The force of help: Melissa Newkirk

Where did your journey in fighting hunger start?

I have been passionate about food for as long as I can remember. I started working on a farm during a summer college break, where I learned about organic vegetable production and neighborhood food insecurity issues. Working at a farmers market, I also got to engage with people over food and realized that it was a great way to build connections. 

After graduation, I joined the Peace Corps and went to West Africa for two years in a country called Togo. I worked primarily with farmers, women’s groups, and students on food security and sustainable agriculture techniques. I was keen to stay in that field after returning home to NYC. I joined AmeriCorps, serving in the Volunteer Services department at City Harvest, a major food rescue organization.

Where does your passion for promoting food security come from?

I have always been concerned with hunger. As a kid, I could not understand why some people had to be hungry. My vivid memory is leaving the grocery store with my mother. I saw a homeless individual with a sign asking for food. I felt so confused and sad and asked my mom if I could share some of the things we bought. 

Food is the most basic human need, and it’s horrible that people still have to suffer from hunger, especially in our country, where we have so much abundance and so much food is wasted. So I have always wanted to work in food security, to fill that need and to help out where possible.

How did you come to work at CHiPS?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I lived just down the street from CHiPS. I recall walking past here and seeing long lines of people waiting for food. After City Harvest, I shied away from the nonprofit world for a while, but seeing lines at CHiPS reignited me that I needed to get back to this field. When I saw that CHiPS opened a position for a volunteer coordinator, I was very excited, given that it perfectly coincided with my background. 

CHiPS is a volunteer-based organization with a small number of employees. Do volunteers do the majority of daily work in the kitchen?

Yes, around 70-80% of work at the Food Services is done by volunteers. We have at least 20-30 volunteers in the kitchen every day. Without them, we could not serve that amount of people. We’re talking more than 400 meals a day now. 

How many volunteers come regularly? 

The overall number of people registered on our platform is over 400. Among them, around 30 volunteers come weekly. And then, of course, some people come sporadically and fill in. We also have volunteers from Park Slope Food Coop. I know that the shifts at CHiPS are in high demand among its members!

We have corporate groups of volunteers, and some companies work with us regularly. AvalonBay has been our partner for years. We’ve also had teams from Apple, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Kith, Gucci, and other companies.  

And, of course, many community groups sustain CHiPS outside of working in the kitchen. We have one neighborhood block association that does bi-monthly fruit drops and another where people make 125 sandwiches for us every Saturday. People from Park Slope Jewish Center regularly donate sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs. We get help from schools where kids assemble snacks and toiletry bags for our guests, churches prepare hot meals, our neighborhood Starbucks shop donates coffee every Saturday, and even some community groups repair things and repaint walls at the Frances Residence. All their help is essential for us.

So, how many people are involved in CHiPS work altogether? 

More than 2000 people. Our community is very strong!

What’s the best thing about working in CHiPS?

I love that every day is very much the same but, at the same time, very different. Working here is reminiscent of working in a restaurant. After all, it’s a food service, and everything is fast-paced. But what makes it more exciting is that you never know how the day will go. What’s coming to your door? How many volunteers will show up? How many guests will there be? What kind of craziness might happen? Every day is a new set of challenges; you must think quickly and react to them. I love it! 

How do you like to spend time outside of work?

My boyfriend and I love to collect plants. I have a small portion of our collection at the office at CHiPS, but most of it, around 40 plants, is in our apartment. I’m also a passionate traveler and have visited over thirty countries worldwide. And I love trying new food, reading, and cycling around the park or on my peloton.