Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.123 | Feat. Al-amin Muhammad - We Rise Above The Streets

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

From Gang Leader to Community Hero: The Inspiring Journey of Ami Moham In this episode of Good News York, host Matt interviews Ami Moham, the executive director of We Rise Above the Streets Recovery Outreach. Ami shares his incredible life story, from being a gang leader in Chicago to becoming a community hero in Syracuse. He discusses his struggles, including homelessness and addiction, and how he turned his life around through the help of a self-sufficiency program and his conversion to Islam. Now, Ami's organization provides meals, clothing, and other necessities to the homeless and food-insecure in Syracuse. The episode highlights the upcoming events and ways people can support his mission, emphasizing the power of kindness and compassion. 00:00 Introduction and Recent Activities 00:56 Interview with Ami Moham: Background and Mission 02:36 Ami's Early Life and Family 04:35 Joining and Leading a Gang 06:52 Turning Point: Leaving the Gang Life 12:24 Struggles and Redemption 18:37 Meeting Influential People and Moving to Syracuse 19:19 Starting a Nonprofit in Syracuse 21:13 The Dunkin' Donuts Incident and Its Impact 23:46 Sandwich Saturday: Feeding the Community 28:46 Thanksgiving Dinner and Community Support 30:38 How to Help and Final Thoughts

Instagram teen accounts have built-in protections for who can contact teens and what they see. Learn more about teen accounts at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman, and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Balee to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts

to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey guys, Matt Meager with Good News, York. We are back again with another incredible episode. We have been jam-packed with all kinds of crazy things the last couple of weeks. If you saw any of our episodes last week, you might have seen that we were at the brand-new

Taco Bell Cantina in Manlius. And spoiler alert, we're going back for the actual grand opening. So keep an eye out for even more taco content coming up soon because it is, you know, it's the most exciting thing happening around town here, at least this week. We've got all kinds of other incredible things. Mike's got some great interviews lined up. But he's been doing such a great job that I figured I'd let him take the morning off here and do one myself. So Joining me is a gentleman that we almost sort of got our start in the same spot temporarily in a cool little space in downtown Syracuse. But let's jump to it, man. Go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell folks what you do. Yeah, sure. First and foremost, I was going to say thank you so much for having me here.

Absolutely. We appreciate this. My name is Alami Mohamed. I'm the executive director of We Rise Above the Streets Recovery Outreach. We rise above the streets recovery outreach is a nonprofit. organization that goes out and feed the homes and food to take care of family. Wow, that's incredible. We've been hearing a lot, obviously, lately about folks who are hungry and in need of all kinds of things. So obviously, it's applicable, but I think we should back up a little bit because this isn't this isn't a new thing. You're not jumping in because of this current crisis, right? You've been in this work for quite a while, right? Yes, 10 years now. Wow. Matter of fact, our anniversary was two weeks ago. Wow. And we had it at Samoa Saturday. This is an event that we host every Saturday,

every Saturday the whole year. And we had a lot of people there came and congratulated us and they got a lot of gifts as well. Wow. But we rocks by the street has been running since 2014 in the city of Syracuse. And since I've been to the city of Syracuse, we've served a lot of people. We didn't pass out at these 50,000 sack lunches, 90,000 men, women, children, hatch gloves and coats. Wow. Yes. Yes.

What brought you here? How'd you get inspired to even do this sort of work? Yeah, sure, sure. So I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. My parents were from Haiti, the island Haiti. Wow. So they came to America back in the 70s, and they moved to Chicago, and they had me, the first son, and they had my two sisters as well.

So my father parents was a great, great, great, great parents. All they do was want to work. They used to teach us to work hard, to always be kind, and go to school and pursue your education. So my father, he was a strong, strong, strong man. He used to take me like basketball. He took me a lot of basketball games. I used to go fishing with him.

And he used to teach me the tradition of his country and taught me the language and everything else. My mom was, like, more comfort with me. You know, always sticking up for me, and I was cooking for me and teach me how to cook as well, because you all was telling you one day, you might not have no woman with you,

so I'm going to teach you how to cook and clean and everything else. That's fair. So it was a moment. I noticed my parents was having a difficult in their marriage, and I saw a lot of abuse in my household as well, and they got divorced. So what happened as I got older, I was so used to both love for both parents. And I'm a highlight that because that's something.

