Black Forum

Emergency Food Pantry (Free) – 920 Baychester Ave., Bldg. 1A (entrance faces basketball court). The pantry opens Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:00 a.m.-12:45 p.m. for grocery distribution. Guests are eligible to pick up food once a month. Look at the last date on your pantry card. The next pick up would be one month from the last pick up or after. It is a 30/31-day rotation, on average. Black Forum will text registered guests if items outside of regular distribution become available. All guests must present a pantry card to receiveping bags with a handle and a shopping cart. Please do not bring black shopping bags because black ink can transfer to the food, posing a health hazard. We require masks and physical distancing.

Section 5 guests should visit the Co-op City United Methodist Church at 2350 Palmer Avenue to pick up groceries. They open on Thursdays fromessary to receive food.

for Returning Guests – New client registration

Sections 1-4 guests will register or recertify at the 920 Baychester location, while Section 5 guests go to the Co-op City United Methodist Church.

Required documentation is as follows: NY State Driver’s license, NY State Non-Driver’s or NYC I.D (zip code 10475). Passports, Medicaid Cards, Medicare Cards, Job I.D.s and Access Ride I.D.s 2022 registered guests wanting to continue visiting the pantry in 2023. These guests must also show the begins January 3 and goes only through the end of April 2023. Guests should apply by the end of April 2023 even if they do not plan to pick up food until later in the year.

All occupants within a household must be present have the same 10475 address. We include only ver-

Grocery Bags – Black Forum has used orange bags to pack monthly packages for distribution. The cost of the bags has tripled, so the pantry will pack the canned goods directly in bags you provide. Thus, four to six sturdy and clean (non-black) bags are a must on your visit. Please note that we reserve the right to not provide certain items if we believe cross contamination may occur. This is for your safety. Please help us by bringing enough bags.

Defensive Driving Class – Black Forum is not sponsoring in-person defensive driving classes at this time, but an online version of the course is available at the Empire Safety Council website: https:// www.empiresafetycouncil.com/. Use the promo

Contact Us: Reach out to us at coopcityblackforum@gmail.com.

––D. Illis

• Saturday, March 18, 2023

• Sat., May 20, 2023

• Wed., Aug. 23, 2023

Building 25 Association

know that there are eight symbols and origins of notes to romantic partners became widespread

(2) The heart: The universally recognized icon of love, the shape believed to have been symbolized after the human heart that has three chambers, left, right and middle.

(3) Doves: A symbol of peace, also a symbol of romantic love and monogamy due to its habit of mating with only one partner a season.

(4) Knots: The binding of the couple together through knots symbolized their lifelong commitment to each other.

(5) Chocolate: A heart-shaped box of chocolate it is rare to see them any other time of the year.

(6) Roses: The red rose can be traced back to the to Greek mythology, no other time of the year will

(7) Cupid and his bow and arrow: Cupid emerged

Upcoming Trips! Lunch Included.

Dutch Apple eatre, Lancaster, PA SISTER ACT & Bird-In-Hand Farmer’s Market

MOSES Sight & Sound eatre, Ronk, PA

HOLIDAY HILL (Senior Day) Prospect, CT

• urs., September 28, 2023

Tropicana Casino, Atlantic City, NJ

THE SPINNERS (LIVE)

• Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Philadelphia, PA

SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA BINGO CRUISE & A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES MINT

• Wednesday, December 6, 2023

New York, NY

SPIRIT OF NY CHRISTMAS PARTY CRUISE

• COMING SOON: ESSEX STEAM DINNER TRAIN

TWO PICK-UP/DROP-OFF LOCATIONS:

For Information, Please Call Lessie Harris @ 347-866-4625 infant with wings and tousled hair, a bow and satchel the world display sculptures and paintings of Cupid, not be complete without a mention of those pastel colored, sugary sweet chalky conversation phrases like “Be mine,” “Kiss me,” and “You shine.” It is believed that this candy was developed as the unintended product of a plan to invent a new throat lozenge.

Wishing all neighbors born in February a happy birthday, and for those of you who are under the weather, we hope you get better soon.

Our next building association meeting will be notices with detailed information posted near elevators as we get closer to the meeting date. Remember, residents of Building 25 can always address any comments or concerns by logging onto our building email address at building25ca@gmail.com. If anyone has problems accessing the building email address, please let us know.

We will close with a phrase of love: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” –Charles M. Schulz

––Wanda Bailey

On Education

In response to a “Letter to the Editor” published in the Feb. 4th issue of the Co-op City Times, I offer the following:

Most of you living here since 1993 know about my past Co-op City community involvement as an 11year member of our District 11’s Community School Board, and as a member of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity Board (CFE). Over that eleven-year period, I worked with educators, parents, P.A. & P.T.A.’s, students, community and faith-based organizations to make our students’ educational experience the best it could possibly be. A lot of changes came about because of the work we accomplished together in a district that is made up of mostly middle class families, with pockets of lower income residents, and our school buildings were at 103% of capacity.

In 2003, the New York State Supreme Court found that the students of New York City, Yonkers, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and Buffalo, were impeded from obtaining a “Sound Basic Education” because our public schools were underfunded. The highly successful CFE $14 billion lawsuit brought against New York State, would now begin to level the educational whether they attended schools in the poorest of neighnities, were educationally funded at a level that was approximately $9-$12-thousand per child less than students from our neighboring Nassau/Suffolk and Westchester County school districts.

That kind of funding disparity affects the salaries of educators, which also affect whether or not our most experienced teachers remain as educators in our outside of NYC.

Funding determines the condition of our existing facilities, and the building of newer public schools. Funding provides for students with special needs, funding for bus transportation (public and parochial) as well as for students who are excelling and would like to have accelerated classes and materials. Currently, there is a much larger segment of our student population attending our public schools where English

The author of the letter is basically espousing an opinion suggesting that the State is wasting our dollars