Lending a Hand at Los Sures Social Services

Sabrina Gheorghe

        I worked on a volunteer project for New York Cares with a group of people at Los Sures Social Services which took place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Los Sures provides affordable housing to formerly homeless tenants and people with low income. The work we did for this volunteer project included unloading delivery shipments of food and moving them into the basement, unloading boxes into the food pantry, labeling items by date, and organizing food in bins. We moved everything on elevators using flat carts that were able to hold the weight. There were other volunteers about my age who were also working and everyone was a team player and contributed to unpacking shipments. A lot of the heavy lifting required more than 2 people and we did a great job at working together to distribute the weight. Our team leader, Leslie, was extremely helpful and guided us on where boxes should be placed, which produce needed to be moved, which carts to take up to the community room, and making sure we were all helping each other and working in teams. I definitely feel that I was able to provide the help needed since there were a lot of people required to stock and move the heavy boxes of food.

        I did feel a connection with the people I worked with because all the volunteers were kind and caring with this project. This was a joint teamwork experience and everyone contributed their part of helping. This experience taught me the importance of combined effort to see progress and change. I relate this to globalism which is also a combined effort of people around the world to become interconnected by exchanging cultural values, traditions, and services. For instance, on page 6 of the article Community Service Learning in the Face of Globalization: Rethinking Theory & Practice by Novella Zett Keith, it states, “Finally, globalism (also termed ‘globalization from below’) involves an emerging system of values and the attendant political and social movements that stress difference, dialogue, and an ethic of collective responsibility for the world.” Globalism encourages connecting with people from different cultures around the world. It also implies a shared sense of responsibility in helping others, which is what volunteering allows you to do. Globalism emphasizes the idea that people are interconnected through exchanging ideas, cultures, and diversity. On page 6 of the article, it states, “There are implications here for the community needs to be met through service-learning, such as the need for people to come together, across differences, to address local and global issues and develop more expansive communities.” Service-learning through volunteering offers a valuable opportunity for individuals to come together and address local community needs. Volunteering at Los Sures allowed me to work with people from different backgrounds by engaging in the same goal to help the Williamsburg community. While working together, we can learn so much about where we are from and where we live.

        Cultural globalization also has an impact on volunteer work. I had the opportunity to meet people who weren’t from Brooklyn and actually came to New York at a young age. Cultural exchange allows us to appreciate traditions, food, and values from different backgrounds and break down geographical barriers in order to collaborate with one another. Los Sures contributes to tackling poverty and addressing social issues by partnering with food banks to give away free food to those in need in a diverse and dynamic urban environment.

References

Keith, N. Z. (2005, January 1). Community service learning in the face of Globalization: Rethinking Theory and Practice. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mjcsl/3239521.0011.201?rgn=main%3Bview 

Steger, M. B. (2023). Globalization: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.