By Cecile F.

With the lock-down, we at Con-solatio have been joining other volunteers at pop-up food distributions every week throughout Brooklyn. We want to go and serve those in need in these difficult times. Mostly, we want to spend time with them. We help pack and distribute bags of nonperishable food and bags of fresh produce.

Each week I am amazed at the amount of people that show up for food and it breaks my heart that we run out of bags each week. This past week, people started getting in line at 4 am and by the time we started handing out food at 9:15 am, we had over 1,000 people waiting. Many of these people are immigrants from Latin America who have lost their jobs in construction companies or restaurants. It is good to be with them. It is good to welcome them with a smile and exchange a few words as they wait on the line. It is good to be a presence for them.