Expecting Relief: Addressing Poverty, Hunger & Miseducation in Brooklyn

Vanessa Bracetty-Ormsby is Founder & Executive Director of Expecting Relief: A Brooklyn based organization built to create community based solutions address to poverty, hunger and miseducation via food, diaper, literacy relief and more. For more, visit expectingrelief.org.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to get connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listeningto get connected with our guest, Vanessa
Brissetti Ormsby. She's founder and executivedirector of Expecting Relief. They are a
Brooklyn based organization built to create communitybased solutions to address poverty, hunger,

(00:27):
and miss education via food, diaper, literacy, relief and more. The
website is Expecting Relief dot org andVanessa Brissetti Ormsby, thank you for being
on the show. Thank you Ninafor having us. We appreciate it absolutely.
So we'll go into detail, butcould you describe her? How do
you describe the work that you doand what are the broad strokes of what

(00:47):
you address. We are based herein Brooklyn, New York, specifically in
East New York, and we servicethe Brooklyn community in general. We tackle
the vulnerable and social insecurities at ourfamilies and individuals face, and by tackling
those insecurities, we provide the fiveservices, which is food, diaper,
cycle, literacy, and return onDULA relief. So Expecting Relief was officially

(01:11):
born in twenty eleven. But what'sthe backstory and what is your backstory?
Okay, so, yes, wewere founded in twenty eleven. I would
be considered as a lived experience,meaning we grew up on public assistance.
My mom was struggling with us,so although we weren't as affected because she
never showed us to struggle, whichI admire about her. But growing up,

(01:37):
I've always had a giving heart andI always donated my time to other
nonprofits that had food pantries or twokitchens. And then there was this one
time a family friend came around.She was pregnant, residing in a shelter
and expressing that she was in need. So we provided for her. But
you know, she turned around andended up stealing from us. So we

(01:59):
took that situation and created expecting relief. You know, I was thinking,
okay, what if you were ina department store and so and you would
have got arrested. That would havebeen more traumatizing, and you're expecting.
So I understood the desperate act.I didn't like, you know, get
upset about it. I just turnedit into a nonprofit organization to where we
are servicing you know, expecting moms, new moms, current moms, and

(02:22):
we're always looking to improve maternal andinfant health. So it's a variety of
services. It's not just for youknow, mothers, but it's just you
know, with our food pantry area, it's also for the community that's a
need, So that can range anage up to like seniors as well.
Yeah, why did you decide tofocus on the places that you do period
relief and literacy and food relief?Why those specific ones? And do the

(02:45):
relief we'll talk about them specifically,But why those ones? Why were those
for you? Well, nowadays,with the economy shifting, we have to
also be adaptable and flexible to theseshifts. Your basic essentials now they're not
so basic. Everyone's pretty much strugglingnowadays. They don't pay you enough.

(03:07):
So I just wanted to be ableto be valuable resource. We started,
like I said, with the foodand then it emerged into the diapers.
That's how the alignment went. Toemergence of the diapers. We became the
second diaper bank in Brooklyn, butthe first in East New York. And
speaking with these moms, you know, when you're going to postpartum, you're
also you know, bleeding and youmentreating and things like that, and you

(03:30):
already just had a child, sothe expenses on that it's high. So
now about your own personal expenses,you know with sanitary products, you know,
that's something that is starting to getfossely also, so we wanted to
bring awareness to the period of povertyas well. So we just extended it
to the psycho relief. Literacy.You know, it's important to start building

(03:53):
literacy when they're young and building theirlibraries at home. So we want them
to offer books for the ars thatcome and they can build the library home
read to their children. We alsostarted maternal DULA relief as an extension to
improve maternal health. There's a lotof disparities amongst the Latin and African American
communities with infant mortality death rates thatwe wanted just to improve. So what

(04:19):
was just trying to figure out howcan we help one another level. It's
really interesting to me, especially aboutthe period relief, the psychic relief and
the dula relief services, is thatyou're addressing like very very basic kind of
on the ground needs that seem tobe kind of few and far between,
or they certainly aren't advertised among thelarger charities, but like every female,

(04:40):
almost every female is dealing with thisstuff. Yeah, absolutely, I mean
there's not much highlight on these issues. It's kind of like swept under the
rug. And we want to notdo that anymore. Like we need to
be to advocate more. As westarted advocating more this year as well to
Washington, speaking to the state legislatorsand things of that nature, we also