I think that's very important that everybody need to hear because that's what's going on as we're speaking today with the youth in our community. So when they got divorced, my mom fleed and left. And we moved to the north side of Chicago. All this is placed in Chicago. Sure. So as we were to the north side of Chicago,

it felt kind of weird, strange, sad at once. Because I also used to my father and my mother love, not just one love. Sure. So what happened, I was going to school. As I got older, I was going to school, going to high school, and I was searching for that same beloved. It was very, very desperate trying to find that love. And I actually found it, and I found it in the gang. And that's when I joined one of the biggest gang in Chicago, the gangst and disciples. Wow. So clearly you're not in Chicago, and I'm guessing you're not a member of the gang anymore. How did that come? Obviously, you found a home in that, which I think is a common story. I think it's probably why a lot of those gangs exist, right?

Yes. A very similar story. But typically, you hear you don't get out of those things. How did you do that? So as I got older and I was part of the gangster disciple, and I started putting a mask on, I started being someone that I wasn't. I lost my identity. And I started selling drugs, going to the...

out of jail and as I was going to jail getting out, I felt I was getting more powerful. And I ended up became one of the biggest leader in the city of Chicago. I can speak about that now because all the cases has been thrown away and then people have been going to say. So I was one of the biggest gang leader in Chicago. So a lot of bricks of cocaine, you know, have millions and millions and thousands of dollars to dollars in the city of Chicago. Wow.

And a lot of harmful words was coming towards me because when you're in the gang, you're a leader. A lot of people want to take your life, you know. Sure. So as I got real, real strong in the gangster disciple, I got shot the first time ever. And I was in a coma for about two months. And as I got out, being shot, and it's probably kind of sound strange, but it's going to make sense at the end of the story that I got more powerful. like, you know, got more recognition than everything else.

So, um, I was living in fear every day when I got out and I started making a lot of money. And then there's one incident happened again at the night because I got shot the second time. But this time I got shot like seven times. Holy shit.

And live through that as well. That's incredible. Yes. Is that, after that, uh, situation, is that what made you decide maybe this isn't the way to go. Is that what made you turn the page?

So, so, so, so, um, um, I got caught up and I, and I said I want to go to Atlanta, went to Atlanta, and I was going to change my life, right? Because, um, the last time I got locked up in Chicago, it was not going on back in the 90s and, um, early 90s and probably 95, 96 when he called it's Rick Colossman coming out there. So I got out of jail and I told myself, I've been. blessed so I had a second chance. So I moved to Atlanta with a friend and my goal was to go get a job, live a productive life. Sure. And try to like stay clean. But that didn't happen. You know, so when I got to Atlanta, Atlanta was like the lime life, started making money,

a lot of people respected people in Chicago, especially gang I was in. And guess what I did? I went right back and sold drugs again. Wow. So this time was really kind of horrified because when it comes to the south in cities like New York and Chicago, the laws are different. Sure. So when I started sending drugs out there, we'll start recruiting people and everything else, I ended up being locked up, got caught with more bricks of cocaine, and got incarcerated in DeKalb County in Atlanta, Georgia. Wow.

So at that moment right then, I realized that I was sick and tired. It was a moment. It took me like 30-something years to be sick and tired, you know. And I knew that I gave up. I was like, man, I need it. I'm just tired, you know. So when I was locked up, I had a cellmate. And he can't wake me up because when I first got there,

I kept sleeping and sleeping because I was not used to the system in the South because it was kind of horrible. You know, it's different from cities because you got control in city jails. In the South, the guards have the control of the jail system. So when I was locked up, I kept sleeping. going to sleep and sleep. So my cellmate kept wondering, I was okay. And I kept cussing the mild to him, leave me alone. He was praying all the time. Like, praying all the time. I was wondering what he was

doing. I was disrespecting him, telling him I don't want to hear that and everything else. So I noticed something beautiful happened in the three weeks I was in there. I noticed that the mask was coming off my face slowly but surely. I started finding out of gifts about me. I just realized I got a good smile when I was in there. Because in Chicago, you don't smile. Everybody's miserable out there in Chicago. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm looking at some of my self in the mouth.

