‘Iftar on the go’ program reinvigorates call
for $25M hunger relief program: Stringer
BY MARK HALLUM
City Comptroller Scott Stringer introduced
an effort on April 13 to
get food pantry items that check all
the halal boxes to Muslims experiencing
food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic during Ramadan.
The last thing anyone should experience
after fasting all day is an empty cupboard,
according to speakers at Food Bank for
New York City’s Community Kitchen
in Harlem on Tuesday, which acted as a
reminder for Stringer the city needs a $25
million emergency food fund for undocumented
New Yorkers.
The city has the money, Stringer’s offi
ce said, in the form of existing Federal
Emergency Management Agency funds.
“Federal and state programs discriminate
and the city has to fi ll that gap with
that $25 million. Seems like a lot of money.
It’s really not when you look at the food
insecurity that people are suffering as
we continue through this pandemic. You
know, everyone is starting to talk about,
well, we’re going to be back to the roaring
20s. But we have in the Muslim community
a vaccination standstill and we have
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer at Food Bank for New York City’s Community
Kitchen in Harlem on April 13, 2021.
to recognize that until you’re vaccinated,
you’re not going to be able to have the freedom
of movement that we need to have,”
Stringer said. “Second, there are people
who are not able to provide for their children
and their parents, and we still have
the issue of a full-on halal program that
meets the needs of the community and as
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
far as I’m concerned, this is a crisis, and we
have to address that through a real funding
stream.”
Stinger’s call to Mayor Bill de Blasio
went out in March in the form of a letter
with about 100 community groups signed
on who hoped the administration would
use Federal Emergency Management
Agency reimbursements to provide food
to excluded groups such as undocumented
New Yorkers.
Stringer, who is running for mayor in
the June 22 Democratic primary, called for
“culturally relevant” food to be included
as options in meal plans through the
program.
“The absence of food in the day and the
humility and gratitude expressed serious
in breaking your fast I’ve been sick or falling
important in Ramadan,” Food Bank
for New York City’s Community Kitchen
Director Sultana Ocasio said. “Ensuring
New Yorker’s access to free halal meals
during Ramadan especially during a time
of increased food insecurity and COVID
is vital to supporting all members of our
community across the line in their time of
healing.”
The organization now provides for
3,000 households and 9,000 individuals
per month with groceries that will likely
only sustain them for a week. About 1,000
hot meals come out of their kitchen as well
as about 1.6 million New Yorkers struggle
with food insecurity by Ocasio’s count
during an unrelated press conference two
weeks prior.
Beehive deliveries keep New Yorkers buzzing
on rooftops, backyards
BY ROSELLE CHEN
REUTERS
Bustling New York City may not seem
a bee-friendly place, but its highrise
rooftops and tiny gardens are
buzzing with honeymakers threatened by
pesticides in rural areas.
About 2.4 million Italian honeybees
waited in a white van to be taken to their
new homes early Friday. It was parked near
the Dakota Apartments by Central Park,
where John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono has
lived since 1973.
“This is the fi rst year that we’ve done
this outside The Dakota,” said Andrew
Coté, president of the New York City Beekeepers
Association. “We heard that Yoko
likes honey.”
Coté, who founded Andrew’s Honey,
drove up from Georgia to deliver the
bees. The van held 200 wood and screen
packages, each with about 12,000 bees. A
steady stream of beekeepers lined up to
pick up their 3 lb packages which cost $159
Urban beekeeper Andrew Cote replenishes bee hives on a rooftop building in
New York City, U.S. April 9, 2021.
or $205, depending on when they placed
their order. “Bees are sold by weight, like
cheese,” he said.
Some buyers stuffed the packages in
SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS
bags, while Ray Sage strapped two boxes
of bees to his bicycle to ride to his hive on
the Lower East Side.
“I have to just ride really slowly and
carefully. Sometimes I think of it as I’m
training to be Danish and I never become
Danish,” he said.
The number of urban beekeepers has
grown quickly, with many hives now found
on the rooftops of skyscrapers and offi ce
buildings, Cote said. New York legalized
beekeeping in 2010 and has hundreds of
registered hives, according to the Department
of Health.
Bee populations are in sharp decline
worldwide, partly because of excessive
pesticides and chemicals in rural areas,
and a lack of crop variety.
New York does not have this problem,
making it a healthy bee habitat, said Alan
Markowitz, a Bronx resident who is a beekeeper
at La Finca del Sur Community
Garden, run by women of color.
“A third of what you put in your mouth
needs a pollinator. And in the city, believe
it or not, bees do well because there’s
less pesticides generally,” said the former
farmer. “Having a lot of variety is wonderful
for bees.”
4 April 15, 2021 Schneps Media