Eat at Joe's!

St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village 371 Sixth Av (at the corner Washington Place), NY, NY 10014 Visit us at www.sjsk.nyc We serve food to the hungry and homeless every Saturday. Volunteer hours are SATURDAYS from 10am-3:30pm Group Volunteers Inquiries: Please plan ahead to reserve your space with at least a one-month notice. Note: the soup kitchen operates only on Saturdays. —RSVP to reserve your slot to volunteer via email: [email protected] Please include your full name, telephone # and when to best reach you. If group, list how many volunteers. Questions? Email us at [email protected]. Thank You! Follow us Twitter: @sjsknewyork Like us on Facebook: St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village flickr.com/photos/sjsknewyork/

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465 meals served on Saturday, October 5, 2013 at St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village

St. Joseph's Church parishioner and SJSK volunteer of 3 years, Willie, displays the lunch tray served to guests. A guest favorite of King Ranch Casserole was served along with salad, fruit cup, coffee, lemonade and freshly baked milk bread and raisin bread.  A vegetarian option that was equally tasty was also offered to guests upon request.

When he's not helping serve meals or drinks at the soup kitchen, Willie teaches young people at a high school in Canarsie. He's also a reader at St. Joseph's Church.  

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With a little help from our friends...

Our good neighbors from Rosemary's Restaurant enthusiastically and professionally cleaned the cooking prep area and the scullery this morning.  Ah, Greenwich Village neighborly love!  

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King Ranch Casserole at the soup kitchen

Meal prep this week involved lots of wonderful gooey layers. 

Top: today's chef Julia adds items to each tray while Vincent helps distribute the ingredients to cover the entire tray. 

Bottom: we had some very stylish volunteers helping out today...

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Goggles.

We have goggles available for meal prep volunteers who get a little teary-eyed when chopping ONIONS. 

Pictured: Lea, Michael, Sabrina 

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Every act of kindness is appreciated

Meet Sam Bishop, a friend of SJSK. He sometimes collects food items that brand name establishments might throw out (those establishments are not allowed to give away newly expired items).

Sam collects still fresh, packaged food items and drops them off at our soup kitchen for distribution to guests as take-away bags. Items include sandwiches and sweet treats. Our guests are very appreciative. 

Thanks for your kindness  Sam!  

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Homeless Jesus

Bronze statue by sculptor Timothy Schmalz located at St. Francis of Assisi Church in NYC. 

Happy St. Francis Day! patron saint of animals and advocate of the poor and homeless. 

Below is the famous Prayer of St. Francis also known as The Peace Prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, the truth;

Where there is doubt, the faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

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468 meals served on Sat, September 28, 2013 at St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village

Meet our official volunteer group for the day, YSOP (Youth Service Opportunity Project), comprised of students from Loyola and Marymount HS.  

They stand next to the menu sign they worked on that showed the fruits of their labor in food prep: chicken pasta, salad, fruit cup, bread, coffee and lemonade.

Newly minted chef from ICE (Institute of Culinary Education), Matthew, prepared the meal along with a crew of volunteers. 

YSOP has been a long-term partner with SJSK for over 15 years. We recommend their program as a valuable source for students (and adults) interested in a structured group volunteer program to understand service and homelessness.   

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489 meals served on Saturday, September 22, 2013 at St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village

One of our newest volunteers, Sabrina, displays the meal tray served to guests prepared by the Guthries and volunteers. Baked Bucatini delightfully oozing with parmesan, mozzarella, and ricotta cheese, mushrooms and sumptuous sirloin beef in a marinara sauce was the main entree. The vegetarian entree featured lentils-and-brown-rice balls as the meat substitute.

Blueberry and blue cheese salad was also served along with bread, fruit cup, coffee, lemonade and freshly baked German Sweet Bread. 

Pictured: Sabrina first stepped foot at SJSK this past June as a member of the volunteer group New York State of Mind (NYSOM). She's been a force in these few months, volunteering regularly, often for both morning and afternoon shifts. She's been helpful with recruiting other volunteers to come out to lend a hand, especially on Summer Saturdays when we didn't have a volunteer group lined up.

Sabrina is always warm, friendly and enthusiastic. She tells us: "Every Saturday in the afternoon, I walk out of the soup kitchen with a smile on my face and feeling very satisfied."  

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Hummingbird Cake at St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village!  There's nothing more thrilling than seeing our guests happy to receive freshly baked dessert at the soup kitchen. Volunteers took baking for guests to a new level in terms of decoration. That is, each slice of cake—a little over 400 slices—were individually decorated which made the presentation impressive.

Thanks to everyone who helped out: Mark for slicing the pineapples into smaller pieces and thanks to all our taste-testers. 

Photos descriptions:  

1. Oil organized by batch, 2. Dry ingredients, 3. Pecans organized by batch 

4. Brittany seen plating slices of cake, 5. Sabrina adding pineapple to each slice of cake, 6. Jazmin added 2 pecans to each slice of cake, 7. Carmen and Wilda came in Friday night to prep and bake the cakes 

8. Bird's eye view of slices of pretty Hummingbird Cake (recipe below)

We used a combination of these two highly rated Hummingbird Cake recipes:

Recipe 1

Recipe 2 

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SJSK welcomes Christian Anthony Amstutz to our community!  SJSK morning regulars Kate and Pete volunteered at SJSK for many years. A wonderful job opportunity took them to the DC area to be closer to family. They keep in touch and recently informed us of the newest member of their and SJSK's family, little Christian!