I said, well, I got a beautiful smile. Then I was working in a field. There was plant a lot of flowers. Can you believe that I was, I was playing flowers? I teach people how to grow flowers. That's wild. Yeah, you know what I'm a gangster, teaching people how to play flowers.

You know, so, so as I was doing all that, I started finding a lot of gifts about me. And it started reading, reading, started doing a lot of writing. And I forgot to mention I was a ninth grade dropout, so I got my GED in prison. And started doing a lot of learning about myself and giving us education and everything else.

So as I started communicating with my cellie, he was so kind and very respectful to me. And I was very disrespectful to him. And he was telling me that, sorry about that. He was telling me, it's following. Can you care you, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, you're good. Okay, okay.

So he was telling me, he was telling me, Alameen, I see you be looking at pictures every time mail come. You get pictures coming in. And I was wondering, that's that your daughters. I said, yes, my daughters. I said, why are you asked? And he's like, I got something to ask you, and there's no disrespect.

He was like, what legacy would you leave and something happy in the day? what lecture you will leave for your kids? And that question really hit me hard because I knew I had no legacy. No legacy at all. The only legacy I had was like committing crimes, hurting people, you know, doing wrong, you know.

So I was getting interested in him and learned about him, and I found out that he was a part of Islam. He was Muslim. And I told myself that I want to learn a little more about it for a person like him to be so kind and so patient, you know, I want to know what made him like that. Yeah.

And I end up becoming Muslim in there. So when I became Muslim, I found out that peace finally hit me. I finally knew the definition of peace. And I knew my court day was coming up. And I knew I was going to be faced like 20 plus years. But you know what? To be honest with you, and a lot of people can say this, I was ready to get them years because I was at peace.

Whatever they gave me, I was just ready. So I went to court that morning and ended up finding out that my case got dropped. And they gave me 10 years probation. I walked out the door. Wow. End of five now, my lawyer told me that because the apartment was not under my name. It was on somebody else's name. And they got charged with it.

Wow. So I had a second, a matter of fact, probably 25 chances now. Yeah, yeah. chance to get out. So when I got out, when I got out, so excited when I got out, you know, I'm about to give me a job this time. I'm serious. And I knew this was going to work because, like I was saying you earlier, that I found my identity

who I worked, right? So I got out, but it didn't happen like that too quick. I became homeless. I became chronic living homeless, started eating out of garbage can, started sleeping on the park benches and abandoned buildings. They wanted to go back in the streets, trying to get services. It was hard for your services. I had to make to go to the shelters at a certain time.

If I didn't make it at a time, I was going to sleep outside. So for 10 years, it was like trying to get ID, trying to find side jobs, trying to find food, trying to find clothes, constantly, constantly over the 10 years. And then one day somebody told me about this self-sufficient class, where they find your jobs and housing, can get you clean, and everything else. So I went up there and signed up,

and there was a guy named Mr. Santo. He was a caseworker slash social worker. And he was telling me to keep coming up there. Because, you know, then a lot of homeless people didn't have phones. You know, so he had to come up there and check out a name on the list. If you was on top five on the list, you could come in into this program. So I kept coming, coming, coming, and coming. And my name was like 20, 19.

It was going too slow. So one day, I was on my way up there. I was waiting for the bus. And some told me. And I'll be honest with you, man. I never shared this. It's my second time. I shared this in my book.

That night I was going to commit to us. I was tired. I was tired. I ended up finding a weapon. Right? I knew what I was going to do. And I was walking to the location. And as I was walking to the location, a car pulled up.

A car put up right front of me. And guess who was in the car? It was Mr. Santos. Really? So I was telling myself, I was like, I'm in the big city of Atlanta, Georgia. And I was going through, in my life. And a coincidence man just ride up

and tell me getting in the car because my name was on top of that list. Wow. So I got in the car with him. And it was kind of funny because years went by when I got myself together. I told him, you know I had a weapon in the car. He's like, what?

