How a Nonprofit Transformed Crisis into Generous Community Action

[0:16]  We're back here on the Horn Hustle Podcast today with Miss Dana Lopez. How you doing today, ma'am?

[0:21]  I'm good. How are you?

[0:23]  Good. You're fresh off vacation. I'm fresh off vacation. I think you had a better time than I did though, because it was hot in Arizona. Hey, see, I ain't experienced no breeze, but no, I'm glad that you were able to enjoy that. I feel like and the spaces of that you're in of doing the work and and serving for others, sometimes we gotta remember to take care of ourselves and pour into ourselves. And I could imagine that you feel a little bit more refreshed, a little bit ready to, you know, knock out things out the park. Is that true?

[0:27]  It was hot in Aruba too, but there's a breeze. That's absolutely true. I mean, I I I love my job. So, you know, coming back is tough when you're in the tropical paradise, but I know I'm coming back to something good. So I don't have any complaints.

[1:01]  What is summer like in New York? 'Cause you are in New York, right?

[1:04]  I am, I am. Well, we're in Long Island. So, you know, the the Inn is a Long Island based organization. We're in Hempstead, Long Island. summer in New York is is one of those things that, you know, I mean it's it's I've been here my whole life. I grew up in Brooklyn. So summer in summer in New York is hot. I don't think it's as hot as Arizona, but in the or the same hot. It's it's hot, but it's not the same type of hot.

[1:04]  hot.

[1:09]  Summer in New York is hot, but it's also fun and it could be really magical, you know? Like I mean, the kids are running around and you've gotta go you can go into the city and you can do all kinds of things. You c you know, the beauty about New York is that you can do you can do the city, you can be in Manhattan, or you can be on the beach on Long Island and you know, and it's like a half an hour. You can get t from one place to the other in no time. And that's the that's like New York is a special place. So

[1:51]  I love it. I think people just think New York of one, like it looks all the same, but it's not. I was actually I was listening to maybe a podcast and he's like, Yeah, man, like I moved to Nashville where it reminds me of home. And there was and he was like, People just think that it's just big buildings, but there's trees, there's houses. It

[2:07]  Yeah. yeah. Well New York is bigger than New York City. So even in, you know, the outer boroughs of New York City, there's, you know, beautiful neighborhoods and places to go. So yeah, a ch you ever read the tr a tree grows in Brooklyn? So so yeah, so there's there's definitely a lot that New York has to offer. So

[2:21]  You know. I haven't. I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to read it. When I think New York in the summertime, I think about you guys opening up the fire extinguishers and and water everywhere. Is that a thing? Is that real?

[2:35]  It was. In my day it was, yes. In my back in my day, it was. yeah, that was a real thing. Like they, you know, that's how city kids used to cool off in the summertime, open up the fire extinguisher and it would just like shoot across the street, and you'd have kids running in the street and you know, waiting in the puddles. And that's that was a actually a real thing. People still do it now, but now they actually have the fire department and the police department, they have special

[4:03]  Right. Amy.

[4:03]  like nozzles for the front of the fire extinguisher. Like somebody smartened up and said, Okay, there's gotta be a b a way to allow people to still do this, but do it responsibly in terms of the water and turning it on and turning it off. People just used to like crank it with a, you know, appliers or whatever. And now there's like a there's like a special thing you can put on it. So it's pretty cool actually.

[4:03]  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. A wrench or something, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think I if I'm mistaken, my your your new mayor was giving people the the correct tool or something like that to do it. Yeah, yeah.

[4:04]  Yes. Yeah, yeah. It started before him, but I know that he's definitely giving it away. This is his first summer, so you know. He's not I I live on Long Island, so he's technically not my mayor, but I think he's everybody's mayor, you know. So

[4:04]  Yeah. Listen, I'm in Florida. He's my mayor. Like it's just it's cool, man. It's really cool to just see I mean, what do you think about someone that is in his thirties that is doing something like this? I think it changes the trajectory for a lot of people to get into more of the space of politics and and really caring.

[4:04]  Yeah. I think it's amazing. I mean, I'm a Gen Xer. I'm a young Gen Xer, but I'm a Gen Xer, right? So I am. I am. I'm like one of those I think they call me Xennials. I'm not really sure. Whatever. It doesn't matter. That's how Gen X I am. I don't care. But anyway, and you know, that is gives me the opportunity to kind of straddle both

[4:05]  You're on the cuffs, right? You're on the cuffs of

[4:18]  areas of like the younger and the older and the younger and to see like this generation and how it's changing and how their mindset is and the truth is and this is gonna this is totally gonna segue into what we're gonna talk about in terms of the in this generation has a mindset of thinking more about other people right like they want to work for companies that give back to the community they want to make sure that everybody has equal opportunity that there's

[4:32]  Mm-hmm.

