For latest news visit 23RDthe ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF qchron.com QUEENS • 2020
QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 30, 2020 Page 14
C M CELEB page 14 Y K QUEENS STRONG
Hometown heroes in the war on hunger With people out of work, seniors shut in, food providers step in, stand tall by Michael Gannon Editor
Alvaro Angulo has been a driver for City Harvest for two years, picking up donations of food from supermarkets to food manufacturers and distributors and dropping them off at soup kitchens, churches and food pantries dedicated to feeding the hungry. “There’s no such thing as a typical day,” he said. “You make a delivery someplace with the longest line you’ve ever seen of people needing food. And the next day you see a line that’s longer.” But even as unemployment in the city has risen; even as thousands of otherwise healthy senior citizens have become homebound by necessity; and as dozens of food pantries and soup kitchens have had to close for lack of necessary resources, thousands of staffers like Angulo and thousands more volunteers have been working in delivery trucks, kitchens and warehouses to keep vulnerable residents in Queens fed. While the numbers for COVID-19 have been steadily trending downward, most other numbers of note have been going in the wrong direction. Unemployment in New York City, which hit 18.3 percent in May even as some businesses began to reopen, rose to 20.4 percent for June. City Harvest, in an email to the Chronicle, said the number of people suffering from food insecurity in New York City is expected to be up 38 percent over 2018, with the number of children increasing by 49 percent. The agency this year has collected and distributed 33 million pounds of food to its community partners since March, a 53 percent increase over the same period in 2019. Its mobile markets, which concentrate on providing fresh produce in farmers market settings, have seen attendance climb by 30 percent since March. On top of that, the Food Bank for New York City, which assists more than 800 emergency food providers in the five boroughs and has provided well over 21 million meals since the crisis began, says 75 percent of the soup kitchens and food pantries it helps saw immediate increases in demand early on in the crisis, with massive jumps in the numbers in first-time visitors, families with children and laid-off or furloughed workers. “The whole world has changed,” said Wanda Flores, a driver for Citymeals on Wheels who has been delivering food to seniors for 19 years. Citymeals was created to provide food on weekends and holidays to seniors who were shut-ins for medical or physical issues. After working for years in the Bayside-Whitestone area, Flores now has a larger route in Flushing. She also has been assigned a partner. And much of her routine has been greatly altered to protect her clients and herself from any possible exposure to COVID-19. For one, clients can no longer see her caring, engaging smile. “I wear a mask,” she said. “I wear a suit. I wear gloves.”
Much of what Flores has enjoyed in her nearly two decades is the personal interaction with her clients, many of whom invited her in and welcomed her visits when the Chronicle accompanied her on her route last year. “I can’t go into their apartments now,” she said in a telephone interview last week. “I call them on the phone when I’m outside so they know I’m coming up to leave them their meals.” But some things — like Flores’ desire to engage clients and make sure all is well — even COVID-19 can’t change. “I knock on their door and leave the food,” she said. “I move away and when they open the door, I ask how they are doing. I check and see if they are OK.” She then goes back to the center where she picks up her meals and changes out of her protective gear. Prior to the outbreak, Citymeals served 18,000 people. Since then it has added 3,000 regular clients. Including the otherwise healthy seniors who have been added because they cannot get their regular daily hot meal from their closed seniors centers, the total can top 34,000 on given days. “For those with chronic illnesses, the risk of going to the grocery stores or local food pantry is simply too great,” the agency said in an email to the Chronicle. Sheila Clay, a Jamaica resident, is the senior volunteer program manager and has worked for the organization for 15 years. On days when staffers such as Flores feel the personal connection has been disrupted, those working under Clay’s direction have expanded outreach efforts to help seniors avoid feelings of isolation. “We train the volunteers and drivers,” she said. “We also collect homemade cards to send them, and write letters,” Clay said. “We conduct checks over the phone.” And while the state shutdown has caused m a ny cor por at e volu nt eer ef for t s on Citymeals’ behalf to be halted, the group has seen 5,000 individual volunteers come forward since the start of the outbreak to contribute more than 20,000 hours of time. City Harvest has had to expand its operations to 24 hours a day, five days a week at places such as its Long Island City warehouse and distribution center. “It does mean more time away from my family,” Angulo said. But he added that it is a rewarding job nonetheless. On his rounds, for example, he will stop for a scheduled pickup, and the donor will have a bonus that wasn’t on his manifest. “The other day I was scheduled to pick up 18 pallets of plantains,” he said. “They gave me 22.” Any time a driver accepts extra food that wasn’t expected, it is his or her job to get a client to accept the bounty, whether it be produce, juice, canned goods or anything else. Angulo had absolutely no trouble getting organizations to accept an unanticipated donation of fresh fruit. continued on page 22
A worker with City Harvest preps canned goods for loading on a truck bound for a church, comPHOTO BY KARIM CREARY / CITY HARVEST munity center, food pantry or soup kitchen.
Sheila Clay, left, and Wanda Flores of Citymeals on Wheels help serve as lifelines for seniors needing food — and do check-ins to make sure all else is well. PHOTOS COURTESY CITYMEALS ON WHEELS
A truck from the Food Bank for New York City was in Downtown Jamaica last week making pickups, deliveries or possibly both. The agency serves more than 800 emergency food providers PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON within the five boroughs.