{"id":25037,"date":"2026-05-20T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=25037"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:10:30","slug":"where-day-laborers-gather-jim-waters-69-brings-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2026\/05\/20\/where-day-laborers-gather-jim-waters-69-brings-lunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Day Laborers Gather, Jim Waters \u201969 Brings Lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They are jornaleros<\/em>, day laborers who trekked more than 3,000 miles from their native Ecuador, Guatemala, and El Salvador to find hope in Spring Valley, N.Y. The village 22 miles north of Manhattan is a popular terminus for undocumented immigrants seeking construction and service industry jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While ICE agents have arrested many of the arrivals, Jim Waters\u2019 concerns hew more to the existential: He wants to ensure that every person, regardless of immigration status, has access to healthy food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A retirement adviser who is now retired himself, Waters \u201969 has volunteered on behalf of the Salvation Army\u2019s Canteen Feeding Program since 1993. He ventures into the community every Saturday behind the wheel of a 15-passenger van packed with cold cut sandwiches, fruit, juice, and day-old pastries donated by the local Panera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The van visits five sites where would-be workers gather in hopes of earning wages. As Waters and his five-member crew distribute 120 sack lunches, he offers greetings in rudimentary Spanish \u2014 often accompanied by an embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe in hugs,\u201d the grandfather of six says. \u201cI have no hesitation, and these guys welcome hugs. These are human beings, just like the rest of us. They warrant the same consideration as all human beings here on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters first heard about the program in 1992, at his Presbyterian congregation. He eagerly signed on. He\u2019s a person of faith, but he eschews tendencies by organized religion to dispense facile morality. \u201cWhat counts in life are the actions you take, not beliefs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 30 years ago, the program catered mostly to Black, white, and Latino people in need. As economics have changed, so too has the makeup of Spring Valley\u2019s arrivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Salvation Army provides food throughout the week, with Waters, who lives in nearby Pearl River, running the five-hour Saturday shift. In 2013 he was honored with the organization\u2019s Others Award, the highest distinction bestowed on a nonmember for community service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters\u2019 sensibilities were shaped in no small part by his time at Colgate, where an introductory political science course \u201copened my mind to the elasticity of views\u201d in the body politic, he says. \u201cI was 20 years old, and it made my mind plastic and moldable. If you\u2019re a complete human being … you\u2019ve got to have a mind that\u2019s open to people\u2019s different experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters majored in economics and minored in mathematics at Colgate before going on to earn his MBA at the Wharton School of Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s on the streets of Spring Valley where he\u2019s received some of his most important lessons. Empathy is a constant item on the menu. But empathy is more than an idle intellectual exercise for Waters, particularly given humankind\u2019s evolutionary tendencies to be suspicious of members outside of their own ethnic \u201ctribe,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters overrides such adaptations with a meal, a smile, and a moment of shared humanity. At the same time, he doesn\u2019t get waylaid by the larger political and social headwinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI recognize that there is very little I can do about the overall world in which I live,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m glad to do my tiny thing to make life a little bit easier for people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Some of the immigrants Waters serves have relied on the lunch program for years, forming friendships that extend beyond the meal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waters has volunteered on behalf of the Salvation Army\u2019s Canteen Feeding Program since 1993.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":25039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[354,1974,277,1921,80,293,1553],"coauthors":[3058],"class_list":["post-25037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-alumni","tag-community-service","tag-economics","tag-immigrants","tag-mathematics","tag-political-science","tag-retirement"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-6vP","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/05\/022826_Jim_Waters_MDD_0420.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25037"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25902,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25037\/revisions\/25902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25037"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}