Lower East Side taking donations
to feed first responders
Editorial
Victims of virus deserve dignity
they grieve in isolation, unable
to hold a large wake or service.
Instituting temporary burials for
later exhumation and reburial
would just compound their pain.
The city and state must work
together on a plan to coordinate
the burial of coronavirus victims
with dignity and respect.
Levine had proposed a call to
action that involves recruiting
morticians from across the
country to assist; this would be
a wise thing to do.
Wiser, still, would be additional
support for the Medical
Examiner’s offi ce to work with
funeral directors and expedite
claims from morgues across the
city. The city must also coordinate
with cemeteries and crematoriums
to ensure dignifi ed, yet
orderly, burials and cremations.
We hope it never gets to the
point of mass burials in potter’s
fi elds. We must prepare to do
everything possible to avoid that
contingency.
PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK/LOWER EAST SIDE PARTNERSHIP
BY GRANT LANCASTER
Members of the Lower
East Side Partnership are
raising donations to feed
police and other fi rst responders
with food purchased from struggling
local businesses during the
COVID-19 viral outbreak.
As the city’s stay-at-home order
stretches to the end of April, the
Partnership set a goal of feeding 100
fi rst responders one meal a day for
XD Coffee raises money to keep
healthcare workers caffeinated
BY BETH DEDMAN
XD Coffee’s Coffee
for Healthcare
Heroes campaign
is raising funds through
GoFundMe to provide free
XD Coffee cold brew to
healthcare professionals
battling the COVID-19
crisis in NYC hospitals.
More than 10 NYC hospitals
have already signed
the next 30 days, making an initial
$5,000 donation and setting aside a
further $10,000 to match donations
dollar for dollar.
The purchase of the meals will also
help support local restaurants that are
struggling to adapt to uncertain times
during the outbreak, said Michael
Forrest, chair of the Lower East Side
Partnership Board of Directors.
People interested in pitching in
can donate to the Partnership’s
GoFundMe.
up to benefi t from the campaign.
XD Coffee sent out
their fi rst orders last week
and plans to send out many
more this week.
In seven days, the
campaign has raised over
$3,000, said Nigell Lee, the
CEO of Xpresso Delight.
“The response from
healthcare workers has
been fantastic and honestly
I wasn’t too sure whether it
would make any difference,”
Lee said. “But these people
are on the front lines, all the
local coffee shops and cafes
are closed around them.
They tend not to have time
to make coffee.”
XD Coffee is also donating
20% of cold brew sales
back into the campaign
when customers use the
code HEALTHCAREHEROES
at checkout.
Even with glimmers of
hope that the city might
be turning the corner
on the coronavirus pandemic,
things took a very dark turn
Monday regarding the remains
of the virus’ victims.
Morgues across the city are beyond
capacity. Refrigerated trailers
stationed outside hospitals are
being used to keep the remains
of the disease’s casualties until
funeral directors can claim them.
With more than 2,400 New
Yorkers dead from the coronavirus
in less than a month, funeral
homes across the city are absolutely
swamped. The Washington
Post had a remarkable profi le of
one Queens funeral home that
refl ects the reality most local
funeral homes face today.
There’s incredible diffi culty
in obtaining bodies for the
families they represent because
of case backlogs in the Medical
Examiner’s offi ce.
Disinfecting and other
supplies critical to the embalming
process are running short.
Social distancing measures prohibit
families from holding wakes
for large numbers of mourners.
Cemeteries are swamped, and
burials are being postponed. Crematoriums
are working around
the clock to burn the dead, so
there’s a long list for cremations.
Mayor Bill de Blasio hinted
Monday that a “temporary burial”
program might be required;
Hart Island, the city’s “potter’s
fi eld” that’s the notorious last
resting place for the unknown
and indigent, may be used to
store coronavirus victims’ bodies
until their families are able to
give them a proper burial.
Councilman Mark Levine
further surmised that a public
park might even be employed
for temporary burials. The
mayor’s offi ce strongly denied
that would happen.
Families of coronavirus
victims have it bad enough;
PHOTO VIA GETTY
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