SCL staff call on connections to support displaced Ithacans
By Bryan Chambala, Student and Campus Life
What do you do when a call comes in just before Christmas Eve that around 200 meals are needed in Ithaca for homeless and displaced people? If you’re Jacinta Stark, you say “yes” to helping. Actually, you check to make sure your husband in Cornell Dining can help, then you say “yes.”
Jacinta, who is the assistant director for The Cornell Commitment and no stranger to community service, and her husband, John Stark of Cornell Catering, prepared meals in partnership with Ithaca community organizer Ana Ortiz, executive director of No Mas Lagrimas/No More Tears.
“We had done the Spring Into Service event with Cornell Commitment students in Spring 2024 with Ana,” said Jacinta. “Our students had come together to donate cleaning supplies to No More Tears. We stayed in touch throughout the year, and she reached out the Friday before Christmas. She didn’t have access to a kitchen, and she knew my husband cooked.”
With help from some friends at Beacon Events and Catering in Ithaca, John was able to secure a kitchen they used for prep. They ended up cooking two nights. On Christmas Eve, John and Jacinta were joined by their two children as well as Ana and her daughter, and cooked enough to feed more than 100 people. On December 27, John was able to put in another day in the kitchen, preparing enough to feed more than 120 people.
They said creativity was required to put together meals with limited ingredients: mac and cheese without real milk was one of the highlights.
Jacinta said it was a learning experience for their children, too – in more ways than one.
“I don’t think they’d ever used hand-cranked can opener,” she said. “We had corn and beans, and they had to learn to use the can opener.”
Through her work with the Cornell Commitment, Jacinta said she has come to know Ana and the remarkable commitment she shows to her community.
“Anna does this all the time. She puts up food at the all the Poet’s Landing sites during the week,” said Jacinta. “We want to keep that connection with her – I think that her work is important. She isn’t just feeding the community. She is neighbors with a lot of single moms and helps with childcare after school. She also has a storage room in her facility – if you put on craigslist that you’re getting rid of pencils and notebooks she’ll collect those and keep them for kids who need school supplies.”