I was like, yeah, you know, I got him to the whole story, you know what I'm saying? So we went to the self-sufficient program, And as we got in, he was telling me, Alameen, I'm going to talk to you Monday morning and share with me how can we help you and tell me sharing your story and we could take it from there.

But for right now, it was Memorial Weekend. And this is why Memorial Week is so important for this organization because we have the biggest cookout to see the Syracuse for the homeless and food and secure family downtown Syracuse. So I'm at this shelter. I'm Wednesday morning. taking the shower and I finally ate out of real plate, brother.

You know, this is something that we not, we don't have gratitude. We don't pay attention, something like this. You know, eating out of my hands, eating out of styloor in place and paper plays. And I finally seen the play and I stared at the plate for like, for like 10 seconds. Stared at the plate like for 10 seconds, right, smiling. It was like a heart of that. Somebody gave me a gift. Yeah.

I hold the spoon and seeing the spark of the spoon and the filling of the spoon not touching something last night out of my hand, it was one of the best moment in my life. And I finally slept in the bed, but it was kind of difficult for me sleeping in bed because it's something that a lot of homeless people go through when they overcome homelessness, when they sleep on the ground. So me sleeping on the ground, so that long, I was in fear to sleep in the bed. So it was another young lady who was working at the center. She kept guiding me to my bed every night to make sure I was okay.

So Monday morning here, I go to Miss San Francisco. My name is Mr. Santos told me to have a seat. And I shared my story, Mr. Santos, like I shared my story to you, my beautiful brother, and everybody that's watching. Mr. Santos looked at me, and he was like, All of Meen, what you just shared to me was very horrified. And I'm so sorry you had to go do this. And one day, you're going to help a lot of people. Never let no one tell you can't cheat nothing in life. see greatness in you.

And one day, you're going to share your story, and you're going to help a lot of people around this world. So he came a little closer to me. And nobody having them abrases me, because I left my father years ago. He came a little close to me. He hugged me, kissed me in my cheek, and told me three words. And it's the three words that we need to hear right now

at this moment where this world is going through. And people take these three words kind of lightly. And these three words change a young man who've been to do gang violence who've been in and out of prison. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman, and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises Luick Bali,

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I bought to commit suicide. And this man said, three words that changed my life. You know, three words was, I love you. I love you. I love you. It gave me a hug.

That's awesome. And I left out that door, and that's what I did. Yeah. I want to strive for grape. Wow. That's incredible. Let me... We don't need no tissue, dude.

No, I don't know. There's onions, something. I don't know what's happening here. That's crazy. Let me ask you this. Sure. And maybe it's not as dramatic. I don't know.

But you're down in Atlanta. Now you're here in Syracuse for this awesome organization. How did you find you, way up north here. Yeah, sure. So as I was at the Self-Sufficient program, Ms. Santos, he was my mentor. So I got my addiction counselor. I went back to school, went to Emory College, got my associate degree. And I started meeting community leaders, Ed Lauren. If anybody get a chance, you would Google Open Door Community. He used to be in Atlanta here, Baltimore. He was one of the biggest activists in the city of Atlanta. He

March of Martin Luther King and everything else. Wow. But he was not an African-American. He was white, but he was so strong about fighting for hunger and everything else. Him and his wife, and his wife just passed away. That's what my book is dedicated to her, because they both had a mentor me. So I saw a meet a lot of powerful people. And Lauren taught me how to run a nonprofit and everything else.

So one day I was on Facebook, and I met a young lady on Facebook, and then we hit it off, and then we was going to meet up. She said, she's dating Syracuse. I was like, what is that? That's a high school. I was like, Carmine Anthony. I said, no, it was actually a seat. I was like, you know, come from Chicago.

I'm like, Syracuse and City? I saw it go, I'm looking at the computer. I was like, well, I didn't know it was a city. I think about Carmen Anthony, Syracurgyne University. Yeah. So I went down here, went to Syracuse, met her. We kicked it off and we got married.

Wow. But, you know, sadly, we're divorced now, but we're good friends. You know, so when I was married, she knew my dream. She knew everything I've been through. She knew my goals, and I had a lot of connections in Atlanta and Chicago to start my nonprofit.

