Please view the brief video of the Reaching Out Community Services program produced by the New Utrecht H.S. Visual Arts/Media team.

Let me know your thoughts. To watch the video, please click the image below.

Food Drive documentary from Rene P on Vimeo.

Six months ago, Thomas Neve was faced with a tough decision. Demand for Reaching Out Community Services, the food pantry he runs in Brooklyn, was at an all time high and their current location was getting cramped. He would either have to start turning people away or invest in a larger space. For an organization solely dependent on donations, this wasn’t an easy choice. But turning away clients wasn’t an option, so Thomas moved the Reaching Out facility and hoped for the best. Read more about it here.

A report by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger — released against a backdrop of borough families preparing for Thanksgiving, a holiday characterized by an abundance of food — reveals that close to 90 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens in the borough are experiencing an upsurge in demand as the recession lingers.  Read more about it here.

They're flush with food but short on cash.

"We're working on nickels and dimes here," said Tom Neve, 46, executive director of Reaching Out Social Services in Bensonhurst, which has a well-stocked soup kitchen and a grocery-style food pantry, but needs the money to pay staff and rent. "We're financially nosediving as demand becomes greater."  Read more about it here...