Public Project
Giving in a Time of Need
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Giving in a Time of Need
Location: Washington D.C.
Focus:
Photojournalist, News, Environmental Stories
Covering:
USA & Canada
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
Steven Halsey, who has volunteered at the Samaritan Center in Syracuse, New York, for over five years, scrambles eggs to serve for breakfast.
Despite potential health risks in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and before the vaccine was developed, volunteers continued donating their time to help others.
The once-bustling dining hall of St. John the Evangelist Church sits silent. The chairs that used to seat 180 people during breakfast and lunch at the Samaritan Center are now used to form a one-way path to the serving line where patrons are handed a polystyrene foam take-out container and asked to leave.
The Samaritan Center, a non-profit organization, opened in 1981 to feed food-insecure individuals in Syracuse, New York. Since March, when COVID-19 began rapidly spreading in the United States, the center has been distributing to-go meals. The center serves about 300 meals a day, seven days a week, a feat only possible with the help of volunteers who arrive several hours before serving time to prepare and distribute meals and collect donations from local bakeries, stores, and universities.
“When I retired around four and a half years ago,” began Jay Mason, a regular volunteer at the center, “I needed something to give me a little purpose. ‘Why am I getting up? What am I accomplishing?’”
The once-bustling dining hall of St. John the Evangelist Church sits silent. The chairs that used to seat 180 people during breakfast and lunch at the Samaritan Center are now used to form a one-way path to the serving line where patrons are handed a polystyrene foam take-out container and asked to leave.
The Samaritan Center, a non-profit organization, opened in 1981 to feed food-insecure individuals in Syracuse, New York. Since March, when COVID-19 began rapidly spreading in the United States, the center has been distributing to-go meals. The center serves about 300 meals a day, seven days a week, a feat only possible with the help of volunteers who arrive several hours before serving time to prepare and distribute meals and collect donations from local bakeries, stores, and universities.
“When I retired around four and a half years ago,” began Jay Mason, a regular volunteer at the center, “I needed something to give me a little purpose. ‘Why am I getting up? What am I accomplishing?’”
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
Allison Baker sweeps the floor of the Samaritan Center after handing out to-go meals. In addition to providing meals, the center assists community members in finding homes, applying for food stamps and receiving essential items such as toiletries.
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
Polling station volunteer Drew Washington puts up signs before the Armond Magnarelli Community Center in Syracuse, New York, opens to voters on election day. Volunteers arrived before 5 o'clock in the morning in order to prepare the space for the expected wave of voters who chose not to participate in early or mail in voting.
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
A polling station volunteer assists one of the last people to vote on Election Day at the Armond Magnarelli Community Center in Syracuse, New York.
Strips of tape mark six-foot intervals up and down the hall of the Armond Magnarelli Community Center in Syracuse during the 2020 general election. In previous years, voting at the center had been a get-together of sorts, complete with homemade baked goods and freshly brewed coffee. Neighbors and longtime friends caught up with one another as they waited for their turn to cast their ballots. But during this election, voters had to maintain social distancing as they waited in line. Polling site volunteers dedicated entire shifts to circling the gymnasium, wiping down chairs and cubicles after voters finished filling out their ballots.
Volunteers tend to be older in age, many deciding to begin volunteering after they retire. According to Pew Research Center, 58% of people who volunteered to work at polling sites in 2018 were above the age of 61. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, which is more likely to kill older people, a plea to volunteer was sent out specifically to young adults many of whom rose to the occasion.
“I kept seeing advertisements saying, ‘We need more poll workers,'” said Maria Zapf, who volunteered for the first time this fall. She’d considered volunteering in the past but didn’t commit until noticing the Board of Elections was still looking for volunteers as the election quickly approached.
The reason why they chose to offer their time and assistance varied from volunteer to volunteer. Some cited the desire to give back to their community, others wanted to fulfill their civic duty, but all felt the need to help during this uncertain time.
“Instead of being worried,” Zapf explained, “I could do something.”
Volunteers tend to be older in age, many deciding to begin volunteering after they retire. According to Pew Research Center, 58% of people who volunteered to work at polling sites in 2018 were above the age of 61. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, which is more likely to kill older people, a plea to volunteer was sent out specifically to young adults many of whom rose to the occasion.
“I kept seeing advertisements saying, ‘We need more poll workers,'” said Maria Zapf, who volunteered for the first time this fall. She’d considered volunteering in the past but didn’t commit until noticing the Board of Elections was still looking for volunteers as the election quickly approached.
The reason why they chose to offer their time and assistance varied from volunteer to volunteer. Some cited the desire to give back to their community, others wanted to fulfill their civic duty, but all felt the need to help during this uncertain time.
“Instead of being worried,” Zapf explained, “I could do something.”
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
Mary Fontaine hands out stickers signifying that individuals have voted at the Armond Magnarelli Community Center in Syracuse, N.Y. The center was one of six early voting polling stations available to Onondaga County residents.
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
“I wear it every Election Day. My father gave me this tie. He was very patriotic, he was a veteran, so it makes me feel closer to him when I wear it,” said Tom Burgess.
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
Shelly Episcopo, a volunteer for over a year, sorts through blankets, towels and sheets donated by the community to HumaneCNY in Liverpool, New York.
HumaneCNY was a popular drop-in destination for animal lovers driving down Taft Road in Liverpool where fundraising events and meet and greets with adoptable animals were common, until March. Since then, the doors have been closed to spontaneous visits. Potential adopters now have to make appointments before coming to the shelter in order to limit the number of people inside the building. But the intake of surrendered and rescued animals has not stopped, nor has the need for volunteers.
The two sets of industrial-size washers and dryers are constantly running as beds, blankets, and toys are washed multiple times a week. Every day the cat litter pans and dog kennels are cleaned and the halls of the shelter are mopped. Each dog is walked and cat is played with multiple times a day. This is possible in large part due to the hard-working volunteers who dedicate several hours of their day to complete these repetitive tasks.
“I think that animals in our country are not protected the way they should be, and this lets me have my little piece in making the animal world a little better,” said Shelly Espicopo, who has volunteered at the shelter for over a year. “If you can’t volunteer going and getting oil off of animals after oil spills, you volunteer at Humane.”
The two sets of industrial-size washers and dryers are constantly running as beds, blankets, and toys are washed multiple times a week. Every day the cat litter pans and dog kennels are cleaned and the halls of the shelter are mopped. Each dog is walked and cat is played with multiple times a day. This is possible in large part due to the hard-working volunteers who dedicate several hours of their day to complete these repetitive tasks.
“I think that animals in our country are not protected the way they should be, and this lets me have my little piece in making the animal world a little better,” said Shelly Espicopo, who has volunteered at the shelter for over a year. “If you can’t volunteer going and getting oil off of animals after oil spills, you volunteer at Humane.”
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© 2025 Angel Ruszkiewicz
Shelly Episcopo comforts a recently rescued 8-week-old-kitten. Episcopo is one of the volunteers who socializes cats at HumaneCNY to familiarize them with interacting with and being held by people to increase their likelihood of being adopted.
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