The line outside the Union Pool Food Pantry is dreary this Wednesday morning, but Suzanne Cub is all smiles behind her mask.

"I'm just happy to see everybody again," she said. "It's like I see these people every week."

Cub is a manager at Union Pool. She and her partner, Ryan Sawyer, started this food pantry in the summer of 2020.

"You got to look out for your neighbors and they look out for you hopefully," Cub said.

The team feeds 150 people each week. Each package is meant to sustain a small family for five days.

"Community is the most important thing that we have right now, and mutual aid is a great way to experience that," Cub said.

Cub was inspired by the former owner of Union Pool, Alyssa Abeyta, to launch the pantry. Abeyta died almost six years ago. Her memory lives on in the work.

"If Alyssa was here, like, this would be a community center," Cub said. "We'd be feeding people. We'd be doing all this stuff."

Cub gets much of the food from St. John's Bread and Life in Brooklyn and other organizations.

Cub is also an acrobat. Many of her volunteers are her night owl friends from the performance world who wake up early to pitch in.

"When the pandemic started, we all became even more aware of how many people need this," Anna Copa Cabanna, one of the artist volunteers, said. "There is something about being a performer, you just have the energy and it gives you more energy."

Cub and her friends reflected on their experience. They decided, "We're not crazy. We'd creative."

Cub thought about it some more.

"The show must go on," she said.

For going from artistic to altruistic and encouraging her friends to do the same, Suzanne Cub is our New Yorker of the Week.