Alix ’25, makes meaning connections with families in need at a local non profit food pantry.
NOSH Delivers is a nonprofit food pantry and food delivery service to the families in need in my local community. It was founded in March of 2020 to aid local families impacted by the pandemic, but four years later it has continued to be a source for food insecure families of my community. NOSH strives to feed the families within the 15.27% poverty rate of Glen Cove, many being Spanish. My services at NOSH include dropping off meals at families’ houses, preparing and organizing food in the kitchen, and most importantly catering to the Spanish speaking population who needs someone to serve as a translator to check them in and help them with their shopping experience as it is a “client choice pantry”.
The name of my project this summer is: Feeding bodies while fueling minds: Filling summer gaps for underprivileged bilingual children through books. With my grant money from Deerfield, I have accumulated hundreds of books both in English and Spanish for the children that come along with their parents for their weekly groceries.
I have organized all of these books on a book cart, and placed them in the waiting room for the pantry; this gives me the opportunity to speak to and offer several parents books for their kids. I also enjoy when kids’ parents go shopping and I get to stay with the kids to help pick out what books they want! Since most of the parents that I interact with on a daily basis in the pantry are primarily Spanish speakers, it has been imperative that I use my Spanish speaking skills to help them. Their kids that speak Spanish at home and English at school have the ability to choose either Spanish or English books to maintain and encourage their bilingual lifestyle. Although I just started my project last week, I already feel like I have made meaningful connections with these customers and helped kids who do not have the privilege of reading over the summer find books they like. Not only this, but I plan to get in touch with the many families that rely on the NOSH delivery service and send books to their homes as well. I have also been lucky enough to receive many donations of books from friends and family nearby that want to contribute to my project this summer, which has doubled the number of books in my NOSH library.
My goal by the end of the summer is to greet and offer books to any child or parent that comes through the pantry or receive food deliveries. While giving these underprivileged kids an opportunity to read, it gives them the same right to education that they deserve so they do not fall behind the other kids in their classes when they return to school in September. It also gives Spanish speaking parents the ability to read aloud to their kids with the wide availability of Spanish books. My work at NOSH is now not limited to feeding the hungry in my community; I can ensure that kids can not only eat well, but get the chance to read. Deerfield provided me with a strong foundation to start this project, and I hope that the library I have created will continue to receive donations so it can continue through the year while I am back at school.
