Our soup kitchen is our front door, which draws people into our organization and exposes them to other resources and services that can help them move beyond poverty.

Neighbors Together has three distinct but interconnected programs that address the myriad problems our clients face.

Community Café
The heart of our organization is our soup kitchen which provides hot nutritious meals to meet the immediate need for food.

• We offer lunch from noon to 3:00 pm and dinner from 5:00 to 7:00 pm Monday through Friday, feeding 500 people each day.
• While meeting the nutritional needs of our community, we utilize our unique opportunity as a congregate meal site to facilitate relationship building among our neighbors as well as between guests and staff.
• Meals are provided to anyone in need with no barriers, so that people who might be hesitant to access help (people who are mentally ill, immigrants, people concerned about the stigma of seeking “charity”) can at least get their most basic needs met, and ideally become comfortable enough to seek other services.
• We also provide on-the-job training in food service to four former welfare recipients each year.

Empowerment Program
Neighbors Together is one of the few places low-income people in our neighborhood can turn for help. Our Homelessness Prevention and Empowerment Program provides personalized intake and referrals to help people deal with emergency situations which threaten their ability to support themselves and their families, while empowering them toward greater stability.

This program strives to:

• Ensure our clients’ ability to obtain or maintain housing; secure adequate financial supports; and access necessary social services.
• Provide referrals to vital resources such as health care and Food Stamps, and advocacy to ensure access to those services.
• Coach clients in navigating complicated bureaucracies.
• Offer on-site clinics providing health care, benefits outreach, and legal assistance.
• Provide informal counseling and encouragement to people who receive very little emotional support in the midst of their many difficulties.

Community Action Program
In order to achieve our mission of ending hunger and poverty, as well as to empower our clients, Neighbors Together promotes community efforts to address the critical issues affecting our neighborhood.

Our Community Action Program:

• Holds weekly community meetings to discuss poverty and hunger and how they impact the Ocean Hill community.
• Actively engages our neighbors and clients in city- and state-wide coalitions working collaboratively to create solutions to these problems.
• Educates our clients about public policies and helps them build their self-esteem through making their voices heard in the public debates of these policies.