BY BEN VERDE
A group of Park Slopers
have launched a pop-up food
pantry to feed locals struggling
during the coronavirus
pandemic, and to help
take some of the pressure off
the neighborhood’s existing
meal programs.
Operating out of the Camp
Friendship clubhouse on
Eighth Street near Sixth Avenue
since late May, a team
of volunteers are distributing
food to those who need
it every Tuesday afternoon
from 3 to 6 pm.
“The thing that was so
frustrating with COVID-19
was that the thing they were
telling us to do was to go
home and stay in your house
and do nothing, and for so
many people it was just driving
us nuts,” said Chris Johnson,
a leading organizer of
the effort. “As things started
to open up more, this seemed
like something that was really
essential.”
COURIER L 4 IFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020
Johnson said the pop-up
pantry aims to ease some
of the strain on local operations
like Fourth Avenue
soup kitchen CHIPS, which
has seen lines stretching
down the block throughout
the pandemic, and Sunset
Park non-profit Center for
Family Life, which sees people
lining up hours early for
daily meal distributions.
With minimal outreach
— Johnson said he hung a
few flyers near CHIPS and
around the subway — the
Camp Friendship pantry
has already seen a swell of
demand.
On its first day of operation,
volunteers saw a
steady flow of those in need
of food — but they never had
a line, and the pop-up pantry
ran out of food by 5 pm. On
its second week, a line had
formed well before its 3 pm
opening, and had stretched
around the corner before 4
pm — a product of the service
spreading through word-ofmouth,
Johnson suspects.
On its most recent operating
day, the pantry offered
boxes of produce provided by
City Harvest, kitchen staples
like rice and beans, and prepared
meals from the Brooklyn
Relief Kitchen. But, organizers
fear they may be
unable to provide City Harvest
produce in the future,
and are hoping donations
from the community will
help sustain their efforts.
As thousands remain out
of work due to the ongoing
pandemic, it is estimated
that one in four New Yorkers
are food insecure. A report
by the Food Bank for
New York City released June
9 found that over one-third
of full-time food pantries
across the five boroughs
were forced to close when
they were needed most, exacerbating
demand and dwindling
supplies at those that
weathered the storm.
A volunteer hands out food through a makeshift plastic divider.
Photo by Ben Verde
With its ranks made up
entirely of unpaid participants,
the organizers of
Park Slope’s newest pantry
say they hope they can bring
some relief to the existing
system while keeping their
neighbors fed.
“The goal of this was simply
to bring a little bit of relief,
at least one day a week,
for people who are waiting
on these lines,” Johnson
said.
Lending a hand
Park Slope locals launch pop-up food pantry