This holiday season, we were grateful to have many public officials join us to help deliver meals and holiday gifts for our clients and their families. This year’s holiday festivities were extra special as we celebrated our first holiday back in our newly renovated and expanded home in SoHo. Today, we delivered our biggest Winter Feast ever. Of our 4,500 meals, more than 1,600 were guest meals, so that each client could invite a friend or family member to spend the holiday with them. All of this was made possible by our generous supporters, and our wonderful volunteers.
We were thrilled to celebrate a pre-Thanksgiving volunteer day with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her staff, rolling their sleeves up and donning aprons to help chop vegetables and prepare holiday meals in our kitchen. Our very own Councilmember, Corey Johnson, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer also lent a hand. On Thanksgiving Day, Councilmember Rosie Mendez and representatives from her office helped deliver holiday meals in her District. We were also joined by Bill Thompson, Jeff Simons and Gayle Horwitz in the kitchen.
During Winter Feast, we were honored that State Senator Liz Kreuger joined us to help pack out meals for delivery! We were so grateful to have Tracie M. Gardner, Assistant Secretary for Health to the Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, join us and help pack out client gifts and Emergency Winter Meal Kits, which we deliver to clients to have in case of winter weather that prevents us from reaching them. Councilmember Margaret Chin joined us again to deliver holiday meals and cheer to her constituents in District 1 in Manhattan.
Thanks to all of our public officials for making this year a remarkable and love-filled holiday season at God’s Love. We were so pleased that we had the chance to share our urgent mission with our representatives on these special days, and that they saw firsthand the impact of our work on the lives of so many.