
 
        
         
		Food trucks were dispatched by NYC offering free food in areas most affected  
 by Hurricane Ida. But some Bronx business owners are complaining  
 the good faith gesture has backfi red and hurt their revenue.  
   Photo courtesy Bobby Jaen 
  
  
  
  
     
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 BRONX TIMES REPORTER,6     SEPT. 24-30, 2021 BTR 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
       
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA 
 Throggs  Neck  business  
 owners and leaders are expressing  
 frustration with New  
 York  City’s  management  of  
 a  free  food relief aid program  
 aimed to help communities affected  
 by Hurricane Ida, which  
 they  claim  is  undercutting  revenue  
 for local mom-and-pop  
 shops. 
 Beginning on Sept. 9, the city  
 sent food trucks to designated areas  
 in the five boroughs most affected  
 by  Ida  to offer  free  food  to  
 residents of the area. The program  
 — a joint effort by the NYC Emergency  
 Management Office and the  
 New York Food Truck Association  
 — has stationed food trucks  
 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. 
 Earlier this month, Ida devastated  
 neighborhoods across  
 NYC leading to in-home drownings  
 at residences and rainfall  
 forcing New Yorkers out of their  
 homes. Since that time, various  
 food trucks, including Westchester  
 Burger Co., and Nathan’s, have  
 occupied the intersection of Lafayette  
 and East Tremont Avenue in  
 the Bronx. The city also doesn’t  
 require someone to have been affected  
 by Ida to receive the food. 
 “It was a good idea in thought,  
 but it’s hurting local businesses,”  
 said Bobby Jaen, executive director  
 of the Throggs Neck Business  
 Improvement District. “Instead of  
 hitting a home run, they struck  
 out miserably.” 
 Local business owners and  
 leaders in Throggs Neck believe  
 issues with the placement of freefood  
 vehicles and misuse of relief  
 aid resources is hurting small  
 businesses still making a postpandemic  
 recovery. 
 The program roll-out, the  
 Throggs Neck business community  
 says  is  “improper”  and  
 has created a mess. Jaen said  
 that when business owners have  
 called the city for truck removal  
 for vehicles blocking their storefronts, 
  they had not received a  
 response from the NYC Emergency  
 Management Offi ce or the  
 New York Food Truck Association. 
 The Bronx Times also did not  
 receive a response from either organization  
 before press time. 
 The city, under then-Mayor  
 Michael Bloomberg, first started  
 its partnership with the NY Food  
 Truck Association for disaster relief  
 following Superstorm Sandy  
 sweeping through the city in 2012.  
 That partnership, according to  
 NY Food Truck Association officials, 
  served 278,000 free meals and  
 dispatched  as many  as  32  trucks  
 across the five boroughs on any  
 given day post-Sandy. 
 “We were able to integrate with  
 the City’s emergency response effort  
 so  that we  could  provide hot  
 meals when and where people  
 needed them most,” said David Weber, 
  president of the New York Food  
 Truck Association said in a statement. 
 But business officials in the  
 Bronx said that wasn’t the case after  
 Hurricane Ida. 
 Jaen, who on Monday said  
 he’s had to relocate the trucks  
 from the Throggs Necks business  
 corridor, suggested better 
 suited locations for the food  
 trucks  such  as  Crosby  Avenue  
 and Bruckner Boulevard which  
 has access to schools. 
 He also noted a nearby  
 stretch from Lafayette Avenue  
 and Tremont Avenue located by  
 PS 92 on East 179 Street. 
 “Every  family has  to go  to  
 one of these locations to pick  
 up their kids and wouldn’t  
 that be an appropriate place  
 to put these trucks,” Jaen said. 
 Businessowners like Nathan  
 Giraldi, owner of Cousins Pizzeria, 
  3579 E. Tremont Ave., told the  
 Bronx Times that the food trucks  
 destroyed his lunch hour business  
 for more than a week.  
 “I was pretty upset they were  
 opposite my business,” he said.  
 “They totally destroyed my lunch;  
 nobody  showed  up  for  lunch.  
 These food trucks wreaked havoc  
 on my business.” 
 Worst of all, Giraldi said he  
 saw some of his own regular customers  
 standing on line for the  
 food trucks.  
 “It wasn’t really serving the  
 affected  people,”  he  said.  “You  
 had everybody pulling over getting  
 free food.” 
 Throggs Neck business leaders  
 believe this recent issue is one of a  
 litany of what they consider “antismall  
 business” measures under  
 the outgoing Bill de Blasio administration. 
 “The city doesn’t care about  
 small business,” Jaen said. “De Blasio  
 has been against small business  
 the whole time.” 
 -with reporting by Christian  
 Falcone 
 NYC food relief rollout  
 frustrates businesses