[4:47]  Equity, that there's, you know, equality, that there is, you know, that people care about other people because, you know, no man is an island, right? You're not standing here by yourself. You're amongst a ton of other people. And by and also nobody got here to wherever they are on their own. Everybody had help. Everybody had a boost. Everybody had a mentor or whatever it is. Everyone, hopefully, that's the hope, right? Everyone hopefully had somebody that turned to them and said, you know what? I care about you and what's going to happen to you. And I'm going to help you. Because some for whatever reason, either because somebody helped me or maybe because somebody didn't help me and that's why I'm going to do it. So whatever your reasoning or whatever your motivation, I think that this, the younger generation, they get it in a different way. They know that it's not just about them. They know that, you know, everyone needs a little bit of help. And so if you have the opportunity and you are privileged enough to be able to help.

[4:49]  Yeah.

[5:40]  others, then that's what they're gonna do. And that's what this administration in in New York City right now is talking about. And they're proving themselves right. And I think it's unbelievable.

[5:52]  Yeah, it's so cool. I've followed the journey before he got elected and I was just in awe. You know, I I just felt like he s the meeting people are where they're at, he does that. You know, at least that's what it shows on social media. meeting people are that. Yeah, literally exactly.

[6:03]  Yeah. He literally does that too, right? Like so when he's helping children, he's literally getting onto their level and speaking to them eye to eye instead of instead of speaking down to them. It's very deliberate and it's very exciting.

[6:13]  I love it. So let's talk about the inn You mentioned it. What is your role with the inn? How did you get there? What do you guys doing? Yeah.

[6:23]  Yeah, that's why I'm here, right? Okay, let's do that. yes. So the inn is a nonprofit organization that at its core, and this is our tagline, but I will repeat it because it's really important because it's basically everything, it explains everything that we are. at its core, we serve hungry and homeless Long Islanders with dignity, respect, and love. That is the basis of everything that we do, of all of our programs. I'm not sure how much you know about New York, but Long Island is seen as sort of a wealthy and privileged area. And there are Nassau and Suffolk counties are among some of the wealthiest areas in the United States, but there are also lots of people here that are in need, that need help for whatever reason, that are living you know, well below their means, that are in poverty, that are could be homeless, that could be unemployed, or whatever it is. And people don't usually see that or associate people in need with Long Island. It's not usually an a normal association, but it exists. And one of the things that the inn does is make sure that we are sort of shining a light on the fact that that is an issue here. Even here where lots of people are extremely you know, wealthy or they have lots they have an abundance, right? but to answer your question, my role, my title is director of marketing and communications for the in. And basically what I do is I tell the inn stories. I you know, in different platforms. So I can do that like here on a podcast, I can do it on our website, I can do it on social media, I can do it in in through emails, I can do it speaking. I go out and I speak publicly about what we do and how people can help us. So any way that I can get the word out about what the inn does, why we do it, and how people can help us, that's my job.

[8:26]  How do you get there? How how does this all come about for you? Yeah.

[8:31]  Me. I have a history of well I have a communications background. I have a degree in communications from Hofstreet University, which is also on Long Island, although I I grew up in Brooklyn, which is not far from here at all. and I was I started out as with a theater background with theater and performance. I went to performing arts high school, the fame school, LaGuardia High School in Manhattan. I was a drama major. and I I wanted to, I just loved being on stage. I loved performing, but I was also a part of a youth group in Manhattan called City Kids, which still exists. And it they absolutely do. They're an amazing organization. It's basically

[8:54]  Yeah, Marcela too.

[9:18]  giving young people the power to use their voice for good. we were given a safe space to express our opinions, to learn about what's going on in the world and to see how we can do something to change it. Something that, you know, goes against a older generational thought of children should be seen and not heard, right? this was the it's it was the exact opposite. Here you had a bunch of young people. Who had something to say and they knew that their influence could make a difference in the world. And we did it in a lot of different ways. And it just so happened that there was a connection with the being given a voice and being given the opportunity to speak on what's happening in the world and an aspect of performance. So City Kids had a repertory company where they had. us sort of kind of like sit in rooms and write songs and choreograph dances and talk about you know different things about racism and about you know it could be poverty it could be whatever whatever was happening politically at the time this is in the 90s so there was a lot that we did and we did it through performance which is kind of how I got involved in it and through that I'm getting somewhere here right so through that I was literally

[9:57]  Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[10:37]  given a microphone and put on stage and said and was told talk about city kids, talk about your involvement, talk about what we do here, why it's important, talk talk to your peers and talk to other people that may not be your peers, your parents, your grandparents, and I did with a microphone. That sort of led to the love of speaking for me. I talk a lot, which is great. I mean it's part of my job, whatever. I'm a communicator. But so it ended, you know, I went to school, I didn't

[10:53]  Mm-hmm.

