COURTESY OF MITCH COHEN
Business
A candy care package from Economy Candy
Upper East Side’s
Economy Candy
offers care packages
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Just a few weeks ago, Mitch Cohen
and his team at the Lower East Side’s
Economy Candy were stocking up for
its busy, springtime season.
Needless to say, there’s been a huge
change of plans and Cohen’s candy emporium
has shifted to an entirely online
business lately now that the coronavirus
outbreak has raged across the nation.
In a creative and crafty move for his
2,000-plus unit inventory, Economy
Candy is now offering Candy Care Packs,
a variety of goodie baskets that might just
make staying at home a little bit more
enjoyable.
Starting at $35, the candy care packs
come in six varieties: a Basic Pack consisting
of both candy and chocolate, a Health
Nut Pack featuring dried fruits and nuts or
you could opt for Combo Pack, which has
“a little bit of everything.”
With the likelihood that people will
still be confi ned to their homes for the
next couple of weeks, Economy Candy is
also offering Easter Packs and Passover
Packs to be shipped to you or a friend’s
doorstep.
There’s also the Recess Pack, which is
fi lled with retro toys and games for kids
(or stir crazy adults) to play with and pass
time as well.
“Half of our business is tourists,”
Cohen said, noting that the recent travel
ban had already put stress on Economy
Candy prior to the state-mandated business
closure.
“So right now we’re taking things day by
day,” he added.
Cohen hopes that the online orders
become popular enough then Economy
Candy could bring back some of its staff
in the meantime.
Even if you’re not exactly a sweet tooth,
Cohen’s online store offers an array of
collectible trading cards and other novelties.
You can fi nd vintage card packs from
movies like Empire Strikes Back, ET, Jaws,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of
the Ooze, along with many more, cheap
and fun items to get you through being
stuck at home.
Economy Candy even offers a set of
Muppet NHL cards from 1994.
“We’ve been in business for 80 years
and would certainly like to stay open for
80 more,” Cohen said.
HIGHER ED TODAY
In times of crisis, institutions like
CUNY that are integral to the life of New
York and its future have an especially
important role to play.
CUNY’s responsibility in these extraordinary
times is both to protect
the safety of our community members
and to ensure that all of our students,
regardless of their circumstances, are
able to continue their education. But we
are also called to step up, to put the country’s
premier urban public university at
the service of the state and city we call
home.
I have been moved by the resilience,
fortitude and innovation that have been
on display across the university in the
face of this unprecedented health emergency.
CUNY’s 275,000 students and
nearly 50,000 faculty and staff have been
at their best.
In a five-day recess, CUNY accomplished
the Herculean task of transitioning
to distance learning most classes
across 25 campuses and five boroughs.
By the time classes resumed, on March
19, up to 95 percent of CUNY’s 50,000
course sections had moved to distance
learning instruction, and 95 percent of
its nearly 50,000 faculty and staff to working
remotely. Today, those numbers are
closer to 100 percent. My most sincere
thanks to all the faculty and staff who
keep the University going while facing
disruption, fatigue and anxiety in their
personal lives.
Our efforts are also aimed at doing
our part to aid the widespread campaign
to slow the coronavirus spread and help
those in need.
Just as we made our services available
following Superstorm Sandy and
the 9-11 attacks, CUNY facilities including
cafeterias, gyms and some dorms
are available to the State and City to
increase health care capacity, when
and where needed, in the fight against
COVID-19.
Essential campus services like food
pantries remain open in our campuses
to serve our most in need students. Child
care centers are operating with low demand
but they remain open so they can
be fully activated as part of Governor
Cuomo’s efforts to support the needs of
families of medical first responders.
Responding to the need for personal
protective equipment for frontline workers
and other essential employees, several
of our colleges have combined to
donate N-95 masks, nitrile gloves, shoe
covers, disposable lab coats and bottles
of 70% isopropyl alcohol.
Working with Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center, we have helped
establish a testing site on universityowned
property on Manhattan’s Upper
East Side. The Graduate School of Public
Health and Health Policy is releasing
a weekly survey that provide a datadriven
picture of the pandemic’s effects.
Queensborough Community College is
in discussions to manufacture, through
3D-printing, much-needed equipment
for hospitals through its Advanced Manufacturing
Lab.
As we move forward with the critical
effort to preserve the health and wellbeing
of our city, I am grateful to the professionals
and unsung heroes who have
marshaled their services to ensure that
CUNY remains a stabilizing, reassuring
force.
Our response to this global pandemic
is yet another way that CUNY is going to
bat for all New Yorkers. It is yet another
reminder of why I couldn’t be prouder to
be CUNY’s chancellor.
Schneps Media March 26, 2020 15