YFWP volunteers fanned out across the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on October 18 to gather canned and other nonperishable foods from grocery stores, restaurants, and other donors to supply New York City’s depleted food banks.

A project coordinated by YFWP in partnership with Points of Light and Hands On Network and City Harvest, the Small Acts, Big Kindness food drive will continue through Thanksgiving. According to YFWP- U.S. Director of Operations and project coordinator Justin Fong, some two-hundred volunteers contributed their time as part of a service component of the Global Peace Festival (GPF), held in New York on October 23.

“The project is significant because is links service with peace,” Fong said. “Service is worthwhile in its own right, but this project brought together young people from different backgrounds, different faiths, and different economic and educational backgrounds, and enabled them to find common ground in a higher purpose. Groups of six or seven went into grocery stores throughout the tristate area to explain about the vision of the Global Peace Festival and get donations. The food donations supported a much broader vision for peace and the response was tremendous.”

In another project, “It’s My Park Day,” YFWP and New York Parks and Recreation sponsored a tree-planting and grounds clean up and Marcus Garvey Park in Manhattan. More than $1,000 worth of young trees were planted, and volunteers were invited to tie a yellow ribbon on each tree with the name of a loved one and join in a prayer for peace.

Such service efforts can bear fruit in many ways. Among the volunteers, the Reverend Vernon Williams of Perfect Peace Ministry in Harlem used the tree planting to bring rival communities together. Williams ministry is working to broker peace among gangs in the city. Community members attest to both Williams’ diplomatic efforts as well as to the symbolic significance of planting a tree as a gesture for future peace.

“This can be a powerful model,” Fong believes. “Concrete methods of peace building can touch the heart and offer an alternative to conflict. This is the message of this project, and this is what the Global Peace Festival is all about.”