Giving back
New York soup kitchen adapts to
coronavirus service with community aid
that could help the kitchen. For Pierce and
her husband, it was about fi nding a way to
“do good in this terrible situation,” she said.
In addition to private chefs, food companies
such as Verlasso Salmon are pitching
in, with the sustainable fi sh company
contributing 5,000 pounds of salmon and
$5,000, said Victoria Parr, Verlasso’s director
of marketing.
Verlasso offi cials wanted to provide
healthy food for those turning to soup
kitchens during the uncertain times of the
viral outbreak, said Marketing Manager
Kathy Liz. This is the fi rst time Verlasso
has directly donated food to a soup kitchen,
she said.
PHOTO VIA GOOGLE MAPS
London Terrace thanks those on the COVID-19 front lines
BY ANDY HUMM
GAY CITY NEWS
With deaths in New York State
from the coronavirus on the
rise, residents of London Terrace
in Chelsea paid their respects to all
the New Yorkers on the front lines of the
battle to contain the contagion and keep
down the numbers of deaths. At 7 p.m. on
March 28, cheers and applause poured out
of the windows of apartments throughout
the complex that runs from Ninth to 10th
Avenues between 23rd and 24th Streets.
Those on the front lines are putting their
own lives at risk, as the March 24 death
of Kious Kelly, an out gay nurse at Mount
Sinai Hospital, showed. Multiple colleagues
The fi sh is prepped to ship and will be on
its way as soon as the soup kitchen ensures
it has a proper place to store all of it, Parr
said.
In addition to food donations, the soup
kitchen started an online fundraiser to
buy food and supplies like biodegradable
containers that guests can use to take food
with them, which was something they never
purchased in bulk before, Guerra said.
The soup kitchen is prepared to operate
under these new standards for at least four
months, so fi nancial support is essential,
Guerra said.
Those interested in donating can also
text FEEDNYC to 44321.
of Kelly were vocal and angry, saying he
was infected because the hospital lacked
suffi cient personal protective equipment
— claims the hospital has disputed.
Many of those applauding from their
apartments in London Terrace were gay
men, who are barred by US Food and
Drug Administration policy from donating
blood — due to an outdated and discriminatory
policy based on fear of HIV — at
a time when the city and the nation are
facing a blood supply crisis. The COVID-19
pandemic is keeping many frequent donors
away from the blood banks.
Those gay men on Saturday night
showed they respect and applaud the work
and sacrifi ce of so many New Yorkers at
this moment.
BY GRANT LANCASTER
New York’s largest soup kitchen is
adapting to feed more New Yorkers
with the help of fewer volunteers,
relying largely on donations of food and cash
from the public and corporate partners.
The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in
Chelsea, which has served meals for New
Yorkers in need through 9/11, the 2008
Recession and Hurricane Sandy, is facing
new challenges during the COVID-19 viral
outbreak such as a lack of volunteers, but
skilled volunteers from shuttered New York
restaurants, community members and generous
businesses are helping fi ll the gaps,
Holy Souls offi cials said.
The soup kitchen has had to send most
of its volunteers home for safety and rapidly
transition their indoor cafeteria-style meals
to a grab and go and delivery service, said
Nichole Guerra, the soup kitchen’s director
of development and communications.
Under the new system, designed to keep
people fed while avoiding crowds and infection,
the soup kitchen is serving about 800
meals a day, but Chief Operating Offi cer
Michael Ottley expects the number to rise
to at least 1,000, he said. The soup kitchen
provided as many as 1,600 meals a day during
the recession in 2008-09, he said.
Guerra expects more and more people
to use the meals the soup kitchen provides
as the state-mandated stay-at-home order
drags on, she said.
“We’re thinking that a lot of people who
never thought they would have to rely on a
soup kitchen for a meal are going to start
coming,” Guerra said.
To meet these growing needs with fewer
volunteers, professional chefs like Ginger
Pierce and her husband Preston Madson
stepped in. Pierce is the executive chef at
Jams Restaurant and Madson is the executive
chef at Il Buco Alimentari. With their
restaurants closed or operating at limited
capacity, some food service workers have
volunteered to help the soup kitchen, Pierce
said.
Pierce had worked with the kitchen’s
programs before but is now helping out
there three days a week, cooking and trying
to work with other restaurants and vendors
PHOTO VIA YOUTUBE/GAY CITY NEWS
14 April 2, 2020 Schneps Media