[11:10]  Pursue an acting career. Although I did a few things here and there, nothing major. It everybody's like, would it would I have seen you in something? Probably not, you know. Maybe an extra in something once in a while. But instead I went for a degree in communications, specifically television and video production and minor in speech communications. So it I turned into, I don't know, I worked for corporate. big corporations, I worked for small companies, I worked for production companies. And eventually I got laid off from my job at a very large company, which was it was a wonderful place to work. I'm I wouldn't definitely wouldn't bash it. But and I ended up starting my family around that time. And at a certain point I had to go back to work. It was a tough time. It was 2008. It was the beginning of a major recession in the country. once I lost my job, it seemed like everybody started losing their jobs and was having a hard, very difficult time. You know, fast forward a few years and I was like, okay, well, I have kids now and I'm gonna have to go back to work. I'm lucky enough to have a spouse with a job, but it was, you know, I needed to sort of like contribute as well financially in addition to everything else that a that a work from that a stay at home

[11:57]  Mm-hmm. about to say stay at home mom, you work twenty four seven, I hear you.

[12:45]  Stay at home mom says. And I did. And and I I know the difference and I've done both. And I I I couldn't tell you which one is harder, but I'm probably gonna lean towards being a stay-at-home mom with two tiny kids at home. anyway, so I started looking for work, but what I found was when I was looking for work, I didn't want to just work and for money, which is important, you know, it definitely needed money. But I wanted it to count. Like, you know, I looked at these little babies and I was like, listen, if I'm gonna walk out the door every day and leave them here, even if it is with their father or their grandparents, I want to make sure that it's something that I love to do. And I wanted it to make a difference. I wanted to be able to lay my head down at night and feel like I did something. And it just so happened that this position came up at the inn, which was a nonprofit that I had never heard of. And it was a public relations manager or something like that. That was my first title thirteen years ago. And I watched a video about the inn and it made me cry because I was like, this is a place that cares so much about human beings, no matter what their circumstances. And they needed somebody to tell their stories and I was like, I think that person is me, you know? So and that was it that was thirteen years ago and here I am.

[13:58]  Wow. Purpose work. There's so much to really talk about. I mean, theater, something that I feel just the arts program in general. I think we've talked about it, right? I'm a theater kid as well. I loved it. I love the stage. I love that the playing the different characters. I love all that. But I think that there's something special in being part of the art and really what it it it teaches us. What it what did it you think is it was teaching you through being arts, you know, in the art program?

[14:24]  What wasn't it teaching me? Right. So like I watched this TikTok recently that said something like if you want to hire a person for your position that you have open, hire a theater kid. They're gonna be the ones that are gonna be on the front lines, they're gonna be the ones that are gonna engage everybody, they're gonna be the ones that are gonna be able to communicate with people. And I was like, my god, this is true. Like I this is real. I you know, I think that being a part of the arts.

[14:24]  Yeah.

[14:53]  And this is cool because it not only does all of those things, you learn communication, you learn how to interact with people, you learn how to adjust to people, you know, they say know your audience. So you can't you can tell the same story, but if you have different audience members, you've got to tell it in d different ways, right? But at the same time, I also think that it teaches you you know, determination. How to, you know, how to, it's not an easy thing to do. Most people don't like to get on stage. They don't like to be at the center of attention. Some people do, but many people don't. So it just kind of teaches you how to put yourself in the forefront, but also without fear. You know, you literally sometimes have to stand up in the middle of a stage with a spotlight on you, and you can't be afraid. You can have a gener adrenaline rushing through you, giving you that sort of like excitement. But you have to do it without fear. So I think that that's such an important part of being in the in the arts and in the theater. And because I could talk about this all day, it teaches you how to understand other people that are not the same as you, you know, that are different that could be different than you, but at the same time they're, you know, we have something in common, right? That's a big one.

[14:53]  Yeah. Yep. And I think that we when you talk about just people and then also just learning new ways, it's improvising, right? And I think that we all have it within us. It's just how to tap into that. And I taken some improv classes and realized, man, if if we do more of these things in our businesses, people will really understand people because it is just so cool to be in spaces where not only could you be yourself, but you learn how to improvise, how you learn to think quick on your feet, how you pivot.

[14:53]  Yeah.

[16:43]  Because in business, you talk about thousand and eight, it was a pivot. You know, right now in twenty twenty six, it's a pivot. You know, we are all in this space together. what is the inn doing today to kind of move past this space of government funding, I would say. Like what are you guys doing different to kind of go and and look at different ways to raise money?

[16:43]  Huge. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what we do. So the in is not is not government funded. We're privately funded. So that is actually something that's a challenge that we haven't had to face as much as some other, you know, government organizations. Like we are a non government organization, we are privately funded organization, which actually helped us, especially through through the biggest pivot, right? Which was 2020 and COVID.

