Volunteer Leader Steven Yee on Serving Communities in Need in 2020

Steven Yee, a volunteer leader with NYRR since 2018, is the development and volunteer coordinator for West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH), one of New York City’s largest food pantries. In this position, Steven manages engagement, training, operations, logistics, and safety for 1,200+ individual volunteers who help WSCAH pack and distribute healthy food to those in need throughout the five boroughs.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, WSCAH operated as a customer-choice supermarket-style food pantry, a model it pioneered over 40 years ago. This year, in response to COVID, the organization shifted its operations to distributing nutritionally balanced food packages outside its packaging center at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on West 86th Street.

Steven supervises 40-50 volunteers at the site every weekday as the team supports the packing and distribution of 10,000+ pounds of fresh food per day. Through partnerships with community partners, WSCAH directly and indirectly helps over 12,000 individuals per month with food and other social services.

We spoke with Steven about the vital work of feeding people experiencing hunger and food insecurity during the pandemic, and how his experience as an NYRR volunteer leader helped prepare him for this moment.

What and who inspires you?

When I volunteered at races every week, it was the runners who were so grateful for the littlest and simplest acts of generosity—like handing them a cup of water. Now, working with emergency food, it is knowing that New Yorkers struggling because of no fault of their own will have access, with dignity, to healthy food for themselves and their loved ones.

How has being an NYRR volunteer leader assisted you in managing WSCAH volunteers?

I attribute so much to what I learned from [NYRR staff] and my fellow volunteer leaders. As a volunteer leader, I did everything from public speaking to volunteer engagement to implementing best operations. These are skills that I honed through weekly repetition. The team immersed me in everything—setting up and running volunteer check in, organizing volunteers, ensuring operations ran smoothly, addressing troublesome volunteers or runners, and more.

These are all skills that I use now in running a very fluid volunteer operation that has folks spread out across several spaces, doing different tasks, moving around, and working toward a common goal—all in the midst of unprecedented times. Imagine facilitating a Central Park race every single day—on a much smaller scale but with similar logistical pieces. I could not feel comfortable doing what I do if I had not had NYRR’s volunteer leader program to teach me the ropes.

What are some of the challenges you face managing a large group of volunteers?

No-shows, cancellations, coming up with ways to recognize volunteers since masks cover most of their faces, and the uncertainties around COVID.

What is most rewarding about managing volunteers?

Some people volunteer because they are looking to try new things. What’s most rewarding is when that person finds a new “thing” that they’re passionate about, and volunteering played a part in making that happen. For example, a WSCAH volunteer had been working in an industry that was decimated by COVID. They started volunteering as a way to stay active, and as a result discovered they enjoyed helping those in need. Now they are pursuing opportunities that will potentially help them start a new career in social services.

What are the biggest needs in the community WSCAH serves?

There are unprecedented unemployment numbers and more folks struggling to feed themselves and their families with a fraction—if any—of the income they may have had prior to COVID. WSCAH’s in-house social services team has adapted the way it helps our clients meet the new challenges thrown their way by COVID. Our team is helping folks retroactively collect unemployment benefits, helping them enroll in health insurance, ensuring they know their rights relating to different circumstances, and providing referrals to other social services organizations that can best help them.

How do you see the needs of the community continuing to evolve during the pandemic?

Food pantries around the country are seeing customer demand like never before, WSCAH included. Entire industries are going to take time to recover. I expect food pantries will [continue to] see increased numbers of customers from all walks of life.

What’s your advice for someone interested in volunteering right now?

I’m a firm believer that the worst times bring out the best in people. With COVID, the community has recognized the never-before-seen struggles of widespread hunger and attaining healthy food. Folks from all backgrounds—the unemployed, underemployed, students, retirees, people who never volunteered a day in their life—are all coming together to support in any way one of the most basic life essentials.

What I would tell someone interested in volunteering right now is that during these trying times, volunteering is important, but what is more critical is that we come together and support one another in whatever way we can or feel comfortable doing. Volunteerism is much more than just handing a cup of water to a runner flying by at a race or packing bags of fresh vegetables at a food pantry. It could be spending time with the next generation providing mentorship, participating in programing to help our older populations stay engaged, being fluent in a language and recognizing a situation where someone is struggling to communicate in that language, helping someone carry a heavy cart of groceries up a flight of stairs, helping facilitate wellness checks during times of crisis, and countless other ways that ultimately make the life of a complete stranger a bit easier.

Volunteering should be something that you are genuinely passionate about. The thing that is going to keep you coming back and being engaged is that you feel proud of what you did and it meant something to you.

To explore volunteer opportunities at West Side Campaign Against Hunger and many other NYC-area organizations, visit New York Cares.

NYRR's volunteer operations are on pause due to the pandemic.