Food aid groups redouble their efforts for the needy

QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 30, 2020 Page 14 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.” 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,” With people out of work, seniors shut in, food providers step in, stand tall Hometown heroes in the war on hunger QUEENS STRONG But even as unemployment in the city has she said. “I move away and when they open the risen; even as thousands of otherwise healthy door, I ask how they are doing. I check and see senior citizens have become homebound by if they are OK.” necessity; and as dozens of food pantries and She then goes back to the center where she soup kitchens have had to close for lack of picks up her meals and changes out of her pronecessary resources, thousands of staffers like tective gear.

Angulo and thousands more volunteers have Prior to the outbreak, Citymeals served been working in delivery trucks, kitchens and 18,000 people. Since then it has added 3,000 warehouses to keep vulnerable residents in regular clients. Including the otherwise healthy A worker with City Harvest preps canned goods for loading on a truck bound for a church, com

Queens fed. seniors who have been added because they canmunity center, food pantry or soup kitchen. PHOTO BY KARIM CREARY / CITY HARVEST

While the numbers for COVID-19 have not get their regular daily hot meal from their been steadily trending downward, most other closed seniors centers, the total can top 34,000 numbers of note have been going in the wrong on given days. direction. Unemployment in New York City, “For those with chronic illnesses, the risk of which hit 18.3 percent in May even as some going to the grocery stores or local food pantry businesses began to reopen, rose to 20.4 peris simply too great,” the agency said in an email cent for June. to the Chronicle.

City Harvest, in an email to the Chronicle, Sheila Clay, a Jamaica resident, is the said the number of people suffering from food senior volunteer program manager and has insecurity in New York City is expected to be worked for the organization for 15 years. On up 38 percent over 2018, with the number of days when staffers such as Flores feel the perchildren increasing by 49 percent. sonal connection has been disrupted, those

The agency this year has collected and disworking under Clay’s direction have expanded tributed 33 million pounds of food to its comoutreach efforts to help seniors avoid feelings munity partners since March, a 53 percent of isolation. increase over the same period in 2019. “We train the volunteers and drivers,” she

Its mobile markets, which concentrate on said. “We also collect homemade cards to providing fresh produce in farmers market setsend them, and write letters,” Clay said. “We tings, have seen attendance climb by 30 percent conduct checks over the phone.” since March. And while the state shutdown has caused

On top of that, the Food Bank for New York many cor porate volunteer effor ts on

City, which assists more than 800 emergency Citymeals’ behalf to be halted, the group has Sheila Clay, left, and Wanda Flores of Citymeals on Wheels help serve as lifelines for seniors food providers in the five boroughs and has proseen 5,000 individual volunteers come forneeding food — and do check-ins to make sure all else is well. PHOTOS COURTESY CITYMEALS ON WHEELS vided well over 21 million meals since the crisis ward since the start of the outbreak to contribbegan, says 75 percent of the soup kitchens and ute more than 20,000 hours of time. food pantries it helps saw immediate increases City Harvest has had to expand its operain demand early on in the crisis, with massive tions to 24 hours a day, five days a week at For the latest news visit qchron.com 23 RD ANNUAL C ELEBRATION OF Q UEENS • 2020 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.” 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 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 within the five boroughs. PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON