8 APRIL 16, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Maspeth activist urges DOE to help feed
the homeless with schools’ food excess
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Crystal Wolfe, the founder and
president of Catering for the
Homeless, has been on a mission
to feed the homeless and others who
are food insecure in Queens well before
the COVID-19 pandemic hit New
York City.
“Our main mission is to end hunger
by utilizing food excess from catering
companies, schools, restaurants, and
grocery stores for the homeless and
food insecure,” Wolfe said. “There has
never been so much hunger and homelessness
in the history of America, and
New York City has the greatest homeless
population in the nation.”
Wolfe is a well-known advocate for
homeless people in the community,
and even wrote a book, “Our Invisible
Neighbors,” debunking myths about
the state of being homeless where she
noted homelessness oft en stems from
domestic violence and poverty, to
name a few reasons.
But the Maspeth resident does
much more than write and give the
community a voice — Wolfe actually
goes out and collects food as well as
supplies to distribute among Queens’
neediest families.
To date, Wolfe has provided approximately
41,000 meals to the homeless
and food insecure through church
lunches and dinners, food pantries,
as well as directly to homeless people
and migrant workers, and provided
approximately 16,000 items of clothing
for the homeless throughout NYC.
She developed a network of partners
in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan,
many of which are churches,
pantries and other organizations,
that she counts on to help distribute
the items among people and families
aft er gathering the food from various
catering companies and restaurants.
“There is food going to waste in every
town in America that no one needs to
go hungry,” Wolfe said. “Getting this
food excess to those who need it can
solve, or greatly reduce, this hunger
crisis.”
In NYC, there were 62,679 homeless
people, including 14,682 homeless
families with 22,013 homeless children,
sleeping each night in the New
York City municipal shelter system,
according to the organization Coalition
for the Homeless.
GETTING THE DOE
ON BOARD
However, Wolfe believes there’s a
particular element that’s missing in
order to reduce the hunger crisis in
NYC: The food excess from schools.
Wolfe has tried to work with schools
across Queens in order to redistribute
their food excess for years, but is met
with a hesitant yet resounding “no”
every time. She said the main reason
schools don’t feel comfortable donating
their food is because they don’t
have set guidelines from the Department
of Education.
In response, she created a petition
to get the DOE to comply with the food
law that passed in 2017 and was cosponsored
by state Senator Joseph
Addabbo, which encourages schools
to donate their unused food items.
She has the support of many people
in the community, including former
educators like Councilman Daniel
Dromm and Jerry Drake, a Community
Board 5 member who retired a
year ago from a school in Corona.
“Running out of food for a school has
never happened in my experience of
being in 25 plus schools, they always
have food left over that was not used.
What happens to that food?” Drake
said. “I used to watch the students
throw away perfectly good apples not
even taking a bite and would think to
myself, ‘What a waste.'”
Wolfe understands that liability
is a big concern, but she emphasizes
that she’s done extensive research and
hasn’t come across an actual lawsuit
against a food donor.
“My organization would be happy
to accept all liability and I would
gladly sign a waiver to that eff ect,”
Wolfe said.
The online petition has garnered
almost 700 signatures and her physical
petition has more than 350 signatures
as of Wednesday, April 8.
Wolfe said she was able to talk to
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza
directly during Community Education
Council 24’s town hall in March.
“I was gratifi ed to hear the chancellor
say that he is open to getting more
food excess from the schools out into
the community,” Wolfe said.
Since then, the COVID-19 crisis has
caused all schools to close. But there
are still more than 400 locations in
NYC serving three, free meals a day
for kids and adults, which initially
began as breakfast and dinner for
students who are school aged. The
DOE also opened almost 100 Regional
Enrichment Centers throughout
the city, where they’re also providing
meals for the children of fi rst
responders.
One of the reasons offi cials were
hesitant to close schools was because
many students and families depend
on them for their daily source of
food.
According to a 2019 report by Advocates
for Children, one in 10 of NYC’s
public school students are homeless.
An estimated 348,500 NYC children
live in food insecure households,
according to the nonprofi t Feeding
America.
Yet, the fi rst week the DOE began
the “Grab and Go” initiative, Pix 11
reported that some schools’ free
lunches became garbage.
“It’s still likely they have food excess,”
Wolfe said. “My hope is to work
with them now with Enrichment
Centers that have that food excess,
and then, of course, when schools
reopen.”
The DOE told QNS they’d review
the petition.
“The health and well-being of our
students is our top priority and every
day school is in session we serve free,
nutritious breakfast and lunch to all
New York City public schools students
citywide,” a DOE spokesperson
said. “Our rigorous health and safety
standards prohibit repurposing food
that has already been served.”
CATERING FOR THE
HOMELESS’ COVID-19
CRISIS RELIEF DRIVE
In the meantime, Wolfe continues
to go out into the community and help
those in need, with added precautions
due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in
the borough.
In the past three weeks, Wolfe has
delivered more than 300 food and
toiletry items to food pantries in
Ridgewood and Woodside, assembled
100 bags of toiletries and food with six
to eight items per bags, began distributing
the 3,000 socks she won from
Hanes’ 2020 Sock Drive, and helped
organize about 700 bags of food to
provide a week’s worth of meals for
about 100 families at St. Teresa’s Food
Pantry in Woodside.
Wolfe believes that, to an extent,
the repercussions of the coronavirus
outbreak we’re witnessing are due to
the existing failures within NYC’s —
and the nation’s — system.
“When you ignore problems, the
problems get worse,” she said. “These
problems didn’t happen overnight
and solutions also won’t happen
overnight. It’s going to take time, but
what drives me to make it happen is
knowing people are suff ering.”
The need, Wolfe said, will only
increase from here. But she’s ready
to work within the community to help
feed people.
Wolfe added, “I hope people will
start to realize that what’s happening
in the entire country right now
due to the pandemic — Americans
losing their jobs with no fault of their
own, not being able to pay the bills or
food — that’s what’s been happening
to millions of homeless people every
year.”
Crystal Wolfe, founder and president of Catering for the Homeless, and
Councilman Daniel Dromm signing her DOE petition.
Photo by Angélica Acevedo/QNS
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