26 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 20, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
SE Queens City Council candidate attacked in Hollis
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
A City Council candidate was attacked
in southeast Queens on May 15 as he confronted
City Council passes legislation requiring DOE food waste prevention
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
As thousands were forced to join blockslong
food lines to feed their families during
the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,
“food insecurity” became part of the
lexicon across Queens.
On Tuesday, May 12, the City
Council passed legislation authored by
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer requiring
the Department of Education (DOE)
to develop and implement a food waste
prevention plan.
Every day, the DOE provides meals
for more than one million children who
attend public schools across the fi ve boroughs.
Th is is equal to hundreds of millions
of food produced and consumed
every year.
Th is year, the DOE worked to direct
much of this food to those in the community
in need, however, there was still
a massive amount of food waste that was
created, with an untold amount that was
discarded without real tracing. Th rough
the implementation of a real food waste
prevention plan, the DOE can divert
much of their waste from the landfi ll to
food kitchens, compost or simply reduce
waste in general.
Van Bramer’s legislation follows reports
of the DOE wasting more than $800,000
in food warehoused by the city agency in
June 2020.
“Th e Department of Education must
confront food waste in order to create a
more environmentally sustainable city,”
Van Bramer said. “Food waste prevention
plans will help cut the amount of excess
food our schools and city sends to landfi
ll, fi nding ways to instead donate, compost,
and reduce surplus. Th ese plans are a
step towards more sustainable schools and
a less wasteful New York.”
Just over a year ago, community activist
and organizer Jonathan Forgash formed
Queens Together, which provided food
to thousands of families in need while
helping restaurants stay in business by
re-employing restaurant workers to pack
produce and make deliveries.
“Queens Together strongly supports
reducing food waste at the DOE and creating
systems that will redirect unused
meals into the hands of communities
facing food and economic insecurity,”
Forgash said. “Th is is a win-win for our
neighbors, a more environmentally sustainable
city and the NYC budget plan.
We applaud this legislation.”
Th e bill requires the DOE to create a
food waste prevention plan that will be
submitted by the schools chancellor by
Oct. 1.
two men who were dumping trash
in Hollis.
Al-Hassan Kanu was recording with
his cellphone as he approached the two
men at 202nd Street and 99th Avenue
and asked why they were throwing trash
beneath an overpass in a residential area
of the neighborhood.
One of the men, who was the driver of a
rental truck, can be seen on video punching
Kanu multiple times in the head and
his surgically repaired left shoulder before
grabbing Kanu’s cellphone and throwing
it to the ground as the assault continued.
Th e two attackers jumped back in the
truck and drove off . Kanu was checked
out at Queens Hospital in Jamaica before
reporting the assault at the 103rd Precinct.
A witness to the attack told Kanu that
illegal dumping is a constant quality-oflife
issue in the area, with people leaving
furniture, car parts, food and even dead
animals at the locations.
“Nobody wants to do anything,” the
witness told Kanu. “I come walking here
every day. Sanitation was just here yesterday,
but there’s a diff erent pile of stuff
here every day. It’s been going on for a
long time.”
Kanu said he was investigating a complaint
made to Councilman I.
Daneek Miller’s district
offi ce, where Kanu used to
serve as a district director,
but Miller’s spokeswoman
said he “wasn’t
acting on a complaint
received through our
offi cial channels.”
It was later
determined that the constituent who
lodged the complaint with Miller’s offi ce
also sent an e-mail to Kanu, who went
to the location on his own accord, something
he does oft en while combating illegal
dumping in southeast Queens.
“Illegal dumping cannot continue
in our community and we
need to enforce the laws we
have on the books and make
sure it stops,” Kanu said
Sunday. “It should not take
citizens to post these incidents
on social media for
enforcement to occur. I
am doing well and I want
to thank Queens Hospital
and the 103rd Precinct for
helping me aft er the attack,
as well as everyone who
has reached out
t o
me personally.”
Kanu is no stranger to violence. His
family moved to southeast Queens from
war-torn Sierra Leone in the late 1990s.
He graduated from York College before
his activism led him to enter public service
as an intern for then-Councilman
Leroy Comrie.
When Comrie was elected to the
state Senate, Miller succeeded him and
appointed Kanu as district director. Now
Kanu is among nearly a dozen candidates
in District 27 campaigning to succeed
Miller, who is term-limited.
Just a week before the attack, Miller
endorsed Kanu as his successor.
“More than ever southeast Queens
needs dedicated competent community
oriented leaders, and Al Kanu fi ts the
bill for District 27,” Miller said. “I’ve seen
Al’s work up close as my district director,
and also while he worked for then-
Council member Leroy Comrie. Al has
been a tireless community advocate for
over a decade, organizing to keep homeowners
in their houses, connect families
to aff ordable housing and mitigate
fl ooding issues in our residential
community.”
Th ere have been no arrests, according
to the NYPD.
Photo courtesy
of Al-Hassan Kanu
The driver of a rental truck
attacks City Council candidate
Al-Hassan Kanu as he records
illegal dumping in
Cambria Heights.
Photo courtesy of Queens Together
After they provided tens of thousands of meals for families in need, Queens Together applauds
legislation requiring waste prevention at the Department of Education.
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