a side dish for the Wednesday meal – please come of distribution on Monday at about 8.15. There you can see what produce is available and Ryan, Yo, or Esther will be there to help you collect it. The idea is to help alleviate some of the stress on the small soup kitchen by bringing something that is typically harder for the soup kitchen chefs to accomplish. For example, a pan of roasted vegetables, a creative potato salad with beets or turnips or other csa produce, a soup, or chopped green salad w/ a delicious dressing are all great ways to help make the weekly meal nutritious and delicious.
Once you have cooked or prepped your side dish you may deliver it to the Soup Kitchen on or before 4.30 on the Wednesday. Alternatively, it may be possible to drop off the side dish before Wednesday evening with Ryan. If you would like to deliver it to Ryan, who works in the neighborhood, then please arrange this when you collect the produce.
Southside Pantry Driver…
..should be at distribution at about 8.15pm. At 8.30 we will load up your car, one of us will drive with you over to the Southside Community Mission, which is located at 280 Marcey Ave (between Hews & Hooper), we will then bring back the crates from the previous week, and hop on back to The Woods. This shift will end at about 9pm.
If there is any other morsel of information that you need to know which is not listed here, or any details that you think would be helpful to other members – please send us an email at southsidecsa@gmail.com.
