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Each year, Common Cents engages a small group of high school student interns to study a global issue of concern to youth and share that knowledge with their peers. This year, our interns studied hunger and they produced a cool and educational video promoting hunger awareness and exploring what the hunger looks like in New York City. The video, titled Faces of Hunger, is available on YouTube!

Here are some reflections from our interns:

Dennis is a junior at Thomas A. Edison High School

Dennis Verma

As a philanthropy intern student at Common Cents, it has been a privilege to embark on such a great adventure like no other in my recent years! Traveling three hours from home, back and forth, once a week, has allowed me to understand my community better than before. In the beginning, my impression was that food pantries were government or privately owned organizations established to help the homeless. As we traveled and filmed, I realized I had much more to learn when I paid a visit to the Saint Frances of Rome Church in the Bronx, which houses a food pantry in their basement. Saint Frances of Rome was devoted to helping the people in need who were seeking assistance. During an interview with a client, I learned that she was a single mother looking for assistance because the jobs she works do not cover her basic needs for her or her three young children. The realities we kept seeing are that not only the homeless need help, but people from all backgrounds can use a helping hand.

My experiences here at Common Cents have helped me build character. This awareness of how others live their lives has shaped me greatly into an insightful individual about the community. I admire every aspect in which one sacrifices his/her leisure to give back to their community. The reason I feel such a great admiration is because throughout my years I’ve realized that small acts of kindness from the heart are vital to growing healthy communities. It not only allows one to feel great about their accomplishments, but helps alter peoples’ perspectives to be more positive. Throughout this entire year I have witnessed this – when one helping hand gave inspiration to others to give back.

Jasper is a junior at Eleanor Roosevelt High

Jasper Turner Gutwillig

Throughout the year, my fellow Global Philanthropy Student interns and I have been making a film about hunger in New York City. We’ve certainly learned a lot about this city over the course of the year. I’ve learned that the people going hungry in New York are not necessarily homeless. They are single mothers trying to support a family, or the elderly trying to survive after retirement, or a person in between jobs. In short, they are our neighbors, and they all need our help. More New Yorkers are going hungry than ever before, and too often the supply in food pantries cannot meet the demand. However, while studying this citywide hunger crisis I’ve also learned about the compassion that New Yorkers can have for complete strangers. As I visited food pantries, I met volunteers who struggled with food insecurity themselves, but still were able to donate their time to help the hungry. These noble volunteers consistently choose to work for no money so that their fellow New Yorkers might eat. The people of this city, who are infamous for their discourtesy, can be nothing short of admirable when it comes to helping others.

My most memorable experience from making the film was working at the St. Francis of Rome food pantry. The pantry was based out of a small underground room. The pantry was composed of two tables that held plastic bags full of food, and a cramped closet space where the food was kept. I was both surprised and impressed that the pantry was able to help so many people with such limited resources. Another surprising aspect of the pantry was the people working there. I expected the employees and volunteers to be somewhat resentful about their situation, but they were not in the slightest. When one volunteer was asked about any problems they might run in to, she said that she didn’t run in to any, and she immensely enjoyed volunteering her time there.

While we were interviewing the clients and employees, the food pantry got a shipment from the Food Bank. The pantry was given large bags of rice that they were unable to use because they don’t serve cooked food. This showed me that the system of distributing food is not perfect. However, with enough volunteers, the system becomes much more efficient. We decided we would help put some of the shipment they could use away, and we quickly finished. We were informed that it normally took several times as long to pack away the food. It was astounding how easy and fun it was to work in a food pantry, and how much faster a few more pairs of hands can make the process.

Nekita is a junior at Thomas A. Edison High School

Nekita Singh

Each year, the Common Cents staff relies on its youth leaders to pick a topic that affects the general population either globally or locally. My fellow GPS interns and I decided to work on a major issue that affects New York City. In the current economic downturn, people fail to realize that it’s not just the homeless that are going hungry. We decided to make a documentary spreading awareness on the New York City hunger crisis. We wanted to get a “birds eye view “of who these individual are, how they have been affected by the crisis, and what can be done to help. We decided to visit food pantries and soup kitchens to try and find answers to our questions. The West Side Campaign Against Hunger was one of the food pantries that caught our attention.

The West Side Campaign Against Hunger is different from most food pantries I’ve had the opportunity to visit in the past. The other food pantries didn’t offer their clients with much choice. At many food pantries you are given a bag of food filled with some of the main foods from the food pyramid. The West Side Campaign Against Hunger goes beyond just giving its clients a bag of food because it incorporates programs of guidance and support for its clients. They’re able to stay involved with the pantries as much as possible.

This food pantry changed our perception on hunger by showing that its volunteers get to know their clients. Unlike other food pantries who may have been forced to scale back their programs due to budget cuts in the financial downturn, the WSCAH has managed to increase the amount of people it helps daily as more and more people are struggling to pay their bills and put food on their tables, they have turned to the WSCAH for assistance. WSCAH is a supermarket based food pantry that allows its customers to have a choice on the food they receive. They are allowed to choose from a variety of healthy items and shop like an actual supermarket. In addition, WSCAH also incorporates a wellness program and a counseling program to help its clients as much as possible. The wellness program is broken down into three smaller categories. It consists ‘of an exercising program, a nutritional workshop, and a cooking program. The clients are able to not just get access to food but learn how to stay healthy and talk to counselors for guidance. WSCAH empowers its customers to move toward food security and independence.