I started getting a lot of contracts, a lot of grocery stores, and a lot of businesses in Atlanta to donate to my organization. So we made a deal. She went to St. Joseph to become a nurse. And she's like, when I graduate, we're going to move back to Atlanta so you can pursue your dream. I'm just going to chill and relax here in Syracuse and just wait on you.

So one day I was driving her, drop off the work, and I was listening to NPR. I heard Syracuse one of the poorest city in the U.S., number three. And I was kind of confused with that. I'm like, this small city is past Chicago? I said, no, I can't believe that. So I caught NPR, and I'm having a conversation with him. And he's like, yeah, you know, we'll see you the information, everything else. Wow.

So they mailed me information. I said, you know what, let me just go out here and use my skill to help people like I learned in Atlanta. So I, my first day went out, me and my ex-wife, we made sandwiches and went out, and we started passing out sandwiches on the bridge downtown. And I kept doing it over and over and over and over and not knowing that was my pursuit to greatness to start, it was starting something, you know. So as me making sandwiches, started getting the hot meals, it started recognizing a lot of people in the community because I stopped making, re-rised by the street on social stuff.

And this is why I probably a lot of people kind of shocked that I went to school with social media because I'm very good And so I do all my social media social media social media social media so so so I started promoting myself End up a lot of people donating sharing my story speaking a lot of schools Speaking a lot of corporate offices and everything you know so a lot of that was happening They got my big break one day. I don't know if you heard about this with that with a with a donka don't know if you heard about this with that when When a man threw a war at a homeless man dunk inside don't go donnas and salina you get chance you were Google there. It was something big here in Syracuse.

When I was the guy that stuck up for him, end up and ended up, had a big protest in front of Duck Redonnas on Salina, and then it made national news. And that went big. That's one of my name got really got big in the city of Syracians because of that. But the thing about it, though,

it ended quick like in the month because I ended up meeting the second director from Doug McDonough. They flew here, and I met him and his family in the board members. and met them and I learned something from an incident that never blamed a whole group of people because it was one person's mistake. Because when I met then, there was one of the most kindest

people I've met in my life. You know, and we made a couple of deals, and they was kind of nervous. They were stressed out because of the situation. Of course, you know, they made national news. They franchise by the shutdown because of what happened. So I told me, hey, no problem. Just come to our event.

We take a couple of pictures. We hug. And you serve, coming through the community, it's going to be over Monday, Monday morning and that's what happened. Wow. So I think that that right there got me big, then Gail King came to Syracuse and did an interview with me. You can look all that in YouTube. CBS's morning news came here and did interview with me as well. And I'm going to be honest with you, my friend, after that happened, so much that happened over the year, especially

during COVID. I was the only nonprofit out here in the streets helping people. But it was not homeless people or people. It was everybody struggling. So I was out here helping people as well. I'm gonna be honest with you, our organizations totally different by the organizations. I'm gonna tell you why. If you follow us, if you've ever been to Sam or Saturday, it's gonna be kind of strange to you. And I'm not saying the bad way, a good way,

because you'll never see a group of people in one room from all walks of life. Different religion, different background, different race. You got rich, you got middle class. Everybody in one room. And this ain't come on my mouth, because a lot of people who follow me on TikTok from all around the world.

They'll look at it, be like, you know, I ain't never seen nothing like this. this is what peace in the world looks like. So a person like me, an African-American man like me, had a background like me, and bringing, like, corporate people to our events and supporting my events and bringing people from all walks of light.

We've got no connection, but we built a relationship with each other, being in one room. It's very amazing. That's incredible. It's very amazing. So at this moment, Sam of Saturday, every Saturday, we have over, like, two, three hundred,

People have a week. And we got children's love, love coming there. That's why a lot of parents come, too, because I speak in a lot of schools. And I just don't speak in the private schools. I go to, like, rich, wealthy schools. And that's actually, that's my favorite one because when they hear my story and that shit what's going on, they're ready to do something about it. They force their parents to do something about it, you know.

And come out here, come out here. You know, come out of our organization and see what's going on. And they want to help as well. So tell me a little bit about how this works because this is incredible to me. You're feeding a couple hundred people on a Saturday. Yes. Sandwiches.