[16:43]  Love

[17:31]  we didn't, although we did receive some funding from local governments, but they were mostly through grants that we were that we had qualified for or that we applied for or qualified for, we did a lot of grant funding. but in terms of being the type of organization that relies solely on government funding, that actually, fortunately for the inn wasn't as much of an issue. Last year, this is an example of how we we did this. So last year. What we did find was a lot of the people that we serve. So we have our soup kitchen, which is our largest program. It's called the Mary Brennan Inn. we serve about a thousand meals a day, five days a week, all year round. and that could be sit-down meals in the dining room or it can be to go meals that people take with them. we have we call everyone that we serve at the inn, we call our guests because we literally invite them in to take to to to participate in our programs and anything that we have belongs to the guests. So we serve about a thousand we serve about a thousand meals, but it's to more guests because a lot of people are coming in and they might have people at home, young children, elderly family members who are physically immobile or whatever that they can't physically be here, but they'll, you know, be able to take food home for them or things like that, or goods or whatever we're providing through our programs. anyway, so l a lot of the guests that we serve benefit from government services like SNAP benefits. So, in order for them to get food, they have SNAP benefits. Last year there was a suspension in the SNAP benefits. The the benefits ended for about a month. I think it ended up being about a month and a half. That was a huge deal. Most of the people that we serve at the soup kitchen come to the soup kitchen, but some of them also rely on SNAP benefits to feed their families. When those benefits ended, we had the challenge of figuring out how to double and in some cases triple what we were providing in terms of food because they were getting some meals from us, but they were, you know, there was a supplemental way of them getting food. So what we did was because we're a privately funded organization,

[17:35]  Yeah.

[19:55]  We went out to the public. We went out to our supporters and we said, listen, this is happening. Everybody knew it was happening. It was a big deal. we said, if you find it in your hearts, please contribute. And we do crowdfunding and we just kind of go out and say, if you can get whatever you can give, five dollars, ten dollars, and we ended up raising within twenty four hours about twenty thousand dollars to supplement the the snap, the loss of SNAP benefits for that short period of time. It was in November.

[19:57]  Wow.

[20:24]  So it was right around the ho, you know, right around the holidays, Thanksgiving, things like that. And we pivoted again and we were able to do it. So in terms of government funding, we're able to do that. And we have the, you know, the privilege of being able to do that because of our private funding, but it also means that we rely on literally the kindness and I wouldn't say strangers, but the kindness of people that support us. Some of them are strangers and then they become friends because the inn is a really special place.

[20:24]  Mm-hmm. Yeah. How do you get the word out? You talk you're you're the communication specialist. is it email blasts? Is it knocking on doors? What does that even look like to get that message out?

[20:24]  Yeah. I you know, I haven't tried knocking on doors. I don't know how that would work, but you know, we'll see. I mean, maybe somebody will open a door for me. you know, social media is really powerful for nonprofit organizations because in essence, it can be, although there is a such a thing as paid social media, most nonprofits do mainly RSL, ours included, do mainly organic social media. so we do a lot of social media outreach. We have

[20:25]  Mm.

[21:26]  Well, you know, the inn was, and we didn't talk about this, but the inn started in nineteen eighty-three. So we've been around for over 40 years. And so we have people through word of mouth that know about us throughout the years. we also are hyper super local. So people understand in the area they kind of, you know, most people know if they're looking for something, they can volunteer here or they can donate or they can do something if they'd like to contribute and help other people that may not be able to help themselves. but yeah, email blasts, social media, website, a lot of word of mouth, a lot of grassroots stuff, you know, going out into the community and speaking to anybody who will listen. You know, the one thing that I've learned by working here is that more people than you think want to do something good for somebody else. You would I didn't realize it until I got here. Every day I was getting a call, say, I you know. I want to do something. I want my kids to do something. I want my family to do something, but they don't know what to do. So that's our job, right? That's my job to kind of give them the the information that they need, which they need, they want, but they need it to be given to them and handed to them. And once they have it, then that's good. That's it. Then they can figure it out from there. And there's so many ways to do it. So we, you know, so that's how we get word up. Okay.

[22:19]  Yeah. Okay. So I'm gonna talk on something there that Dana, right? Cause I'm in this space as well. You mentioned people don't know what they don't know. So I've had someone says, Efraine, I've been wanting to help, but no one's ever asked me, right? No one I wanna donate money, no one's ever asked me. But then when they are in the door, now we also gotta make sure we keep that relationship going. How do you keep that relationship going? Like are you sharing stories with them now? Are you cause not only do we gotta get in, then we gotta keep them.

[23:13]  Yeah. I have to tell you that you know once people and I I I will use this as an official invitation when you come to New York to visit us here at the inn, when you see the operation in person and see the kind of all the cogs and the wheel and what's happening with our programs, we have the soup kitchen, we have a social services center, we have we have shelters where we house formerly homeless individuals and families. We have, you know, a boutique and houseware center. So all the things that get donated, we give them right back out to the community. If you see it with your eyes, and that could be, you know, we've done videos and things like that. We got a tick, we have a a YouTube channel that we have lots of videos that you can see. When you walk in the door, and this is what I find happens to people, they look around and they say, you know, all this time some people have been donating to us just kind of blindly for years. When they walk in the door and they look around and they're like, my goodness I can't believe how much you're doing here and how many people you're serving. It's a very hard place to leave. So they inn up staying and saying, what more? What more? What more can I do? Can I bring a group in to volunteer? Can I donate my clothing that doesn't fit my kids anymore? I, you know, I have, you know, I have a mattress or I have a, you know, we well maybe not mattress. I have a bed frame or I have a, you know, something.

