Serve The City Geneva is an organization that aims to mobilize volunteers by partnering with existing organizations that are already serving the poor and the marginalized. By doing this, we believe we can impact individual lives and the communities we serve. We partner with homeless shelters, refugee centers, orphanages, and other associations, listen to their needs and then generate resources to show kindness through practical help and support. The vision of Serve the City is a city in which individuals and communities experience personal, social, environmental, and economic well-being by means of the commitment of volunteers who want to serve their community. Our strategy is therefore to: a) facilitate volunteer recruitment, b) serve the population through empowerment, c) support our affiliates with volunteers and financial aid, d) foster mutual transformation: our own and those we serve.
Our relationship with Salvation Army:
Salvation Army, is one of the organizations in Geneva with which we have been partnering for many years. Serve the City most commonly provides volunteers to help serve breakfast at the Salvation Army’s night shelter. Our volunteers help set up and clear away the breakfast buffet and trays. The shelter has a small kitchen and some basic provisions so any additional supplies that Serve the City volunteers provide are welcome. Given the minimal preparation required for breakfasts, this is an ideal opportunity to meet and connect with some of the people using the services. We also provide volunteers to help prepare the evening meals or lunches during the winter.
About “Re-inventing the Kitchen” during Covid19 Project:
After Covid19 spread started in Geneva, the kitchens of Salvation Army in all 5 of their locations closed down and the hot meals served, had to be replaced by cold sandwiches distributed for take-away. Upon connecting with our partners at the organization, we learned that they would welcome nutritious meals which can be served in the form of lunch-boxes to be later reheated by the people benefitting from their organization. Serve the City took this challenge on and organized the making of 200 lunch-boxes per day for a period of 2 weeks. We first found chefs who would volunteer to cook for 200 people per day for free. We contributed by paying for all the food ingredients and we made sure only products from local producers would be bought. During the shutdown period of restaurants, many chefs has to stay home and many local producers who were providing food for the restaurants, had no place to sell their products. By organizing this activity, we enabled some practice for several young chefs who kindly came forth to cook voluntarily at one of the kitchens of Salvation Army. We supported several of the local food producers. And, first and foremost, we provided quality food for the people in need of Geneva. Some of our volunteers helped the chefs in the kitchen as lot of vegetables needed to be cleaned, cut, cooked and lots of dishes needed to be washed afterwards. Some other volunteers came by their cars and transported the lunch-boxes prepared in one kitchen to other 4 locations of Salvation Army in town. Overall, we provided over 1000 lunch-boxes for the Salvation Army. The activity started last week and will continue this week upon receipt of very good feedback from the organization.