So at Samu's Saturday, now you've got to register because we've got so many people coming. So you go on our website, you register. And then as soon as you register, somebody reach out as you as quick as possible. And they'll give you the day where we meet at Lincoln Middle School, 1613, James 3. Gotcha. We meet at 10. You got to be there at 9, 30, or 10. And I just want to shout out the city school district.

They've been a thousand support me like crazy over these years. That's great. You know, so you got to be there by 10. I'm sorry, you got to be there by 930, at least because the event started at 10. So as soon as we start, I said, the lowest the lowest crowd we had was 50, the highest, like 400-something people there. Wow. You know, families, kids, sorority, schools. universities every year. So we started making sandwiches and then we have a table,

inspirational table kids make inspirational messages and they put it in the bag, and the little kids, and then families or kids, they make sandwiches, and then we got one table that packed the sandwiches bag, we go to the other bars, chips, fruits, and inspirational messages made, and put them all in the bin. So as soon as we make about close to three, five, three hundred, four in a sandwich, we stop. Wow. And soon we stop, I now say everybody stop, we clean up, we circle up, and that That's when I speak and I just get everybody prep before we go out, what to do before we go out there.

Because I try to explain everybody that this is different. A lot of people probably, a lot of you probably volunteer as everywhere else. No disrespect. Y'all probably standing around not doing nothing, not saying nothing. But here, I have to prep y'all for you out there. And this is what you have to do. When you go out there, keep eye contact to the people your serving. Smile.

And I'm glad we got name tags under your name. Ask questions. What's your name? How can that help you? What size are you wearing? What size do you wear? Are you looking for something? Have a conversation with your service. Just don't stand around. And then I share my story. Like I share with everyone that's watching and sharing you as well. And then share upcoming events. And then I tell them the location where we're going to be at. So for the past 10 years, we've been a lot of locations. We started under the bridge downtown. We was at the park, Billy Park, where they're fixing the school now right next to the other station. Who was there for a couple of years? It was on the corner of Adadaaga, but now we had 207, Wyoming Street, White Cross Street from the WC and YWDill, and shout out to the mayor and Rob the Man and a new deputy mayor. They always support me. There was a property where something happened.

That's incredible. You know, and as soon as we get to the property, I'll tell everybody the location, we leave. We get to the property. And a lot of people think it's just the sandwiches. I don't say nothing. They're new people, but everybody know where they follow us and see on social media, know it's more than a sandwich. As soon as we get there, we're connected with 21 local restaurants

that come cater for us. Oh wow. We got clothes, men, women, intrusion clothes. We got hygiene products. We got women pads. We got brand new sneakers. We got desserts. Kathy Cookie was my greatest supporter.

You know, she shut down now, but she still made cookies for us. Wow. You know, and we have household goods. It's magic going to a vent. It's like a flea market, but everything is free. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's incredible.

Then we got volunteers on the other side of the table, organize everything. So when everything... And so these are in different locations on the different Saturdays? No, the same location. Oh, okay. Yeah, the reason I'm sharing different locations, we had to move... Just over the years. Yeah, over the years.

Yeah, yeah, of course. We had to move over the years. But every time we moved, we at least been at this area, it's about two, three years. Yeah. You know, so... And then we set the tables up, the volunteers on the other side of the table. Then everybody who's struggling, do homelessness, food insecurity. security. You don't have to go through this.

It's how people got houses or have homes, but they're struggling. Yeah. They need interview clothes, you know, they need food to feed their families. Sure. And they come there as well. So we feed like close to 300 people every week. Wow. You know, so many, because we're right now, we're right there in the heart of the property. We're on the west side. Sure. So we're right in the middle where the world know where the property is happening there. Everybody's happy that we're there because we're getting there closer. So. That's incredible. So, and last one out of least, This Saturday is our 8th annual Thanksgiving dinner.

We having that St. Lucie's. That's probably one of the best events through the whole organization, you know. Yeah. You cook a lot of turkeys? Yes, yeah. So how we do it, we get volunteers. We tell the volunteers to make a meal. Oh, wow.

