Giving back
Designer turns to producing med masks
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
After The New York Times posted
an article stating how vital masks
are amid the coronavirus outbreak,
a New York City-based fabric company
grabbed their sewing machines and got to
work.
Gladson Ltd., a luxury fabric merchant
who supplies to companies such as Paul
Smith, Gucci, Paul Stuart, and Stella
McCartney, started by consulting with
Dr. Lauren Streicher about the cloth
specifi cations for masks, including grade
and weight. With the information in hand,
Gladson began its new mission to make one
million masks for local hospitals.
After searching through their New Jersey
warehouse for cotton, Gladson then began
to reach out to their tailors and asked if
they would be willing to make masks for
the public. The company then began to
send out cotton to their tailors, including
Tailor Dara Lamb sporting one of the masks. PHOTOS COURTESY OF FALCONER AGENCY
Providing meals to those most in need amidst covid-19
BY MATT TRACY
As Governor Andrew Cuomo
implements tight restrictions on
non-essential services in New
York, several critical-mission social service
organizations are working through the
coronavirus crisis to continue providing
food services to those in need.
Some agencies have altered their food
distribution operation in an effort to limit
the spread of coronavirus. Below is an outline
of several organizations’ food service
offerings as of the afternoon of March 20.
Citymeals: Citymeals, which delivers
more than two million weekend, holiday,
and emergency meals to more than 18,000
vulnerable seniors every year, stated that
the “city’s home-delivered meal programs
continue at this time which Citymeals
supports on the weekends, holidays, and
in times of emergency.” Citymeals is preparing
200,000 extra meals to absorb the
impact of more seniors being homebound
during the coronavirus crisis.
citymeals.org
Gay Men’s Health Crisis: On March 18,
GMHC said the organization was weighing
food distribution options that included
mailing out supermarket gift cards and
delivering meals to clients’ homes.
For the week prior to that, the agency
— which in a typical year serves more
than 80,000 clients in a meal program
that includes lunch Monday to Thursday
Dara Lamb, or Dara Lamb Atelier New
York, so the tailors could start putting
together the masks.
Hetrick-Martin Institute representatives are seen March 20 distributing food
to LGBTQ youth in need.
and dinner on Friday, distributed nearly
1,600 meals in frozen fi ve-meal packets to
clients who stopped by its West 38th Street
headquarters, which is now closed.
Kelsey Louie, GMHC’s CEO, said, “With
a sense of urgency, we are planning out
our best options to further serve our foodinsecure
clients. This planning will entail
surverying our clients who are in most need
and frequently utliize our food pantry and
meals programs…. In our 38th year, GMHC
is not new to addressing an epidemic.”
“As a life-long New Yorker, I chose to make
the fi nest custom clothing for women right
here, because I wanted to support our local
PHOTO BY HMI.
When asked on March 20 if any further
decisions had been made on that front, a
spokesperson said that the March 18 update
is “where we are.”
gmhc.org
God’s Love We Deliver: GLWD —
which traditionally delivers 8,000 meals
each weekday or a total of 2.1 million a
year — has gradually shifted is operational
procedures in reponse to the growing COVID
19 crisis.
At the end of last week, the group
labor force and skilled artisans,” said Lamb. “I
am glad to know these skills we’ve preserved
can now be redeployed to help in this crisis.”
Once the masks are made, Gladson will
work on the next steps to getting the masks
sent to local hospitals.
“COVID-19 has left us in these times of
uncertainty feeling frustrated and hopeless
and it is further highlighted by the volatility
of the market and the impact on our industry,”
said Guy Milinazzo, Executive Vice
President, Gladson NY. “I am grateful to
customers like Dara Lamb (bespoke womenswear
tailor in NYC) and Marc Streisand
(Mark Allen clothiers in Providence, R.I.)
who have both contacted Gladson with the
idea to help the people on the front lines in
the medical fi eld.”
“I have a daughter who is a nurse, so this
is close to home for me. With these efforts
afoot, I believe we will persevere. Side note:
it feels good to help in any small way we
can.” Milinazzo added.
alerted its volunteers — who number
roughly 16,500 and donate 145,000 hours
annually, saving the agency more than $2
million — not to show up for their shifts if
they were feeling ill. The group also altered
its delivery protocols to ensure that drivers
were wearing protective gloves and avoiding
direct contact with clients, though they
were encouraged to say hello and check in
with them from a safe distance.
As the impact of the coronavirus has
deepened, GLWD has shifted to providing
clients with shelf-stable meal bags providing
enough food for a week.
Given the changing conditions on the
ground for every institution around the
city and the nation, the agency said it was
unable to provide more specifi c details
on its operation and plans going forward,
explaining, “We would not want to give you
information that could possibly change by
day’s end.”
glwd.org
Hetrick-Martin Institute: The Cooper
Square agency — which provides more
than 11,000 hot meals a year to its LGBTQ
youth clientele, more than 20 percent of
whom cite the need for food as a primary
reason for visiting HMI — has replaced its
hot meal program with an on-site distribution
effort offering groceries, meals-to-go,
and shelf-stable food on Tuesdays and
Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Toiletries
and menstrual hygiene are also be supplied.
hmi.org.
Schneps Media March 26, 2020 21
/glwd.org
/gmhc.org
/citymeals.org
/hmi.org
