FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 6, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
Acts of Kindness Send your Acts of Kindness to editorial@qns.com
LIC resident donates over 300 meals to Chinese Community Center
BY SOFIA VALDES
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Long Island City resident Brian
Pham donated over 300 meals to the
Chinese Community Center, located in
Chinatown.
Th e idea came to Pham two days before
his birthday, when his old roommate
shared a video with him of a 65-year-old
Asian woman who was beaten on 360 W
43rd St. Th is hit home for Pham because
he used to live very close to that apartment
building and would walk past it
every day to get home.
“Something just triggered me from
watching that and I was like, ‘I need to do
something to give back back and spread
awareness about what is going on,’” Pham
said.
His close friend who is very involved
in the community, Katherine Vu, was
the one who suggested to Pham that he
cook meals for the AAPI elderly who are
“very vulnerable at this moment.” Pham
thought it was a great idea because he has
a passion for cooking.
Since his birthday was coming up,
Pham decided to create a GoFundMe
in order to receive donations to pay for
meals.
“I originally set out to cook just 100
meals on my own, asking friends and
family for donations around $5 a meal,
and I ended up hitting that goal in an
hour,” Pham said. “Next thing you know,
I’m like around 800 meals that I have
been meaning to cook!”
Pham then reached out to the Chinese
Community Center to see if they would
be interested in taking part in this event.
“When Brian called us about his desire
to cook meals for our community, we were
deeply moved by this unexpected surprise.
With the rise of Asian hate crimes
plaguing our city, it was great to see young
people like Brian reach out to provide
us support and encouragement,” Chinese
Consolidated Benevolent Association
President Justin Yu said. “He did not allow
the negativity targeted at the Asian community
to keep him down. Instead, he
took positive action and made a diff erence
in the lives of those he served.”
Because of the overwhelming support
from his family and peers, Pham planned
to do two events instead of one, since it
would be too much to do for one day.
Th ey’ve already had their fi rst event.
“So we did one event with 320 meals,”
Pham said. “We sent out a volunteer form
and got about 30 volunteers to help us
cook and to help us source vegetables and
transport. We shopped at Asian wholesalers
and Asian supermarkets so we can
funnel the money back into the Asian
AAPI community.”
Pham direct-messaged many chefs on
Instagram in hopes that they would help
him cook for this event. To his dismay,
not many responded. But, at an AAPI
rally, Pham spotted YouTuber Andrew
Fung, who makes a lot of food videos on
his channel. Pham told him about the
work he was doing and Fung was able
to get him connected to Erik Kwan, who
was a champion on the show “Chopped.”
Kwan cooked 150 meals with the help
of some of Pham’s volunteers for the
event and Pham was able to cook 150
meals with his friends in Queens, as well.
Each meal kit included one meal, drink,
a pastry and a fl yer that shows their support
of the Asian community. Th e fl yer
also included information for the company
SafeWatch.
Th e event was a tremendous success.
According to Pham, the fi rst 150 meals
were gone in 18 minutes and they were
completely out of food within the fi rst 50
minutes of setting up.
“It just goes to show you how much
need there is in the community,” Pham
said.
Read more on QNS.com.
Photo courtesy of Wandering Woo
Long Island City resident Brian Pham created Meals for Unity to help feed the AAPI community in
New York City.
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