On Monday, January 6th, our group was able to go to a soup kitchen located in the Bronx called Part Of The Solution or POTS. We were set to meet a woman (who’s last name we could NOT pronounce) and found her waiting for us outside. Turns out, going to this soup kitchen is not…
Volunteer at Holy Apostle Soup Kitchen, 12/16/13
by Lola Picayo
On Monday, December 16th, we volunteered at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm. Holy Apostle is a church that serves dinner and lunch everyday to people who need it. We went to serve lunch and learn as much about the people who go to the soup kitchen as we could. We…
Visit at Coalition for the Homeless 12/5/13
by Lola Picayo
On Thursday the 5th, our poverty group was lucky enough to have scheduled a visit with Coalition for the Homeless. We met with Marisa Butler, the volunteer coordinator, and immediately she gave us a tour of their amazing facility. When you first walk in, there is a locked door to the right and Emergency…
Lauren Mucciolo came to our class on 12/2/13
by Lola Picayo
After producing the film “Poor Kids”, Lauren Mucciolo has a very interesting view on child poverty in America. She got to have the hands on experience of working with families living in poverty for over a year, and because of that Lauren was able to give us a new view on poverty. Because Lauren was…
Interview with Yang Jiang on 11/14/13
by Lola Picayo
Before our interview with Columbia graduate and data analyst Yang Jiang, we believed that the organization she works with, NCCP (national center for child poverty) was a place children living in poverty could go to. After basing a lot of our questions for Dr. Jiang about what NCCP aims to achieving, we were very surprised…
Volunteer work at St. John’s Food Pantry, with Joe Spicketts on 11/12/13
by Lola Picayo
When we got to the food pantry, we started to notice that there were a lot of extra volunteers there. They were all wearing volunteer shirts, so we figured they were the to help. As it turns out, it was “peanut butter day”. Once a year, Polo Ralph Lauren sponsors this day in which they…
United Nations Conference for the Eradication of Poverty, 10/17/13
by Lola Picayo
On October 17th, both Poverty Groups were lucky enough to sit in on a conference at the United Nations for the Eradication of Poverty. This visit was very early in the year, so we were yet to decide what our specific topic was going to be and were mainly interested in learning the basics of…
