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For Delila Nadal, work is constant, from answering phone calls to unloading food from trucks and unpacking it.

However, he says his work is necessary for a hungry community.

“We are putting things on the table for the pantry. We have chicken, we have turkey…,” he says.

Nadal is the director of the Staten Island Community Partnership, a program formed by The New York Foundling, which provides social services to all those who need them.

Their food pantry is held weekly at different locations across Staten Island. This pantry at the West Brighton Community Center helps feed about 80 families.

“I do feel good that I and my team are here and we can help families to put a little food on the table for a week,” adds Dilela Nadal.

The majority of the benefiting families are Hispanic. Nadal is Puerto Rican and Dominican, and grew up in the Berry public housing of the New York City Housing Authority or NYCHA (for its acronym in English).

During her childhood, she and her mother regularly visited local food pantries. For Nadal, growing up without enough food on the table is something he knows firsthand.

“When I was a child, my family and I used pantries and it was a horrible thing because they would throw a box, a bag and that’s it. But in this pantry it is a little different because it is personalized attention that each person receives,” he explains.

Her ties to the New York Foundling began decades ago, when through the organization a foster child was placed with her family and in the care of her mother until the child’s parents could care for her once again.

“She is a strong woman and she was a foster mother with the New York Foundling and it is because of her that I am here today.”

She now follows in her mother’s footsteps, supporting the organization and serving the Staten Island community.

“They are families in the community that can’t buy things in stores and need basic things like basic household foods or things like paper towels and things like that, and with the pantry we can do that,” he says.

Most of these donations come from the New York Food Bank and some donations are from the Shop Rite supermarket on Staten Island.

Around 3,000 families come to this place every year to receive their food.

“They are aware of the need that exists and I thank them very much,” says Martha Garcia, pantry beneficiary.

Nadal hopes to continue making a difference within his community, perhaps even motivating the next generation to follow in his footsteps.

“If you have a family or a friend, friend whatever, if they need help, do it because we have to make the world better,” he concludes.

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