Veteran Pantry Opens to the Needy

By Dan Guarino

With red, white and blue balloons flying as a squad of volunteers unloaded and shelved last-minute boxes of food, Rockaway’s newest food pantry hurried towards its official opening this past Tuesday, May 30.

Hosted by the non-profit Veteran In Command group, located at 116-16 Rockaway Beach Blvd., the food pantry will be open every Tuesday from 2:30 to 5 p.m. and is open to all. Community members are asked to bring ID and shopping bags and/or a cart, though no one was turned away.

In fact, the new community addition already had people lining up well before its posted start time of 2:30 p.m. Some walked or had gotten rides or assistance getting there. Others brought shopping bags or rolling carts and waited patiently. All were greeted by a mixture of local peninsula helpers and some from elsewhere who went out of their way to assist them.

Together they distributed fresh produce such as onions, potatoes, squash and sweet potatoes, cereals, canned soups and beans, cooking oil, frozen fish, cheese, canned salmon, rice and other food from shelves and refrigerated units as people filed through the location’s converted garage space. There were also hot Jamaican beef patties, and canvas bags with other food items, plants to grow and small household items distributed.

As stated in a flyer distributed at the event, “Veteran In Command has identified an underserved need relative to food insecurity and this pantry will fulfill that need.” Added its Executive Director Sal Lopizzo, “This is a part of Rockaway that has been underserved. This is a part that falls between the cracks.”

The Veteran In Command site is one of five food pantries opened up under the umbrella of the Veteran Advisory Committee of Southeast Queens. It joins those hosted by other veterans’ groups now serving Rosedale, Springfield Gardens, Hollis and Jamaica. After the Committee recognized Rockaway as a prime objective in their mission to feed those in need, they approached Lopizzo to enlist his help. He readily agreed.

According to Lopizzo, after initial discussions, it took about two weeks to outfit his space with industrial metal shelving and refrigeration and otherwise make it ready. The pantry itself operates in partnership with and/or sponsorship from Vets Inc., the NYC Human Resourc- es Administration (HRA) and the national Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).

Major Sharon Sweeting Lindsey, U.S. Army Reserve (ret), a prime mover in establishing the new site, was also on hand to help launch it. A 26-year veteran, she is the Executive Director and founder of Vets Inc., which is dedicated to helping “feed families and veterans in need.”

She also chairs the Veteran Advisory Committee of Southeast Queens, founded in 2018 by NY State Senator Leroy Comrie.

During a prayer at the brief opening ceremony, she said, “Thank you, God, for this moment that we can open a food pantry here.” And she noted “now we need the community and its support to make it a success.”

After delivering a van packed with food, and while directing activities and answering queries, Lindsey, whom everyone addressed respectfully as “Major,” noted that the opening was indeed a success. “The word is going to spread,” she said.

She also noted the food pantries in the group operate on different days and each helps from 250 to 425 needy individuals and families every week.

Currently they are working with HRA and CFC. “CFC put out a grant to establish pantries in underserved areas. This (the new Veteran In Command operation) is the result. They paid for the shelving, the fridges and so on.”

“The only downside,” she said, “is that this grant runs up to June 30. But we will be applying for a permanent grant to keep this going.”

Veteran In Command was founded in 2012, and opened its Rockaway facility, a large stately house at the corner of Beach 117th Street and Rockaway Beach Blvd., in 2019. They currently house six veterans, offer job training, counseling, PTSD referrals, community gardening, art classes and craft initiatives, a veteran led domestic violence program and frequently host community events.

Regarding the new food pantry, Lopizzo commented, “My goal is in our community for people to understand we have the ability to help each other, and not slam doors on each other. That it’s much easier to see the similarities (in us) than the differences.”

Throughout the day it appeared that each portion of nutritious food, along with the smiles and helping hands that greeted each man, woman and child, helped to further that goal.

Photos by Dan Guarino

Never Forgotten

Dear Editor:

On Monday, May 29, St. Francis De Sales held a Mass to honor the fallen of our country. It was nice to see how many people were in attendance. I would also like to mention Scholars’ Academy and Channel View School for Research. Each year, they are outside, in band uniforms, respectful and ready to march in the American Legion’s parade. It is a testament to the young people in the community and their families to take the time to honor those we lost. Thank you again.

Kate & Walter Patterson

Welcome the Stranger, Carefully

Dear Editor:

This is a response to Mr. Richard Lipman’s opinion on the paper’s coverage of the migrant crisis. While this type of happy-go-lucky attitude is expected of a New Yorker who will proudly say “vote blue no matter who,” it is a gross misguidedness about the issue. 700,000 immigrants have come through the southern border, nearly 10% of the NYC population. People and labor are a market like any other, sub - ject to saturation, paying jobs are already scarce and these immigrants will scoop them right up to work off the books and undercut citizens. Not only that, but these people are unvetted, fresh across the border, pending an asylum hearing as late as 2027. Think about that. A murderer or rapist can come across the border, live and work in your city and not be vetted or screened for five years. That is a risk we should not be willing to take.

Now I agree, we can give them food, shelter, and safety as well as medical care, as should be given to all of our citizens. Yet they should be kept at the border, under supervision, until their hearing where we’ll know they can be accepted into the country with little risk. Yes, that is a border camp I am describing, where they can be kept, fed, sheltered, and cared for, where they pose no threat to the citizens of the country.

Those who disagree, I would ask you this: how is this any worse than what they are apparently escaping in failed hellscapes of Central America?

It is a gift that we would be giving them, an opportunity to live in the best country in the world. That should justify all options to keep it that way. How do we fund this? Easy, take some of the billions we have given to Ukraine.

Thomas Lacognata