New Alternatives brings gifts to LGBTQ
youth with Gay Santa Project
BY MATT TRACY
GAY CITY NEWS
Gay Santa Claus is coming to town.
The team at New Alternatives, a
drop-in crisis center serving homeless
queer youth and individuals with living
with HIV in New York City, is busy preparing
the organization’sGay Santaproject.
Volunteers distributed gifts at Metro
Baptist Church on Wednesday, Dec. 23,
though individuals seeking gifts had been
required to send their requests by Dec. 13.
New Alternatives’ holiday party was canceled
due to statewide COVID-19 restrictions,
but the group is offering a holiday
bag along with a boxed Christmas dinner.
The agency saw a record number of letters
to Santa in 2020, with 233 queer youth
penning their wish lists. The group’s director,
Kate Barnhart, told Gay City News the
city’s queer homeless community has been
hit especially hard by COVID-19.
“People are asking for coats and things
that are just a lot more practical,” she said.
“And sort of refl ect the fact that some of
their basic needs are not being met this
year.”
Volunteers at New Alternatives are preparing a Christmas dinner and a holiday
bag for queer youth in need.
LGBTQ youth were already disproportionally
affected by homelessness when
compared to the cis-straight community,
with queer young people making up 43
percent of the nation’s youth homelessness
population, according to a 2012 report
fromUCLA’s William’s Institute.
Those disparitieshave only been
PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK/NEW ALTERNATIVES
exacerbated during the pandemic. New
Alternatives has seen an uptick in requests
for gift cards that cover food and clothing
and Barnhart said the “somber tone” of the
letters appears to refl ect the growing toll of
COVID-19 on folks’ mental health.
“Almost every client mentions the pandemic
one way or the other,” she said. “You
can tell it’s really weighing on them.”
New Alternatives has sought to meet the
demand brought on by the pandemic. The
group opened up submissions to clients at
other LGBTQ youth shelters in the city,
such as Trinity Place and Sylvia’s Place,
and New Alternatives is increasing food
services and offering remote and in-person
therapy sessions to clients who lack access
to a computer or phone.
Notably, the group is seeing an increase
in support. While the organization is typically
short on Santas, a whopping 300 have
signed up to be Santa this year — including
actress and singer Lauren Patten, who is
known for her role as “Jo” in the Broadway
musical “Jagged Little Pill.”
Barnhart ultimately hopes this project
can offer some hope during tumultuous
times.
“Holidays are a very diffi cult time for
them,” Barnhart said. “The Gay Santa
project shows them that there’s someone
out there in the world that cares enough to
do this, and it makes them feel connected
to the community.”
This story fi rst appeared on our sister
publication gaycitynews.com.
Eating panettone at Christmas is a must,
according to Tribeca’s Grandaisy Bakery
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
It’s no wonder that the major religions
bring candles, lights and sweetness into
their holidays that fall on the darkest
days of the year—they’re sensory ways of
breaking up the dark.
Panettone, the sweet bread originally
from Milan emerges full force around the
winter season.
“In the session on holidays in my Italian
class,” says Yolaine Milfort, “they talk about
the tradition of eating panettone at Christmas.
Always a seasonal staple at Grandaisy
Bakery, panettone is a cross between bread
and cake says master baker Julio Gruarchaj
at the Tribeca artisanal bake shop.
Gruarchaj explains the three-day process
in creating the Christmas treat.
A starter with wild yeast called biga
(which assists in a fl uffy texture), fl our and
water cures for one day. On the second day,
an equal amount mixture with fl our, eggs,
butter, candied-orange, citron, rum-soaked
raisins is added and it rises for another 24
hours. Shaped and put into the paper forms
The finished product is light, delicate and flavored for the holidays.
on the third day, it rises another eight hours
before baking for 55 minutes.
The cupola-shaped loaves are hung
upside down to cool once out of the oven.
“They would collapse, if they weren’t,” says
PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Gruarchaj, adding that even in cooling they
continue to bake from the hot, now upsidedown,
bottom.
The loaves are bagged and packed in festive
gift boxes on the fourth day —ready for
purchase or shipping.
Grandaisy owner Monica Von Thun
Calderón beams in describing the delicate
and sophisticated taste of her panettone,
“It’s such a surprise. Everyone thinks of it
as a fruit cake, but it’s not heavy.”
And she emphasizes how it’s all natural—
no artifi cial preservatives and the
fermentation of the starter keeps her panettone
fresh for literally months.
None the less, she recommends, “It’s a
great gift that is not cluttering a home. You
eat it, enjoy it, and it’s gone.”
That being said, Tribeca neighbor,
masked and bundled-up Nina Schwalbe
and son Cy were spotted a recent afternoon
in the bakery holding to buy the tell-tale
red panettone Christmas box. Schwalbe
informed me that this is the sixth one she’s
purchased this year, “We’re buying these
for all our relatives.”
Available to purchase in the bakery or
on-line for pick-up or sent by UPS, the
bakery has completed baking its last batch,
which they will be selling and shipping
through New Years’.
4 December 24, 2020 Schneps Media
/gaycitynews.com
