Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen: Voice of a Donor Features Alicia Arinella

Alicia Arinella, President of On the Leesh Productions, and Executive Producer of What You Can Do, was recently interviewed for Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen's Voice of a Donor.  

Read below to find out more about Alicia's commitment to helping the organization.  

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FOOD FOR THE SOUL

ALICIA ARINELLA, DONOR, VOLUNTEER, WHAT CAN YOU DO

Voice of a Donor… Alicia

In Soup Kitchen Stories on June 26, 2013 at 3:01 pm

Founder and owner of her own production company, director and producer of 11 short films, one feature film and critically acclaimed series ‘What Can You Do’, Alicia Arinella is not someone who would strike you as being nervous. And yet, as she walked into the soup kitchen to begin her first day volunteering, that’s exactly how she was feeling.

‘We’d been looking for something we could do as an office team and we found the soup kitchen,’ she remembers. ‘I really wanted to help but I’d never done anything like this. I didn’t know what to expect, plus I can be really picky about table manners…’

As fate would have it, Alicia was put on table duty, the role with most interaction with our guests. In the busy flurry of a January morning with over 1,200 meals served, any time to notice table manners was soon forgotten, and in only two short hours, Alicia felt she had a life changing experience.

‘Everyone was just so nice,’ Alicia recalls. ‘Everyone I smiled at, smiled back. People thanked me all the time. The people I saw around the tables were not who I expected to see in a soup kitchen. The whole experience just blew me away.’

Shortly after her morning volunteering, Alicia decided to donate. She sold some books on Amazon and donated the profits to the soup kitchen. As the months passed, she found herself donating more – more money, more time, more attention. A little over a year on, Alicia has made a series of videos promoting the soup kitchen, spear headed several social media drives and continues to be a generous donor. Oh, and she types up work from the writers’ workshop as well.

‘It’s kind of an addiction, I admit it,’ she says, laughing. ‘I just love the soup kitchen and what you guys do. As I got to know it better, I grew to love it more. It’s a well oiled machine that doesn’t feel like a machine at all. I’m proud to be a part of it.’

Like most New Yorkers, Alicia encounters the problems of homelessness and hunger in her daily life, which she finds reinforces her connection with the soup kitchen. ‘Walking through midtown, riding the subway – these issues are ones I see all around me,’ she says. ‘I’ve been given a lot of opportunity in my life. You can think you’re immune to these problems but we’re all only ever a step away from a terrible phonecall that can change our lives forever. It’s so important to give back.’

Amanda’s First Beach Clean Up

Mission accomplished! I finally partook in my first beach clean up, and it was a success! I don’t think I could have asked for a more gorgeous day in NYC. The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, it wasn’t hot or cold, but despite the beautiful weather, there was A LOT of trash to be picked up!

I arrived at Brooklyn Bridge Park at 1:00pm, which was low tide. There were many other friendly faces of individuals from all walks of life ready and eager to pitch in. Our leader, Sarah, provided us with large trash bags, gloves, tools for picking up the garbage, and waders (those funny looking waterproof pants held up with straps that have shoes attached) for those of us daring enough to venture out into the water. We were also supplied with clipboards and checklists, provided by the Ocean Conservancy, to document the items we collected. This data is crucial to the Conservancy to monitor not only how much trash is being collected, but also what kinds are more prevalent in what areas, and other trends.

At first glance, the beach looked fairly clean to me. However, once I really started looking around, I felt like I wasn’t traveling very far very fast because there were so many small things hidden in the rocks. It was kind of like looking at the stars. Once you look at one really hard, you notice so many more around it. Except, of course, this was trash.

The vast majority of what I picked consisted of cigarette butts and plastic items such as straws, water bottle caps, and pieces of food packaging. There were a lot of glass bottle caps as well. In addition, other cleaners found a tire, fishing net, plastic bags, glass, etc.

I concluded that if we can all just stop smoking and using plastic, the impact that these small changes would have on the environment would be astonishing.

I was very inspired to see how eager everyone was to help out. There was an immediate sense of community, and it was very enjoyable because everyone who was there sincerely wanted to be. Everyone was working hard to clean as much as they could, and by the number and size of trash bags that were piled at the end of the day, I was shocked at how much trash everyone collected! This was a great bonus to the wedding that crashed our clean up. I’m sure they were very thankful for the newly cleaned shore to have as a backdrop for their ceremony.

I left the beautiful Brooklyn Beach Park clean up with a warm fuzzy feeling (and no it wasn’t just a sunburn) because I had helped make a difference, even if it was very  small in the grand scheme of things. Looking at the beach while packing up my belonging, I noticed a visible difference. It truly is amazing what we can all accomplish together! I encourage all of you to participate in a clean up. If you aren’t by a coast, clean up a park or marsh, or anywhere there may be trash, which should be very easy to find!

I was able to get some footage of the clean up, so stayed tuned for the video!

For more info, check out the Ocean Conservancy, or head to the Brooklyn Bridge Park's website. Here's a link to clean up sites in NYC too: http://www.alsnyc.org/