Dominican Bar Association board members
team up to feed front line workers
BY JASON COHEN
Estefani Rodriguez and Peter
Garcia, board members of
the Dominican Bar Association,
often spoke to each other
about life, family, personal and
professional goals or what took
place on a given day.
Before COVID-19 became a
global pandemic, they wanted
to work on a project that would
provide a meaningful and positive
impact in their communities.
After seeing and experiencing
the devastating impact
caused by COVID-19, they regrouped
and realized that the
time to spring into action was
now.
“As attorneys, we should
strategize and collaborate with
leadership in the legal profession
to fi nd ways to support
minority-owned businesses by
purchasing meals to donate
to front line workers,” the duo
said.
What originally started
with a handful of affi nity bar
associations, quickly expanded
to 20 organizations representing
lawyers, judges, legal professionals
and law students in
the tri-state area.
These partnering organizations
collectively referred
to themselves as the Coalition.
While Rodriguez and Garcia
knew or worked with some
of these people, the majority
had not prior to this initiative.
Despite that, the Coalition enthusiastically
embraced this
idea and demonstrated their
confi dence in them as each partnering
BRONX TIMES R 2 EPORTER, MAY 15-21, 2020 BTR
organization committed
funds for meal purchasing.
“We were beyond excited
when we reached $10,000 in
commitments in a matter of
days,” Rodriguez and Garcia
said.
While the Coalition committed
$10,000, Rodriguez and
Garcia needed assistance to
manage the logistics. Specifi -
cally, they were tasked with
contacting all 10 minorityowned
restaurants, placing
the food orders for hundreds of
heroes, coordinating delivery
with nine hospitals and facilitating
the payments from the
20 organizations to each restaurant.
Fortunately, they received
additional support from
their friend, Jasmine Bueno
and Garcia’s wife, Stephanie
Robayo.
This effort was the result of
leadership in the legal profession
coming together to support
the local community during
this diffi cult time.
“This was no easy feat, but
it was worth it and felt quite rewarding,”
they said.
This money helped provide
almost 1,100 meals for front
line workers at nine hospitals
and paramedics at one facility.
Most of the deliveries were
distributed for lunch on April
29. Since promoting this effort
on social media, Rodriguez
and Garcia received interest
from other organizations that
wished to contribute to this effort.
“We received over $3,000 in
additional commitments and
we hope to leverage this effort
to assist other organizations
to continue what we accomplished,”
Rodriguez and Garcia
said.
Rodriguez and Garcia have
always appreciated being involved
with their communities;
from being an informal
or formal mentor to providing
engaging discussions that
educate and empower the attendees.
They serve in varying
leadership roles for several organizations.
Rodriguez serves
as a committee member for the
Hispanic National Bar Association
(HNBA,) Young Lawyers
Division for Region II (New
York region.) Garcia is the chief
of staff for Anta Cisse-Green,
president-elect of the MBBA,
treasurer for HNBA Young
Lawyers Division and committee
member for the Task Force
on Puerto Rico (New York City
Bar Association.)
Attorney Estefani Rodriguez (l) and Attorney Peter Garcia
Photo Photo courtesy of the Coalition