At NCS, Friends who Volunteer Together Stay Together

When Jan Golann learned about how her parish, St. James’ Church, was instrumental in founding NCS, she wanted to learn more about our work and get involved herself. She began volunteering at NCS events as well as making contributions. Now, more than ten years later, Jan is Secretary of the NCS Board of Directors and has become an integral part of our community. She loves to share NCS’s work with others, including her good friend and fellow St. James’ parishioner, Faith Fraser.

Faith is similarly dedicated to serving the homeless members of her community. After being locked out of her apartment and having to spend the night in a church conference room many years ago, she realized just how important it is that supportive services are available for homeless New Yorkers, some of the most vulnerable people in the city. This experience inspired her to volunteer for, and ultimately chair, St. James’ Friday Dinner Program for over twenty-five years. Knowing of Faith’s passion, Jan introduced her friend to the NCS Residence.

When the pandemic started, many free community meal programs had to suspend services or switch to a grab-n-go model. This worried Jan and Faith because they knew how many people relied on these programs to get healthy meals throughout the week, including NCS residents.

While the St. James’ program suspended service for a few months, Faith connected NCS with the Monday Night Hospitality program and Friday Soup Kitchen at All Souls Church, as well as the Carter Burden Luncheon Club at The Church of the Epiphany, which were still offering to-go meals.

Both programs generously set aside meals for NCS residents, and Jan and Faith began delivering them from All Souls, St. James’, and, at times, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church to the NCS Residence, with Faith doing the Epiphany run. Even in the heat of summer and winter snow, they pushed carts full of food, often making multiple trips, to ensure our tenants had access to delicious meals! Faith also kept an eye out for other food opportunities for the NCS Residence and brought excess food and supplies to the Residence throughout the pandemic.

“When we needed them most, Faith and Jan went above and beyond to make sure our tenants received meals several times a week— even delivering them themselves!” said NCS CEO Ann Shalof. “We are so thankful for neighbors like Faith and Jan who truly embody the idea that homelessness is the responsibility of the entire community.”

“Jan and Faith go above and beyond,” NCS Residence Director Monique Phillips shared. “There were days that they would arrive with a cart full of meals and later get a call from the church, telling them that there was more food available— and they would go back and bring more on the same night! Throughout much of COVID we were short-staffed and didn’t have the ability to send staff to pick up the food because they were needed on site. Jan and Faith made sure the residents had hot meals. I can’t explain how important this was.”

Now, more than two years after the pandemic started, Jan and Faith are still doing their part to help their neighbors. Along with continuing to deliver meals twice a week, they have recruited other St. James’ parishioners to join them at the NCS Residence in person to cook food for the tenants.

“We’ve loved getting to spend time going to NCS and meeting some of the residents there. They now know us by name and look forward to our delicious hot meal drop-offs,” Faith shared about her

experience visiting the NCS Residence in person with Jan. “We love that we’re expanding their idea of how many people care about them, and we also love getting a chance to showcase NCS’s work to others!”

Thank you, Jan and Faith, for caring for our hungry residents and setting an example of how friends can make a difference together!

In honor of NCS’s 40th anniversary, we will be sharing stories about our founders, volunteers, supporters, and staff who make our work possible, and the residents and clients at the center of our mission.
Check back throughout the year as we regularly update the series with new stories from our 40 years here.