Republished from Huffington Post published November 14th, 2017. Written by: Nancy Ruhling, Contributor

Although it takes up an entire tree-lined block of Long Island City, the CMMB Distribution Center is a remarkably unnoticeable building.

The only thing that announces the presence of the long and low cream-colored 33,000-square-foot structure is a grey blend-into-the-background metal front door with a small sign so far overhead that you have to crane your neck to read it.

It notes, in robin-blue lettering, that this is the home of the Catholic Medical Mission Board .

Ralph Barberio , the longtime manager of the CMMB (Distribution Center), is similarly low-key.

Self-effacing and soft-spoken, Ralph, who is grandfatherly grey, doesn’t want to talk about himself.

He’d rather highlight the work CMMB, which this year shipped more than $500 million in donated medicines and medical supplies to people in 32 Third World countries.

“The doctors and nurses who give their free time to go on missions are the great ones,” he says. “We’re nothing without them.”

As Ralph walks around the distribution center, he looks at row after row of pallets set for shipment and sees not only black plastic shrink wrap and cardboard boxes but also hope.

Maybe it’s because he grew up with nothing. Or perhaps it’s because he’s an ex-cop. The reason he’s so willing to help others doesn’t really matter.

Ralph, whose grandparents came from Italy, was born in Queensbridge Houses.

His parents divorced when he was young – he can’t remember whether he was 5 or 7 – and he and his two older sisters lived with their mother and grandparents in Astoria.

“My mother had MS,” he says. “And we never had much money.”

To help out, Ralph started working at age 11. At first, he filled soda cases for a deli. When he was 14, he became a stock boy for a pharmacy.

It was his brother-in-law, a police officer, who persuaded him to take up that career.

For two years, Ralph was a police trainee. Then he entered the police academy.