Newsletter e

What’s going on with Serve the City these days?

Lots of things.. both Hot & Cold.

Most of the Service bureau’s are keeping tight.. minimal activities, stay in your room, don’t use volunteers, so basically business is slow..

We do have a weekly Zoom meeting with the other STC organisations around the planet! We talk about what is going on in our regions.. How they are helping and what they are allowed/not allowed to do. Check out Serve the City International

One activity that we do have going, is with the Mt.Brillant Soup kitchen (sponsored by Carrefour Rue).

Their soup kitchen had to close, but they started making box lunches to take away at their facility , feeding about 200 lunches 5 days a week. For the past 3 weeks, we (STC) have had a team, making over 200 sandwiches a day each Tuesday and Wednesday, delivered to the door (actually just outside the door). Other teams box up the daily lunches and pass them out. 😊 ALL our team members, have committed to stay on, doing sandwiches thru April ! Yeah team.!

The other good news was: that when STC was given the challenge of sandwich making back in March, we had to close the signups after 60 minutes.. and in the following hour we had over 25 more volunteers trying to get involved.. 😄 Many, many thanks .. to you wonderful volunteers..!

Our sponsors are eager for us to find projects for our volunteers, and are willing to fund projects as well.

We are limited to supporting local projects for the marginalised, homeless, hungry persons of the community, and are continuing to search out ways to help. One of our new sponsors, Lundin-Energy.com is helping us fund these existing and new projects this year. They are an off-shore oil company in Norway working here in Geneva and want to help give back to the community. Also many thanks to the team there!

Perhaps you can help! We are looking to find 500 or 1000 masks to give away to this lunchtime community. If you have access to any, let us know. We checked out Amazon; 50 masks for 13.87 clicked on the link: and price was 28.88 !? delivery late May early June 😒
( I should check ..it may have been April 1st )

More about the videos and masks, here are a couple Youtube links, if you haven’t seen them;

About the masks in Czech Republic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtEX2-n2Hc&t=2s

Study about the droplets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXhzjGbH7QA

To finish off a bit more of our last year.

In 2019… We had 377 new registrations for Serve the City Geneva (this March we had 40 !?)
in 2019 Volunteers signed up for 518 events (not counting the soup kitchen which had 3-7 participants every day we served !) And we had over 70 events to choose from.

And now we are up to 2,303 registered volunteers!
(if you are unable to participate , please reply with subject: REMOVE )

If there is anyone living in France and able to work in Switzerland. We have some T-shirts that we would love to deliver to Swiss Mt.Brillant soup kitchen.

With sincere loving thanks.. The STC team.

(24.9.2019)

However, not to worry! You are still welcome to drop by. You must just bring your own lunch 🙂

We will have some speeches , testimonies, movie clips, music, introductions and more.
We very much hope you will stop by and say hello.

We know you Servers don’t seem to like to be recognized !?!?! But we are trying anyway. And very much appreciate what you are doing for the community. We sent out 22 invitations for those who work serving at the Salvation Army. Zero elected to come to a meal offered by them to their helpers ! The restaurant 5th day wanted to celebrate their 1 year anniversary with a thank-you evening. Over 40 STC volunteers and service providers were invited.. but so few signed up; it hat to be cancelled..

Please come and join us.. Please sign up NOW on the web site, for sure by Wednesday (for food planning) Thanks..

Several more events will be coming up in the next few weeks , do keep in touch.

We will be taking bookings for the first of a couple of events for the handicapped kids at Clair Bois.

Our big event where we could use about 100 volunteers is the Partage Food collection, and later Sorting of the collected food.. Of course we have Mt. Brillant, Salvation Army & 5th day food kitchens, all working.

Thanks for being so faithful..

The Serve the City Geneva team..

P.S. We have a separate signup if you want to contribute to Saturdays event.

We could use 2 more servers help set up the show, need disc jockey to bring a playlist, We could use a few more potato salads, or reasonable substitute.. Merci..

(20.03.2019)

Dear volunteers,

Serve the City welcomes you to come and help your local community this spring!

Montbrillant soup kitchen

STCG needs additional volunteers for the soup kitchen at the Jardin de Montbrillant (behind Gare Cornavin). We need more volunteers to commit to alternate Tuesdays from 9am to 1pm. Additionally, it would be great to have a couple of standby volunteers on board to step up when needed.

Please sign up today! When you sign up, let us know in the “Comments” section whether you wish to be a regular volunteer or a standby volunteer.

The next soup kitchen is on Tuesday 26 March.

Le ​5ème Jour

Saturdays from April to June

Le 5ème Jour (“The 5th Day”) restaurant opened in Eaux-Vives in 2018, combining innovative cuisine, healthy and sustainable food and humanitarian principles. From Tuesday to Friday, it functions as a regular restaurant. On Saturdays (i.e. the fifth day), the chef provides a free gastronomic meal exclusively for those in need: refugees, the homeless and the disadvantaged.

We are looking for 10 volunteers to join our team of Serve the City helpers for April, May and June. Each week, two volunteers will help to serve the meal and interact with guests, making them feel welcome and giving them a chance to tell their stories. One of the two volunteers needs to speak French, and other languages are also useful.

Volunteers will have the opportunity to serve on 3 or 4 Saturdays during the 3-month period. If interested, please sign up on the Serve The City website.

– A Project Liaison Manager is being sought for this project, to be the contact point with the charity organisations who invite the guests who participate each week. French and English required. If this could be you, please mention your interest in the comments section of the event’s sign-up page.

Bellevue Zoo project

The Parc-Challandes.ch zoo in Bellevue needs our help! This facility was established with the goal of introducing school children to a wide variety of animals and rehabilitating injured animals. We have two projects coming up during which we will help to set up appropriate natural enclosures for the animals.

Saturday 13 April, 9am – 1pm (5-8 people), lemur enclosure:

• We need people with plenty of energy and basic woodworking skills (tools will be provided but extra saws would be appreciated).
• Please bring your own lunch, but drinks and snacks will be provided.

Saturday 25 May, 9am – 1pm (6-8 people), parrot enclosure:

• Deconstruction of branches and positioning of new ones.
• Please bring your own lunch, but drinks and snacks will be provided.

La Garenne zoo

Wednesday 17 April, 9.30am to 3.30pm,

La Garenne is another wildlife rescue park in the mountains over Nyon. This project makes a great place for a family outing, contributing to the park’s development and maintenance in various ways. A variety of tasks are on offer, including planting, cleaning, installing drainage pipes and more. We are looking for about 10 volunteers. Lunch will be provided, and anyone who can only make a half-day will also be welcome.

Stay tuned more springtime events…

(25.2.2019)

Dear STC volunteers,

Hospice General, the largest caregiver for Geneva refugees, is looking for volunteers on Wednesday afternoons to give new refugees a tour of Geneva. To get on the list we are looking for volunteers speaking some of the languages below. If you know any of the languages listed OR know of someone who may be interested in such an event, sign-up under the Hospice General on the website with languages supported. If you or your applicant can make a introduction/information meeting on 27.02.2019 at 13h address is : Rue Jean-Charles Amat 28, 1202 Genève 3rd floor, This would also be an option/opportunity.

Let us know before Tuesday if it’s possible. But signups can be taken anytime..

Albanian
Italian
Kirundi
Azerbaidjanian
Ethiopian languages
Ingala
Urdu
Georgian
Turkish
Guinean languages
Ewé
Kurdish / Kurmanji
Russian


The STC/HG team