[23:49]  Love it.

[24:38]  Take it, take it. I have a car that I can't use anymore. Maybe they could help get people to doctor's appointments. Maybe, you know, whatever it is. They still wheels start turning. So we we do, you know, we keep our friends close, you know, we keep them really close. We make sure that we still in contact with them, you know, in a lot of different ways. And hopefully it keeps them coming back. Usually it does.

[24:48]  Mm. I love it. And you mentioned all these different programs just now. So what is you know how many people you guys are serving on a yearly basis?

[24:58]  Yes, so it's a so I'll tell you from and I gotta look at my notes. So last year we served just short of two hundred thousand meals at the soup kitchen. And that is broken down probably about a little over half of that is adults, but a little under, you know, a little under half of that is children under 18 years old. And then we've got seniors, right?

[25:08]  Look at her notes, girl. Look at her notes.

[25:30]  in our housing programs, it we, you know, we have two shelters. We have emergency shelter housing, we have a shelter for single men and a shelter for families where we have 52 beds and five cribs. it sound doesn't sound like a lot, but it ends up being thousands and thousands of nights of shelter every year. And then We have the Center for Transformative Change. The Center for Transformative Change is our social services resource center. So basically, the way that we that I usually describe it is that if you think about a soup kitchen, you have somebody coming in for basic needs, the most basic need to survive, food, right? Food, water, maybe temporary shelter. If it's raining outside, if it's too hot, they can come inside, they can sit down, they can take a breather, they can have something to eat. The step above that. Is the social services part of it? It's permanent shelter, education, it's you know, it could be getting furniture, it could be something as simple as getting an ID card. Everyone needs some form of government ID to be a part of society, right? But if you don't have that, if you don't have a a an ID or a social security card if because maybe you lost it or maybe you don't have the fee to pay for it. You can't get anything. You're not considered in society, you know, like on paper. A person almost right. So we help people from the most basic thing to getting themselves some sort of official identification to then figuring out what sort of services that can provide. And that's what the Center for Transformative Change does. We call it the CTC because it's a long, no long name and it doesn't really float off the tongue. So we call it CTC. and in the CTC last year we had 18 that over 18,000 people. come through our doors to try to find whatever services that may be. We don't always provide the services directly, but we can provide, you know, physical health, you know, like doctor's offices, they might come in and provide their services, do like blood pressure screenings, you know, mammograms, whatever. We've got, law offices that come in and help people with legal issues. We've got so many things. I it you know whatever you can think of that you might need, we'd be able to, you know, computer, you know, training. If you, you know, if you need a job, you're gonna have to get onto a computer and fill out an application, right? So you need basic computer skills, things like that. So it's kind of the sort of thing where a person would come in, they'd be able to, you know, go get a meal.

[25:33]  Wow.

[28:17]  Maybe rest a little bit. they would be able to come in and figure out what the next steps are for them. Maybe it's housing, maybe it's furniture, maybe it's going back to school. They would be able to go into our boutique, get some clothing for themselves, for their families, maybe some small housewares if they've just started out and they, you know, ha if they do have a place to live. You know, maybe they're just coming off of somebody's couch and they've been couch surfing, or maybe they've been washing up at a gas station bathroom, or I don't know. I mean, there's so many, there's millions of stories that come out of here. We don't know them all, we don't pretend to know them all, but we do try to assist people with whatever we can. So that's sort of all of our most of our services. And we do that with a very small staff, but with tons of volunteers. We do that with

[28:18]  I was just gonna ask, this does not this has to be done with a whole bunch of volunteers. So talk about it. How people even get involved when volunteers wanna be a part of it? What what are you looking for at the volunteer level?

[28:19]  It is a lot. It depends. I mean, volunteers the volunteers that we have are mostly in our soup kitchen. So people that want to help us that want to come in and volunteer, what they would do is they would fill out a registration form online and they could volunteer in the soup kitchen helping to prepare and serve meals. They can volunteer in the boutique, maybe going through donations, so sorting through donations, all of our volunteer all of the donations that we get, whether it's clothing, food, baby items, toiletries, those are the the big ones that we need and that we get the most of. housewares, every single donation that comes in gets sorted by our volunteers to make sure that it's acceptable to give out to somebody else. You know, in the beginning of our of our talk, I I said that we serve with dignity, respect and love. And that's something that we hold very that's the most important thing that we do. That's where we work from. We work from that place, from the place of dignity and respect and love. we wouldn't give anything out that we wouldn't use ourselves or we wouldn't give to somebody that we care about or a family member or friends or or anybody. So every piece of clothing, every, you know, article of every little houseware, every trinket is kind of like looked at from a volunteer and said, Okay, this is okay. We'll put it out in our boutique. Or it was like, you know what, this one, we're just gonna put that aside or whatever the case. So we do that. so yeah.

