8 APRIL 30, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Hungry Monk launches fundraiser to continue
feeding Queens’ most vulnerable communities
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Hungry Monk, a Ridgewood-based homeless
outreach and community response vehicle,
launched an emergency fundraiser in order
to maintain their vital food services in Queens.
“We’re looking to raise funds so that we can
continue the work we’ve begun. We’ve dedicated
ourselves to continue doing this work as long as
we could,” Father Mike Lopez, executive director
of Hungry Monk, said in their fundraising
video.
Hungry Monk has served homeless individuals
and vulnerable Queens families since 2017. But on
March 10, they began their emergency mode, converting
their space at Covenant Lutheran Church,
located at 68-59 60th Ln. in Ridgewood, into a full
scale food pantry to begin providing daily meals
for the community amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The entirely volunteer-led team is out on the
streets distributing food around Queens seven
days a week, 12 hours a day. To date, they’ve provided
more than 250,000 pounds of food. By the
end of March, they fed more than 10,000 families
with children, seniors, and people experiencing
homelessness.
But the $60,000 Hungry Monk had in their budget
for the year — allocated by elected officials
— was gone in less than a month.
“Our food pantry resources are almost all dried
up,” Hungry Monk wrote in a press release. “If
they dry up, there are no restaurants that we can
fall back on to ask for leftovers. The 10,000 families
we’ve served so far through the food pantry
will not get supplies, and people will go hungry
immediately. There is no buffer zone.”
They are currently distributing fresh and dry
goods at Covenant Lutheran Church on Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays at 10 a.m. They also
operate their regular Saturday food outreach
at Ridgewood Veterans Triangle at Myrtle and
Cypress at 11 a.m.
Hungry Monk has partnered with several community
organizations, including Woodbine, The
Rock Church in Elmhurst, Our Lady of Mount Carmel
in Astoria, NYCHA’s Bedford Stuyvesant Family
Health Center in Brooklyn, Woodside Houses,
NYCHA’s Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn and
NYCHA’s Throggs Neck Houses in the Bronx.
They’re also offering bed programs for individuals
experiencing homelessness at the Ridgewood
Abbey, Elmhurst Abbey and St. James Abbey.
Hungry Monk is also providing home deliveries
to discharged patients from Wyckoff Heights
Medical Center in Brooklyn, as well as those currently
experiencing coronavirus symptoms, the
immunocompromised, and the elderly who live in
the greater community of Ridgewood, Glendale,
Maspeth, Middle Village and Bushwick.
Recently, Hungry Monk partnered with Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez to provide pantry bags to
her constituency in District 14, including Corona,
Elmhurst, Woodside and the Bronx. Ocasio-Cortez
said that these volunteers are on the frontlines
like others, and need the economic support to
not only continue to feed those who need it, but
also to secure person protective equipment for
themselves.
“These volunteers that are stepping up and
putting themselves at risk. They’re trying to do
Photo courtesy of Hungry Monk
that to prevent the alternative, which would be
hundreds of people waiting in a crowded line
in front of a food pantry,” Ocasio-Cortez said
during a virtual town hall. “Because at the end
of the day, our community needs to eat. A lot of
our families that we’ve been hearing from say
they’re reducing the amount of meals they’re taking
per day because they’re scared and don’t have
the resources now that people have been out of
work for several weeks.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson
previously pledged $25 million, and the city later
rolled out a $170 million plan to combat the evergrowing
hunger crisis.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced April 27 that
the state will allocate $25 million in emergency
funding for food banks, and will launch a Nourish
New York initiative, as food banks across the state
see a surge in demand (NYC’s food banks have
seen a 100 percent surge alone).
But Hungry Monk said they haven’t received
any additional money from the Mayor or city.
Therefore, their goal is to raise $100,000 to restock
their pantry, so they’ll be able to operate for at
least another month.
To donate, visit www.secure.actblue.com/
donate/hungrymonk or their website at www.
hungrymonkrescuetruck.org.
“We need to maintain our pantry for the community,
but our resources have been depleted,”
Hungry Monk wrote in a press release. “The
initial wave of restaurant donations has dried
up, but we need to be able to keep rescuing and
distributing food for those in need. In addition to
bulk purchases of fresh produce and dry goods,
we have been renting supplemental vehicles for
delivery, paying for gas, insurance, space rental
and other operating expenses.”
/WWW.QNS.COM
/
/www.hungrymonkrescuetruck.org
/www.hungrymonkrescuetruck.org
link
/
/hungrymonkrescuetruck.org
link
