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Long Island City resident Brian
Pham donated over 300
meals to the Chinese Community
Center, located in Chinatown.
The idea came to Pham two
days before his birthday, when
his old roommate shared a video with
him of a 65-year-old Asian woman
who was beaten on 360 W 43rd St.
This hit home for Pham because he
used to live very close to that apartment
building and would walk past it
every day.
“Something just triggered me from
watching that and I was like, ‘I need to
do something to give back back and
spread awareness about what is going
on,’” Pham said.
His close friend who is very involved
in the community, Katherine Vu, was
the one who suggested to Pham that
he cook meals for the AAPI elderly who
are “very vulnerable at this moment.”
Pham thought it was a great idea because
he has a passion for cooking.
Since his birthday was coming up,
Pham decided to create a GoFundMe
in order to receive donations to pay for
meals.
“I originally set out to cook just 100
meals on my own, asking friends and
family for donations around $5 a meal,
and I ended up hitting that goal in an
hour,” Pham said. “Next thing you know,
I’m like around 800 meals that I have
been meaning to cook!”
Pham then reached out to the Chinese
Community Center to see if they would
be interested in taking part in this event.
“When Brian called us about his desire
to cook meals for our community,
we were deeply moved by this unexpected
surprise. With the rise of Asian
hate crimes plaguing our city, it was
great to see young people like Brian
reach out to provide us support and
encouragement,” Chinese Consolidated
Benevolent Association President
Justin Yu said. “He did not allow the
negativity targeted at the Asian community
to keep him down. Instead, he
took positive action and made a difference
in the lives of those he served.”
Because of the overwhelming support
from his family and peers, Pham decided
to hold multiple events. The first has already
taken place.
“So we did one event with 320
meals,” Pham said. “We sent out a volunteer
form and got about 30 volunteers
to help us cook and to help us
source vegetables and transport. We
shopped at Asian wholesalers and
Asian supermarkets so we can funnel
the money back into the Asian AAPI
community.”
Pham direct-messaged many chefs
on Instagram in hopes that they would
help him cook for this event. To his dismay,
not many responded. However,
at an AAPI rally, Pham spotted YouTuber
Andrew Fung, who makes a lot of
food videos on his channel. Pham told
him about the work he was doing and
Fung was able to get him connected to
Erik Kwan, who was a champion on the
show “Chopped.”
Kwan cooked 150 meals with the
help of some of Pham’s volunteers for
the event, and Pham was able to cook
150 meals with his friends in Queens.
Each meal kit included one meal,
drink, a pastry and a flyer that shows
their support of the Asian community.
The flyer also included information for
the company SafeWatch.
The event was a tremendous success.
According to Pham, the first 150 meals
were gone in 18 minutes and they were
completely out of food within the first 50
minutes of setting up.
“It just goes to show you how much
need there is in the community,” Pham
said.
This event drove Pham and his friends
Vu and Kristani Alcantara to create a
nonprofit called Meals for Unity, which
will focus on marginalized communities
in need by feeding them monthly.
They will be holding their next event
with the Chinese Community Center
on May 15.
If you would like to help Meals for
Unity, you visit https://linktr.ee/mealsprojec
to donate to their GoFundMe
page or sign up to volunteer. Check
out @mealsforunity on Instagram to
stay updated on future events.
MEALS
for Unity
Photos: Wandering Woo
BY SOFIA VALDES
GIVING BACK
/meal-sprojecto
/meal-sprojecto
/meal-sprojecto
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