[28:20]  Yeah.

[30:42]  So volunteers have a lot of opportunity here to help out.

[30:47]  You said thirteen years ago you started, was that correct? So thirteen years ago I can imagine looked very different. You guys had a lot of growth. What do you see what do you want to see for the organization in the next thirteen years?

[30:47]  Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, yeah, you're right. It was when I started here, there was no CTC. We had what we also had a network of soup kitchens. So it was a there's been growth, you know, throughout the years. So there was we didn't have CTC yet, but we had a network of soup kitchens all across Long Island that's operated in different 'cause like I said, Long Island, you know, although people don't think there are people in need here, there are even in some of near some of the most the wealthiest areas and the most, you know, privileged areas, there's a lot of need there as well. we had up, I think at our at most, we had either nineteen or twenty-one soup kitchens that were in all different towns on Long Island. And they have since over the years broken off from our from under our umbrella, but they all still operate in the same area. So we didn't so they're not it's not like the the soup kitchens left those areas. They're still there.

[30:47]  Yeah.

[31:53]  And they operate independently, but they still sort of keep in touch with us to let us know how they're doing. They keep in touch with our CEO, Gene Kelly. and they still operate in the communities that they were in before, which is to me, I think that's just unbelievable. None of them, you know, said we're not gonna do this anymore. but yes, it things have changed from the last 13 years that I've been here and they continue to change. The latest growth that we have, and this is really exciting for us, is that we have a brand new building that is next to, and you know, again, you you're not here, so you can't see it, but if you go on our on our YouTube channel, you can kind of get an idea. So we have our soup kitchen next door to our soup kitchen. We have our resource center, the CTC. On the other side, we've we've purchased a a building that doubles the space of the existing buildings.

[32:21]  Ha ha ha.

[32:49]  And in that space, we're going to expand our services to include workforce development, which a lot of these things we already do on a smaller scale. we're going to include workforce development, a temporary respite center. So people can come in if they've been on the streets, they can come and take a little rest before we start working from that with them. Our boutique will be moved into that space. and our

[32:51]  Wow.

[33:12]  our are what we call what we're calling a guest choice pantry. So we give away one of the programs that we do is we give away pantry bags. We close on the weekends. So on Fridays or every other Friday right now, we take all of the donations of non-perishable food that we get and we create these pantry bags of like grocery items like staples, pasta and tuna and cereal and sauce and you know whatever canned vegetables and things like that. We'll put into bags and we'll distribute to the guests that come in for the weekend or for whatever they need it for. Now what we're going to have, which we've had in the past on a much smaller scale, in our new building we're having a guest choice pantry, which is going to be like a supermarket without a cash register. All of the donated food items will go on shelves and the guests will be able to come in and pick their items as if they were in a supermarket, but they do not, since they're donated, they will not have to spend a dime

[33:16]  Wow.

[34:10]  they'll have enough food for themselves and their families and they'll be able to take it with them. So those are some of the things that are happening in the new building, which we're opening later on this year. And with those three buildings, and they're all on the same block. So with those three buildings, we're now calling it our in campus. And that's where all of our services, besides the shelters which are separate, all of our services will run out of those three buildings.

[34:29]  That's all cool, yeah. What is your most I would say happiest or fulfilling being there thirteen years when you said, I wanna do something purposeful. What is that thing that just makes you feel like, man, I'm I'm glad that I was able to be a part of this?

[34:49]  I have an answer for that because it happened a few years ago. This is actually it happened a while ago. I don't know what year it was. There was one year that so here's the thing. I'm the communications director, right? I work in these this is my office. I work in my office. I'm not I guess you would call it on the front lines every day. So although I go to the soup kitchen, my job kind of requires me to do more administrative stuff, you know, like the social media and whatever. I don't always have, although I go to the soup kitchen and I speak to the guests and some of them know who I am and things like that. but I don't have an everyday interaction with the guests. And one year it was December. It was it had to be right after Christmas. It was in between Christmas and and New Year's and it was very, very cold here. I I it you know, winter in New York, and we didn't talk about winter, we talked about summer. Winter in New York is also magical, but it is also can be extremely cold. And the temperatures were so low that we had to open up our soup kitchen in the evening. We usually close at a five o'clock, but we had to open up as a warming center, as a kind of like an unofficial warming center. And there was there were a group of men that came into the soup kitchen that were sleeping at the train station. And when I tell you that it was so cold that

[37:46]  Okay. Yeah.

