It’s my first week here at God’s Love, so I was so excited to learn about each and every part of our organization. To my delight, my first volunteer shift was van assisting. I had been introduced to God’s Love and our mission and what we do for our clients, so I couldn’t wait to meet them. What I didn’t realize is how rewarding just one day of volunteering at God’s Love We Deliver could be. I learned so much more than I could ever imagine about our clients, our van drivers, and the communities we serve.

So, what exactly did I learn during my time van assisting? Our van drivers work extremely hard every single day. When we think about God’s Love, we think about food. But the delicious food that we make at God’s Love needs to get out to our clients. Our van drivers start their shift at 6 a.m. in order to load up our vans and start on their various delivery routes by 7. As a van assistant, my job was to help Quilvio, a van driver who has been with us for 11 years, with delivering food in Brooklyn, primarily in the Crown Heights area. Quilvio pulled up to each house or apartment complex and I brought the food bags (sometimes up to three bags) right to the clients door. This may seem like a simple feat however, parking in New York City is not easy and apartments do not always have elevators. As I walked up my second 4th floor walkup in a row and was getting tired, I thought about our van drivers and the fact that a majority of days they do this by themselves. With my assistance Quilvio was able deliver the food without having to find a parking spot. If I hadn’t been there, parking for a large van like we have at God’s Love would have been very difficult. Volunteers truly do make a difference at God’s Love.

I asked Quilvio what motivates him to do his job every day. He replied simply, “I do it for them”. After a full day of work delivering food and seeing our clients smiling faces, I understood why Quilvio, all of our van drivers, our kitchen staff, and volunteers do what they do. They do it out of love and it’s truly a beautiful thing.