Roosevelt Island Religious Organizations Team Up To Bring Holiday Food Boxes And Joy To Neighbors In Need - Good People Are All Around Us

Frank Farance shares these photos and reports:

On Saturday December 19 five religious organizations of Roosevelt Island delivered 72 boxes of food to local families and individuals in need. The food was packaged at the Seniors Center for different sized families. Good holiday spirit from: the Cabrini Parish (Catholic), the Hope Church, the Day Spring Church, and our Muslin and Jewish friends.

The packaging crew were (l-r): Marilyn Atkins, Lynne Strong-Shinozaki, Willie, Sue Pirard, Dan Sadlier, Liam Sadlier, Isaiah Sadlier, Jim Bates, David Farance, Frank Farance. Missing in photo: Julie Palermo, Lydia Tang, Dave Tang.

Making gift boxes and quarter-size boxes for smaller families.

Delivering the food to neighbors.

A sample box of food.

Lynn Strong-Shinozaki tweets:

What treasure 2 give gifts 2 people who R #Appreciative over 70 neighbors have food 4 the holidays #Roosevelt-Island #PayItForward

— Lynne Shinozaki (@LASHINOZAKI) December 20, 2015

and adds:

The food was purchased thru Family Table Ministry with donations from individuals and religious organizations on the island. The coat donation came from an individual who on Black Friday bought them on points. Bags for the coats came from the new Microsoft store on 5th Ave. Next time we will probably need a few more volunteers on day of distribution. We also wrapped as much as we could to really make it feel like a gift.

We tried very hard to give everyone on our lists some food, we tried when people would let us to put away the food so they wouldn’t be burdened trying to deal with the heavy box/ bags.

We were heartbroken to see so many almost empty refrigerators’ so close to the holidays. We did miss a few people but not to many.  Luella and Ana from Disable Association Support for Seniors & Homebound (DASH) also gave amazing assistance. Cabrini Church heard while we were working that members of Day Spring Church needed men's coats and sweaters and donated a clothing rack full of men's clothing. We are so proud of this awesome collaboration with caring members of this community. Some of the comments we received yesterday.

• “I've live on Roosevelt Island more than 30 year and no one has ever done anything this nice for me before”
• “I had to chose between giving my grandchildren Christmas presents or food I choose getting them gifts. You are an answer to my prayers.”
• “I haven’t had a new coat in years thank you so much” Then she cried.
• “How much is all this food going to cost” IT's free it’s a gift to you from the community. “I don’t know what to say… thank you so much!”

I was so heartbroken by what I saw. I went home and cried. I know very few people who are as stoic as I am but this here in our own community was heart breaking.

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Social, Cultural & Educational (SC&E) sub-committee #PayItForward coordinated this Chaired by Susan Pirard

Great Big Sea is right. Good people are all around us and you can find them right here on Roosevelt Island.