(05:03):
just understand more the deep rooted needthat our families and individuals are facing.
I mean, no one should bestruggling to buy the basic necessities. I
mean I could speak from personal experience. You know, I've had issues like
that too, and I had threechildren of my own and I would either
have to ask my mom to borrowmoney or you know, a family friend

(05:25):
or something like that. But youdon't want to go that far, you
know. So being able to putto be a resource, these families just
could feel more they don't have tobe hopeless. They we could be more
resourceful and stable for them, reliableas well. Our guest is Vanessa Brissetti
Ormsby. She's found her an executivedirector of Expecting Relief. Their website is

(05:46):
expecting relief dot org. You're listeningto get connected on one of six point
seven Light FM. I'm Nina delRio. As you've mentioned, you've added
programs over time, so there wasfood, there's diaper relief. When is
it sort of time or to adda new area of focus, like each
one, you have another thing youhave to tackle and you're the you know,
you've got to sort of best allocateyour resources. Yeah, balance it

(06:12):
out. We have to balance itout. I'm not really looking to add
anymore to services, all right.I don't want to overwhelm myself either.
But I feel like everything we provideis connected to each other in some sort
of way. So when someone comesin and they're just like, you know,
I need food it's important, andthey need diapers it's important, you

(06:34):
know, it's just like, okay, well you can come get your paths
here too. You know, youcan get your essentials here, you can
get a book. So what haveyou learned then, over these twelve years
or so about organizing as you getall this together? And what a surprised
you most as you do this work. What I've learned is that it can
definitely be overwhelming. Yeah. Yeah, to keep your cool. You have

(07:00):
to have support a team that hasthe same passionate interests as you do for
the organization to alleviate some of thatstress from yourself as well, so you
know, having the right board membersand the right volunteers and things of that
nature. I ask about organizing becauseI think, you know, in a

(07:20):
way, this could be a modelfor what other people could do. But
you know, people who start thesethings and they don't last that long because
it's it's a lot to take careof, as you know, right.
Yeah, honestly, there was agap. There was definitely a gap because
it started off as me and mysister, my oldest sister, my youngest
sister at the time, but Ihad my younger sister on there just so

(07:40):
she could learn and if it's somethingthat she was interested to sticking with.
But yeah, it just became mebecause their heart was not in it like
my heart was in it, whichwas okay. Definitely don't want to force
someone to do something that there arenot as passionate about. So as they
decided not longer to be part ofthe nization, I ended up just trying

(08:03):
to reevaluate, you know, howI was gonna continue on on my own,
and then there was a gap becauseI, you know, me being
getting married and having three children onmy own. I had to pick up
again once I had my third childand reevaluate you know what am I doing?
What is the goals again? Let'scontinue on. So we had to
just go back to the beginning ina sense, and then that's how we

(08:28):
started emerging. I would say fromthat little gap to where we started again,
it was probably about three and ahalf years ago, and we started
emerging since then and getting more recognitionfrom you know, the city council members,
you know, other organizations and thingsof that nature. Now, I
was also still working my nine tofive, you know, while operating Expecting

(08:48):
Relief. So I was a medicalbiller and quota for NYU Hospital for six
years. So I would say abouttwo years ago is when everyone was laid
off and I knew that it wasmy time to take a leap of faith
fully focused on Expecting Relief and thathonestly was the best decision that I made.
And ever since then, I've justbeen more happier because this is where
my heart is. And from thenwe've ended up getting this donated space that

(09:13):
we just had a grand opening onJuly seventh, and now we can start
seeing clients for the summer Tuesday throughThursday by appointment. They can log onto
the website and make an appointment.They would already have to have had a
child to receive the services. Soare the essentials that we offer. We
were able actually to branch out toBrobert County, Florida, so this month

(09:35):
actually makes a year operating in BrobertCounty, and we will be hosting a
community baby shower July twenty eighth andcelebration of the one year anniversary. And
we also will be providing workshops.You know, we have backyard access here
in our office in New York,and we'll be providing many workshops for lactation,
privor poverty awareness and just or maybejust fun activities for the kids in

(10:00):
the community to be involved with,because there's really nothing in our area here
East New York Cypress Hills for children. Let's talk a little bit about volunteering
and getting you funded and all thatsort of stuff. Who funds all the
work you do? Where does allthe supplies come from, and the money
come from. We are a strictlydonation based so we are partners with the
National Diaper Bank Network Aligned Superior suppliesBaby to Baby and that's how we get

