“I Know What It Is To Not Have Food”

Marcus grew up in the Bronx carrying the weight of hunger — an empty fridge, a family stretched thin, uncertainty about the next meal. Now, as a Warehouse Professional at Food Bank For New York City, he moves thousands of pounds of food a day, lifting that same weight off other families’ shoulders.

He calls his coworkers family, not a team, and says walking through the door still makes him “mad happy” — this is home.

For Marcus, the job is personal: he’s making sure the next kid in the Bronx doesn’t have to carry what he once did.

Give today and lift alongside him — so that no New Yorker has to carry the weight of hunger alone.

Hunger Action Month is powered by Wonder through the Grubhub Community Fund.

Transcript:

Marcus Stenson, Warehouse Professional:

And we’re good to go.

A typical day for us is a hard-working day.

We’re always cranking up the volume. Go ahead. Go ahead. We have to get this stuff out.

How much you got left? You got a lot?

It’s not a time that we can go without giving somebody their food. I got you, papa.

You know how we do.

I get to do something for people to prevent them from going through what I went through. I know what it is to not have food. I was maybe a teenager. Me and my brothers, my mom—we all went through a hard time.

Hearing that and all of that is very hard. It’s very stressful. It’s mentally stressful to know that you’re waking up and you have nothing. Looking at cabinets—they’re empty. Your refrigerator is empty.

You have nothing.

So it was a lot of sacrificing that we had to do just to get by, but we just kept fighting and made it through. And then somehow, God brought me here to Food Bank, where I could do what I love to do, which is always helping people.

Okay.

Every time I walk through the door, I just get mad happy.

That’s what I’m talking about.

This is my home, literally.

Yep. Everything is perfect.

It’s a team here, but it’s not really a team.

It’s a family.

Alright, darling.

Good guy.

Everybody plays a part.

Keep up the good work, boy. I see you.

None of us could get this done unless we all come in here together.

Donors, thank you. Don’t stop doing what you’re doing.

As long as y’all can help us keep hitting our goal every time, all the time, I don’t need nothing more, nothing less.

This goes here.

It’s Food Bank. This is what we do. This is what we’re here for.