[37:46]  People were dying in the middle of the night if they had to sleep outside. It was, it was brutally, brutally cold. So anyway, so we had these, this group of men. And I was, you know, is the inn of my day, and I'm here in my cushy little office and I'm packing up. And just so happened that they didn't speak English. And somebody called me and said, Listen, we have this group of men here. They speak Spanish. Can you please come and just kind of like, you know, translate for us, let them know. They were already on it. My my team over there was they were getting them prepared to put them in a in a ho in a motel for the night and try to figure out after that what was being done. And I was like, you know, and and here we are. I and I was like I'm ready to go home. I have my kids at home waiting for me. And I went over and started talking to these men and started taking some information from them, started explaining to them what they were going to what we were gonna do for them and started kinda just kinda like they were giving me information. I think that one of them had like he his birthday was like the day before this happened, you know, because he had I he I took his birthday or something like that. One of them was maybe 18 years old, you know, like I I I just I started talking to them and started understanding, you know, that these are people I mean I knew that already, but I don't usually have the direct interaction.

[37:46]  Young.

[37:46]  And the inn of that story is that, and it wasn't just me. We had a team of people that were, you know, that were helping, that were making sure they were okay. And what ended up happening was we had, you know, somebody drive them to the motel, and we had somebody setting up the rooms, and we had somebody, you know, and then they said to me, they said, Well, we're gonna have to raise some money because there was 16 of them, 16 gentlemen, and we're gonna have to raise some money to pay for all of this, right? So S similar to the SNAP benefits fundraiser. We went back. So now it's, you know, December 29th or something like that. And, you know, I'm setting up a a fundraiser. We raised $55,000 in 12 hours. And from people that knew they were they knew they knew how cold it was. They knew the holidays were right were, you know, was right around the holidays. They knew that

[37:46]  Wow.

[38:32]  you know, this was not a situation that anybody should be should be in. And people were so generous. And what actually in the after that, what ended up happening is that we created a shelter for those men. We had a a house that we had, you know, we were able to put them up and they lived there for quite a few years until eventually they were able to move on with the help of our social workers and people like that. Anyway, that is my favorite story to tell. Because I feel like although I know that what I do helps this organization, it was more of like a hands in the sauce kind of thing, you know, like I was in it and it and it's not an it's not an experience I get every day to see it like that. And it was really amazing. And it was, you know, it was I'm really proud of being a being able to be a part of a team that was able to do that. Although sometimes I feel like I didn't really do anything, but

[39:30]  Yeah, yeah.

[39:31]  I guess I did, right? You know.

[39:33]  Yeah. And and just the power community. Look, two stories that you've told me where the community has, you know, come together. A lot of times we feel so divided for whatever reason, right? But when you can see the community come together and raise funds for those that are in need at the moment, it it is something fulfilling about that and realize like, man, how humans can just come together and make a difference and create that impact. And yeah, you are part of that, right? You you had to wait

[39:47]  Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Yeah.

[40:02]  You had to take your after hours when you were being with your kid to go and and do that. And I can imagine that it was just fulfilling and rewarding, you know. and maybe your kids wouldn't have understanded that moment, but as they grow older, I can imagine that they're appreciative of what mom does. Where are they at right now mentally and physically on this whole idea of mom giving back to others?

[40:18]  Yeah. They love it. They get it. I was gonna say, like, you know, what you said before, it's like when people say, you know, nobody asked me that this particular story, all we had to do was ask, right? And people came through in a big way. my kids are now teenagers. I have two girls. I have a thirteen, I'm sorry, she just turned fourteen when we were in Aruba. fourteen year old and a sixteen year old. And they grew up. So now I've been here thirteen years. So they were three and one. And they grew up

[40:32]  Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

[40:47]  seeing me here. They have volunteered, they have done, you know, drives, they've worked, you know, done things in their school. They get it. They understand, you know, that it's this is not just about us. It's not just, and listen, they, you know, they're still children and they still, they're still kids and they still, you know, have that sort of like, you know, it's all about me sort of attitude. But I in, you know, I believe that seeing what

[40:52]  Yeah.

[41:17]  you know, and understanding and me explaining to them why I do this and and, you know, how we make these things happen and that, you know, at the inn of the day we really do have to think about other people. Like I like to feel that they'll get it a and when they're adults, they'll really get it, you know. And especially when they have children of their own, they'll really, really get it. You know, so that but they do, they get it. They understand. And they often, know, go to their schools and their, you know, their clubs and whatever and they say, Well, you know We can do a food drive for my mom's job and we can do this for my mom's job and we and they do that a lot. So up I'm proud of them. No, I didn't get it. I didn't get theater kids. I got athletes, so that's fine. They're they're they're great.

[41:51]  I love it. Are they theater kids at least? good. Hey, that works too. there's still a lot of it that we could really tap into that. if athletes that've even learned on on how that makes a difference in a child's life, being part of a team, being part of sports and all that. But that's for a whole nother podcast. How do people get involved? Can we just talk about websites, what's your social? As we start to wrap up, people want to know how they get they want to see this one, but they also want to know how they get involved. How do they do that?