(10:26):
our donations of these essentials by thepaletts, so that really helps us.
And then we'll act no companies whohosts drives for us, and that's how
we get our hygiene items for thebabies or more vipers and wipes or items.
I actually became familiar with you throughone of those drives because I Heart
Media hosted a drive at the work. So that's a really I think that's

(10:52):
a really great idea for an officeto do. I kind of want to
plug that for you if you wantto talk about that a little bit more.
How easy that would be. Yeah, So that's how we actually became
familiar with you guys. Also withiHeart hosting, the packing party was a
packing party. We were packing postpartummaternal kits to donate to Woodhole Hospital,
to the maternal unit, so thatway, once a parent gives birth,

(11:15):
you can give them a postpartum kitto take home. And volunteering, I'm
assuming you need volunteers. What willthey be doing? Yes, yes,
we definitely always accept volunteers, especiallyduring our community food distribution, so they
can inquire by emailing us at infoat Expecting Reliefs dot org if they have
any if the companies have anyone thatwould like to volunteer, and then once

(11:39):
we move into school hours when schoolresumes, specially the teenagers, if they
need any hours or anything like that, they could definitely reach out to volunteer
with us. And again, sincewe have an office, they can come
in and you know, help organizeand short baby clothes and re stop the
show elves and or just you know, interact with the clients that come in

(12:03):
and help give them their items.And during the food distributions when they're volunteering,
it would be also organizing the foodand distributing it to the community that
comes. So, are there anystories of people that you have helped that
have really stuck with you or anythingelse you'd want to say on behalf of
the people that you've helped. Well, we have many moms that I see

(12:28):
a lot come and I'm familiar,but you know, I always address them
and make them understand that we arethankful that they're utilizing our services. But
they're always thanking us where we thankthem for coming, so they're always thanking
us for being a resource to them. But you know, there's many stories
from all of them. You know, they're struggling, They live in shelters,
they you know, don't really haveit, and sometimes see benefits from

(12:54):
the government doesn't always come when it'sneeded, or there's a reduction and we
don't understand why they be a reduction, so they're really struggling out here.
We'll have three diaper pantries and threedaycare centers in our community because this will
also help alleviate the financial stress onthe parents face monthly with having to buy
diapers for the household and for thedaycare. And it's a requirement that you

(13:18):
bring diapers to a daycare. Soa lot of the daycare workers you know,
are complaining because the parents don't bringit, so they have to also
when they don't bring it, eitheryou have to diaper offer a little longer,
which can be a health issue,or you have to take from somebody
else's power and that will shorten theirpile of diapers. So we are just
like, okay, well, let'sfind a resolution. Let's put a diaper

(13:41):
pantry in here. Let's partner thatway the moms could just send their child.
You don't have to worry about diapers. For donations, do you prefer
cash donation or drop off monitory donations? We always are in need of monetary
donations because this will help us withoperations. We don't have a grant writer,
so it's we try the best thatwe can when we do come across

(14:03):
any applications that are open for funding. We also do reach out to government
and state financial grants and funding,but it's kind of hard when it comes
to the federal and state because theyjust require so much more. Then when
you reach out to a foundation andthat's you know, providing funding. Can
actually donate online. There's an areain our website where you can click to

(14:28):
donate button and make a monetary donation, and we greatly appreciate any amount.
There's nothing that's too small or toolarge for as far as donations. Is
there anything else you want to add? Yeah, Well, we're just happy
to be a resource and an additionalresource, like I said for the Brooklyn
community, where we're happy to behere and help you in any way we

(14:48):
can. We appreciate anyone that comesin, volunteers or donates. We are
very thankful to be an additional resource. We want to thank our partners Psychosoals
Local Development, we Nei Senti Only, the Space quireback of Pediactress and prior
Lacrosse will Shield and Finel Stopping Shop. They've all played a role in apart
to having a successful grant opening andproviding enough in KARR donations for our shelves

(15:13):
to stop. You can find outmore about the organization about Getting Relief and
supporting the work they do at ExpectingRelief at Expecting Relief dot org. Vanessa
Brissetti Ormsby has been our guest.Thank you for being on Get Connected.
Thank you so much for having usto truly appreciate it. This has been
Get Connected with Nina del Rio onone of six point seven Lightfm. The

(15:37):
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