November 20, 2020
The Schenectady City Mission Family Life Center (FLC) provides “emergency, short-term, and long-term shelter to homeless women and children. We equip women with the skills and resources they will need to make the journey from poverty to a life of sustainability”. For some years now, each Thanksgiving NYSTEC has purchased and delivered all the groceries needed for the FLC women and children to prepare a community feast to share. When NYSTEC reached out to the FLC this year we learned, of course, that they were unable to gather and make use of our usual gift. After some discussion, we learned they were just completing renovations to their teaching kitchen, but did not yet have funding to purchase cooking equipment such as pots, pans, utensils, and the many other items needed to outfit a large kitchen. Seeing the long-term benefit it would provide, NYSTEC saw this as the perfect pivot and decided to fulfill their need! Not only will this enable the teaching kitchen to serve its purpose throughout the year, these same tools will be used to prepare next year’s Thanksgiving meal when NYSTEC can resume our grocery donation tradition.