[42:28]  Yeah. Well, first place would be our website, which is the hyphen in dot org, the in dot org. and there you can make a donation, a fine a monetary donation. You can we saw, you know, donate funds, go donate goods, donate time. Those are the three biggies, right? So and you don't have to live in New York to do it. obviously, yeah, it's a volunteer in person you would, which would welcome anybody to to register to volunteer. We do have a volunteer try it for a day. option where if you're kind of new to this and you just want to see what's what's up and how it works, you can try it for a day at the soup kitchen. We do have regular volunteers at the soup kitchen. So we have a program, a volunteer program where you can, and this is mostly for people that a lot of them are retired. You know, I mean this isn't for, you know, we operate during school and work hours. So it's hard for students or people that have full-time jobs to do it regularly. But a lot of our volunteers happen to be a little bit older because they, you know, are are retired or they're not, you know, working as much anymore or whatever the case. and those volunteers, they commit to at least six months one day a week. So and they identify by that day, like I'm a Monday, I'm a Tuesday, I'm a Wednesday, and they're amazing. And so we have about, I think about 30 to 40 of regulars each weekday.

[43:05]  Mm-hmm.

[43:42]  that come every weekday. So they commit to a minimum of six months. But if you go and talk to like kind of do like an informal how long have you been here? How long have you been here? The average is like four years. They I've been coming here and there's and more. You know, we had before COVID, we had volunteers that were here for like 20 years. They come every Monday for 20 years. Can you imagine? So, and they're wonderful. They're very dedicated, very giving. They are there for the guests. Anyway, so there's a regular volunteer option if you have that kind of time. And then there are, you know, one-off sort of day things with a either with individuals or groups. We get a lot of community organizations, we get a lot of schools.

[45:35]  Wow. Yeah.

[45:35]  we get a lot of like, you know, places, houses of worship and in communities and parishes and people like that that want to come in as a group. monetary donations, as I said, we are privately funded organizations. So any monetary donation is always, we will always put it towards the greatest need at the time, which does change. So like right now we're in the summer. in the summer we see an increase in guests at the soup kitchen. mainly because students are out of school. There's no more free breakfast, no more free lunch in the summertime. So a lot of younger students are coming in with their parents, children and with their families to get a meal. So we that so you know people tend to like kind of not forget about us, but they don't really think about us as much in the summertime as they do like let's say around the holidays where everybody's in a giving spirit, which is amazing. You know, you think in Thanksgiving and food and that's when people think of us mostly

[45:35]  Yeah. Yeah.

[45:35]  my requests, please think of us in the summertime too, because we're still serving and there are still people that need food, even though it's not Thanksgiving. So and that goes for January also when when all the holidays are over and everybody's exhausted. so yeah, monetary donations are always welcome. Donations of goods. you know it could be something as simple as your kids are like I said, your kids have grown out of their clothing and you don't know what to do with it. we have a beautiful boutique that it gets, you know, you know, like A lot of people say to me, I don't like putting my clothes in those in the bins, in like the clothing drop-off bins, because I don't know where it goes. But I can very safely say that the clothing will go, everything will go to immediately as as quickly as we can to the people that need it the most. we take clothing, we take food, we take toiletries, we take baby items, diapers, wipes, formula, you know, baby food. Right now we're in need of toiletries because people also take showers in our facility. We do have showers and when they do, we give them towels, you know, shampoo, conditioner, razors, shaving cream, lotion, deodorant, the whole bit. We'll give them, you know, in a we call them shower rolls. We roll them up in a towel like a burrito and we give them to them so we'll be able to so people will be able to take a shower if they don't have a place to do so.

[45:35]  Yeah.

[46:42]  So things like that. Those are the the ways that that were helped the most.

[46:54]  I love it. Dana, we can talk forever, clearly. I didn't realize that we were on for as long as we have been. So I wanted you to get back to what you do best, which is spreading the word, creating that impact, telling the stories. Dana, we thank you so much. Is there anything else you wanted to leave behind that I maybe we didn't get to before we disconnect?

[47:06]  I know. no, I think we got to mostly everything. I just want to thank you, Efrain, for you know, having me on and and l allowing me to spread the word. I, you know, especially to people that may not have ever heard from us before. That's really my job. So I'm hoping that somebody out there is like gets a little inspired or inspired. We do that a lot with the INN with the in puns. just check us out. I mean, I really would love for for anybody that's interested in in giving back to to give us a

[47:18]  Yeah, yeah.

[47:31]  You know, go through our our website and see if anything sparks your interest.

[47:37]  Appreciate it. And thank you so much for just committing thirteen years of your life to help those in need. I don't know if I told you my mom is homeless. So when I hear people like yourself that are in this space of just giving, I really do appreciate it. Always gives me that it's it's possible that she would one day see the other side. So Dana, thank you so much. My name's E Frain. This is Dana Lopez. Make sure you guys check in the hyphenin.org. Later.

[48:00]  That's it. Thank you, Efrain. Take care.