So we have like 30 cooked turkeys. We have a lot of desserts. We have a lot of side dishes, drinks. We have DJ, air cuts, face, we have, we have coles. We have coles. Colts, and Wilmetrician Colts, hatch gloves. It's a great event, but it's not like a soup kitchen. You stand in the line.

Yeah. So the volunteers will walk our guests to the table, and other volunteers come and take their order, and they go prepare their food and bring it to the table. That's all. And while the kids wait, we got crayon, we got coloring books on the table. And as soon as they done and they eat,

they go pick what they wore on the table with the coats and everything that's over there. And then the line, I'm be honest with you, brother, Over the years, if you open the door, there's about hundreds of people standing the line trying to get in there. But now this is the first time I'm kind of nervous because what's going on with the snap.

Sure. And they know the crowd's gonna be kinda. Yeah. So I'm telling volunteers to bring, the one turkey, you bring two turkeys. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah.

You know what really impresses me, and I'm kind of reading between the lines here, but you see a lot of charities and a lot of these big organizations, and they gotta go out and they gotta get millions of dollars of funding, and they gotta hire 50 people, and they got to get trucks and they got all this, you know, fancy stuff. You're feeding all these people. And from what I can tell by efforts that you've kind of community sourced,

for lack of a better term, right? You've gone out and found folks to make this happen. Yes. And I find that just incredibly, incredibly impressive. Yes. So along those lines, I guess, what are things that people can do to help and how can the community continue to support you and continue to make sure you can feed people.

Yeah, so what people do is they go, they contact us, and they want to drop out clothes, man, women, true. Because right now with the winter season, we're looking for clothes, or they want to donate for Samba Saturday. We're looking for cheese, turkey, individual chips, granola bars and drinks. And then they want to donate socks.

That's one of the most important thing. I've got to mention that. We do have socks out there, too, brand-a-s sock, and they want to donate socks. Really, we take everything. Yeah. But we don't make sure everything is, new because we go out there want to make sure we treat people with dignity.

Absolutely. As well. So, um, um, and then if they want, as some people don't want to go to the store, they can go on our VIMO or PayPal, you know, or our website and they can send money as well. That's phenomenal. Yeah. Any particular grocery stores you partner with at the moment? Yes.

Well, Wegman. Okay, cool. Um, Wegman has been supported me since 2000. Since I got here, they saw me from the bottom, you know, grew up and everything. grew up and everything. So they're like 100% grocery store. We got King David. King David catered for us on some weeks. We got pyramid. It's on low-light. There's a halal store as well. You know, and I'm sorry I can pronounce that piece of saying. He's going to be mad at me. It's that piece of joy in over there in Fairbill. I probably forgot the name of it. I'm sorry.

I don't know. I'll probably think about it after we're done, but they donate pieces to us as well. That's incredible. And last minute, at least, toss, toss pieces of toss or toss.

Toss. They donate as well. That's so incredible, man. I feel like we could talk for hours, but I also know we've got to get you back to your mission here. Yes. This has been incredible. Thank you.

And what you've got going on is incredible. And I just think that it's, something that people need to realize is people are in need. But the other side of it is like, look what it's done to this gentleman. And look at the smile on his face from helping people. Yeah. You know, like you can be selfish. Yeah.

Because helping people make you feel so good. And I love to see people doing that. Thank you. With that, one more time, if you could, website, social media, all those cool plugs. We'll get them in there for you. And then we'll send you all. on your way. Awesome.

What's the website for you, man? Um, www. Um, W.W. Um, recovery outreach. Dot org.

Um, everything will pop up there. Can I say one more thing? Oh, please do. Please do. I just want to, um, just want to lead something to everyone.

Um, two things. This organization, we do pass food. We do pass a lot of items, but the number one blueprint of us is spread kindness and compassion. That's our number one. And then, um, And then number two, as well, lead is where everybody.

Today, smile, be kind to one another. Be the reason someone's smile today. Thank you for having. I love that. What a great message. I don't have anything better to say. So with that, folks, this has been Good News, York. Stick around for all kinds of incredible stuff we got going.

I got nothing. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman. and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L'Iq Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been standing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection

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