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April 17-23, 2020
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Da Nonna Rossa delivers meals to the hospital. Da Nonna Rossa
DOCTOR’S ORDERS
Fundraiser nets thousands to feed Slope hospital staff
BY BEN VERDE
A group of Park Slope dogooders
have raised thousands
to feed the hard-working staff
of Methodist Hospital, and
support struggling local businesses
while they’re at it.
As of April 9, an online
fundraiser for the hospital has
netted over $100,000, with the
proceeds providing hundreds
of dinners for healthcare
workers from local restaurants
seven nights a week.
“We’ve heard from so many
people in the community about
how this has provided them
such a wonderful outlet to feel
that they can give back and
show their support,” said Jessica
Fields, who organized the
fundraiser along with Soni Saluja
and Emily Drucker.
Fields initially wanted to
work with a separate fundraising
campaign for personal
protective equipment at the
hospital, but that campaign
ended before she could get involved.
After discussing with
the coordinators of the equipment
fundraiser what else the
hospital was in need of, Fields
landed on food, as the medical
center’s cafeteria shuttered at
the start of the outbreak.
“It wasn’t just that they
didn’t have good food, they
had no food,” Fields said.
Fields and her neighbors
set out with modest ambitions,
and a goal of only a thousand
dollars to provide the workers
with one dinner — a trial
run, she said. After sharing
the fundraiser with around
40 neighbors, the effort ballooned
almost immediately,
with $2,000 pouring in in just
the fi rst day.
“Somebody had shared it
and now we were getting donations
from strangers,” Fields
said. “At that point there was
just no stopping it.”
And their momentum has
not slowed since they started
two weeks ago.
“Each day was like this
new milestone that we could
not imagine having gotten to,”
Fields said.
The fundraiser also gives
locals a chance to support local
restaurants, who have
struggled since a ban on
dining-in went into effect in
March. Each meal is catered
by a different local restaurant
each night, with only independent
local restaurants being
used.
“It’s such a win on so many
levels, the restaurants are getting
business, the hospitals
are getting food,” said Fields.
Food pantries
struggle to
keep up with
new demand
BY JESSICA PARKS
Brooklyn’s food pantries
are seeing a jump in distribution
and dwindling supplies as
hundreds more families rely on
their services amid the current
outbreak of novel coronavirus.
“It has been a tough time for
us as an organization, it is like
we are going into a new pathway
that we have never been
before,” said Dr. Melony Samuels,
founder and director of The
Campaign against Hunger.
The heightened need for food
services follows a surge in borough
residents seeking unemployment
benefi ts — including
after 87,216 claims were fi led in
Brooklyn within the 14-day period
ending on April 4.
Samuels said the number
of families served by her organization
has quadrupled to include
nearly 1,100 individuals
per day, while Thomas Neve,
the director of Reaching-Out
Community Services, said his
regular 10,500 families has
spiked nearly 30 percent.
Both food pantries are experiencing
a rise in costs as food
shortages the infl ux of families
necessitates more staff.
“We have hired for the mass
production, which is something
we did not plan for,” Samuels
said. “We hired staff because
we can’t ask staff to do four
times the amount of work.”
To compensate for the increased
spending at Reaching
Out, Neve said he has had to dip
into his organization’s reserves
— something he fears could
cause problems for operations
once the crisis comes to a close.
“Will we crash out when this
over because right now we are
depleting all of our resources?”
Neve said. “Then what?”
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