Born: Aug 15, 2013, weighing 8lbs 10oz, nearly 22 inches long! 

Congratulations Kate and Pete! We miss you at St. Joe's and we look forward to seeing you and meeting Christian whenever you're in NYC. 

We <3 our volunteers. 

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438 meals served on Saturday, September 14, 2013 at St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village

St. Joseph's parishioner and longtime SJSK volunteer (13 years), Carmen, displays today's lunch tray served to guests. 

A light and tasty Tuna Pasta casserole, prepared by David and crew, was served along with a medley of canned veggies donated by Food Bank NYC. Coffee, lemonade and freshly baked Hummingbird Cake was also served. Guests and volunteers were chirping away at how yummy it tasted and looked. 

Carmen served as one of the volunteer cooks for about 8 years, cooking many of the chicken holiday meals. During the years when SJSK did not have convection ovens, she rallied volunteers into making special spinach lasagna for holiday meals.  

She has transitioned from cooking to handling SJSK's digital presence. Yup, today, she's gotten a chance to experience what she puts other volunteers through every week: the spotlight. Yikes! 

Carmen is also a part of the baking team and has been instrumental in coordinating SJSK's foray into volunteer-based fundraising. 

What's Carmen's favorite part of volunteering at SJSK? Seeing God's work being carried out by volunteers at St. Joe's, by believers and non-believers alike, who come from all over the world to do this.

She's constantly learning about kindness and compassion from volunteer service, especially from SJSK's guests, who praise and beam with delight and gratitude at the yummy food they eat at joe's (Carmen's had the honor of hearing it firsthand from guests and volunteers on many occasions).  

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Meet our food connoisseurs!   

These St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen volunteers do not mess around when it comes to preparing food! A glimpse at their Instagram accounts supports this. 

We're grateful that our volunteers bring their foodie passion with them on Saturdays.   

The result? Our guests get to enjoy the best meal possible prepared with love and a high standard of excellence!  Pictured left to right: Nate, Mark, Layla, Katie, Vincent 

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418 meals served on Saturday, September 7, 2013 at St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village

The volunteers known as The A-Team, Joe and Rudy, hold today's meal tray served to guests.

The main entree was prepared by Teresa with meal prep volunteers. Nutritious, hearty and perfectly spiced Minestrone soup was served along with salad, fruit cup, coffee and lemonade. Vegetarian option was available to guests upon request.  We wouldn't expect anything less than this from Teresa, who runs at least two marathons a year! 

Pictured: Joe and Rudy. We <3 these two. This volunteer partnership is filled with joking, laughs, hard work, excitement, comaraderie—a bromance.  

We appreciate when strong bonds of friendship spring from volunteer service. Joe & Rudy volunteer almost weekly. As "The A-Team," they serve as afternoon coordinators "honchos" every 1st Saturday of the month.  A-Team highlights:

1. Meet the A-Team

2. A-Team Vadering 

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In Memorium. 

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Morning meatball mischief! 

What is it about our meal prep volunteers that makes them go a little batty? Most are foodies to begin with. Maybe it has to do with chopping a lot of onions? 

Whatever it is, this volunteer tapped into his playful & silly side while squooshing 11 trays of meatballs. 

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St. Joseph's Soup Kitchen Morning and Afternoon Volunteers Tag-Team

Mike and Ali tag-teamed to feed nearly 600 meals to guests at SJSK.

In the morning, Mike (above left) debuted as the head chef. He prepared an original recipe called "East Meets West," a tasty spicy chicken fried rice (actually the rice was steamed instead fried). 

Meanwhile Ali ably coordinated the afternoon volunteers, ensuring that nearly 600 meals were served to guests. She did it! All food trays were served without a hitch!

Congrats to both Mike and Ali for a job well done!

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578 meals served on Saturday, August 31, 2013 at St. joseph's Soup Kitchen in Greenwich Village

Celebrating his 8th year as a volunteer with us—this very week actually—please meet Mike Olnek displaying the day's lunch tray. On the menu: fried rice with chicken along with a green bean salad, fruit cup, bread, coffee and grape juice were served to guests. Vegetarian option was also available. 

Kaboom! We had a new volunteer chef in our cooking rotation who made the spicy fried rice with chicken that had guests and volunteers simply chomping at the bits for more!

We also introduced grape juice as a drink option and the guests really loved it, they asked for 2-3 cups of grape juice at once with their meal tray. We obliged. 

Pictured: Mike usually volunteers as SJSK runner, making sure volunteers are well-prepared with enough food trays, bread, drinks, salad and other items that are needed to serve the food. He is warm, kind and friendly and we all enjoy working with him. Mike has been known to work on his sister's independent movies as part of the crew, separate from his day job in financial services and real estate.  Congratulations to Mike on his 8 years volunteering with SJSK! Here's to many more!