ELMHURST EVENT INCLUDES FREE MEALS FOR
COMMUNITY IN EFFORT TO BATTLE HUNGER inaction in helping
to bridge the food gap in New
York. Several COVID-19 relief
bills which could pour billions
of dollars in new financial aid
to New Yorkers in need have
stalled in the Senate. The city’s
emergency food program, organizers
claim, has proven to
be inadequate to the current
need.
Dannelly Rodriguez of
Housing Justice 4 All touched
upon the disparity in his remarks.
“It’s been us coming together
using the resources that we
have after we had a government
that has actively denied
us the resources that we’ve
needed over the years and especially
during COVID,” Rodriguez
said. “So, distributing
this food isn’t charity, y’all.
This is mutual aid, and mutual
aid is political. When we
live in a system that is racist
… that puts rich people at the
center of our policy, it’s up to
Residents received free meals during the “Rally for Food Justice” in Elmhurst, Queens on Oct. 11,
us to put our resources together
2020. Photo by Dean Moses
and feed our people, because
nobody else is going to do it.”
won’t get into the trash to eat
As people have struggled
it. That’s f—ed up. So, we are
with food insecurity during
giving away free food. … But
the pandemic, organizations
any chance you get, you should
have begun setting up community
give what you have back to the
refrigerators. Abbott said
community.”
they are a critical exchange
The organizers, in a press
point in the battle against
release, condemned governmental
hunger.
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The COVID-19 pandemic
only exacerbated New York
City’s food insecurity problem
— and with so many residents
lacking proper nutrition, several
Queens groups decided to
serve a Sunday meal to residents
in need.
The “Rally for Food Justice”
not only fed individuals
from around Elmhurst
and Jackson Heights but also
called to attention to the growing
hunger problem in the
country, as well as the new
network of community refrigerators
popping up on street
corners that aim to help give
the hungry something good to
eat free of charge.
The event brought out
scores of residents who received
free, vegan meals
provided by the organizers
outside of Moore Playground,
located across the street from
Elmhurst Hospital. Residents
also received snacks, water,
hand sanitizer and masks
from a “people’s bodega” set
up during the rally.
Volunteers from the rally’s
sponsor organizations, including
the Queens Liberation
Project, Queens DSA Mutual
Aid, Housing Justice 4 All,
the Astoria Food Pantry and
Queens Community Fridges.
As Trasonia Abbott of
Queens Liberation put it, the
event offered a chance to give
back to a community in need.
She also highlighted the problem
of food waste across America.
“America has so much food.
All the time, there’s so much
food in this country, and we
throw it in the trash,” Abbott
said. “Every day, so much food
gets made, and then tossed in
the trash, and coffee is poured
over it so homeless people
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