For Meals and Wellness Program Coordinator Nick Byrne, the Monday through Thursday lunch service in GMHC’s dining rooms is a place of community for both clients and volunteers – and a nucleus for connection to additional services. “Some of the volunteers have been here as long as the clients – and some of the volunteers are clients,” he says.
As the dining room manager, Byrne keeps the lunch service running smoothly, while catching up with clients and working behind the scenes to assist the kitchen staff. “It’s been wonderful to see the Meals program be reborn and evolve in the past two and a half years,” he says. “It is the nucleus for an agency that provides so much more – housing, access to benefits and health care navigation, mental health and substance use counseling, and HIV & STI testing.”
Asked what he enjoys most, Byrne replies, “I get to pick up on what’s going on in our clients’ day-to-day life, whether it’s a good day or a bad day, and help connect them to different GMHC departments, whether they’re in distress about their housing situation, their mental health, or a legal trouble.”
Byrne oversees the dining room with Director of Client Wellness and Meals Services Donna Pine. Every week, the Meals team welcomes new clients for lunch, along with others who’ve been regulars for years. “They have their pals they like to see. They’ve all been through so much together, so the dining room gives them a home base. It’s part of their routine,” Byrne says.
“Other clients come just to get their meal. That’s fundamental. They need the food,” he adds. Since all of GMHC’s Meals program clients are living with HIV, the Meals team serves up filling, well-balanced meals to keep their immune systems strong. On a recent Thursday, for instance, clients could choose from Beef Stroganoff or Beyond Meat Stroganoff with egg noodles and green beans.
[The meals program] is the nucleus for an agency that provides so much more – housing, access to benefits and health care navigation, mental health and substance use counseling, and HIV & STI testing."
From Volunteer to Running the Dining Room
Byrne, who has a degree in creative writing, had been working in publishing when he started volunteering for GMHC after the pandemic hit. “I was looking to try something new and give back,” he says. Little did he know that would lead to a new career in nonprofit food service.
He started volunteering for the Keith Haring Food Pantry in 2022, after GMHC had to suspend its on-site lunch service to keep clients safe during the pandemic. When lunch service resumed the following year, Byrne volunteered to help run the dining room, serving catered meals two days per week. He officially became the dining room manager in 2024 and was excited last year to re-open the kitchen and expand lunch service to four days per week.
Volunteers play a big role to serve close to 200 clients per day in the agency’s East and West dining rooms — handing out trays and utensils for the hot meal line and serving the salad bar, along with whole wheat bread and fresh fruit at the end of the line.
In each dining room, two volunteer runners assist clients with mobility issues through the serving line and get them coffee. They’re on hand if a client wants to talk and can connect people needing additional services with Byrne or Pine. They also help bus tables.
To do all that takes 10 to 12 volunteers for each lunch service. Corporate groups, such as Bank of America, come in a couple of days a week, along with a cadre of weekly regulars, who are often retired community members.
After lunch service from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the dining rooms must quickly be readied for 2 p.m. wellness activities, like yoga on Tuesdays and Reiki every other Thursday. So by 1:30, Byrne is wiping down tables, sweeping floors, and helping out to wash dishes. “It’s a lot of dishes,” he says.
“I’ve formed so many great relationships with volunteers and clients over the past two years,” Byrne says. “This is a crucial service that we’re providing for our clients living with HIV. At the end of the day, it feels good to be part of that.”
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