Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty hosts MLK Day of Service

CEO David Greenfield invites former political colleagues

January 18, 2018 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Met Council CEO David Greenfield (third from left) got help from Assemblymember Walter Mosley, Councilmember Robert Cornegy Jr. and Met Council Volunteer Services Coordinator Taylor Wishnov (left to right) when he put together care packages for families in need. Photo courtesy of Met Council

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Former City Councilmember David G. Greenfield, who is the newly installed CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, reached back into his political roots when he organized a celebration of the national holiday birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Greenfield, who represented Borough Park, Midwood and parts of Bensonhurst in the City Council from 2010 to 2017, welcomed several elected officials, including a Council colleague, to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty’s Day of Service Learning on Jan. 15, the national holiday honoring King, the slain civil rights icon.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty is also known as the Met Council.

The volunteers at the event included Councilmember Robert Cornegy, Jr. (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant), state Sen. Jesse Hamilton (D-Crown Heights-Park Slope-Sunset Park) and Assemblymember Walter T. Mosley (D-Fort Greene-Clinton Hill-Bedford-Stuyvesant).

Part of the day was spent with volunteers learning about the facts about poverty in New York City and how to combat it.

But it was also a day of action, as 3,000 volunteers put together more than 1,200 care packages to deliver to families in need. Inside the care packages were kosher food items and children’s winter activity kits. The packages will be delivered to 30 food pantries operated by the Met Council.

“We at Met Council were thrilled to bring together our neighbors on Martin Luther King Day to help New Yorkers in need,” Greenfield said in a statement. “At Met Council we support hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need each year. Our food warehouse will ship these newly-made 1,200 packages to our network of 30 kosher food pantries that service 50,000 needy people each month.”

Shaina Goldberg, director of volunteer services at the Met Council, stated that she was pleased with the turnout. “It is amazing to work with people using their time off to help support their neighbors in need,” she said in a statement.

“Regardless of the blessings you have or don’t have, we want to make sure that those that do have are here to extend their hand out to those that don’t,” Mosley said

The event, which was supported by the UJA-Federation of NY’s Time for Good program, was planned in partnership with the group Repair the World and the Union Temple.

Cornegy said the event was in keeping with King’s spirit of service.

“I want to thank all the important organizations involved and the volunteers honoring Dr. King’s legacy by doing what was most important to him,” Cornegy said. “Most important for Dr. King was action! Today, this action is demonstrative of a collective spirit of doing what’s in the best interest of those who don’t have the ability to get those things done.”

Hamilton marveled at how the day showed “that we live in a great borough in a great state and a great country.”

Mindy Sherry, Union Temple’s director of youth and family engagement, said families enjoyed the experience of helping others. “Our families love coming out to participate in service-learning. It is very important for our synagogue to engage with the local community and do service work,” she stated.

For more information on the Met Council, visit www.metcouncil.org.