14 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 27, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Colombian-born Sunnyside woman leads pandemic relief for thousands
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
More than a year aft er it began distributing
food to families in need, the
Mosaic West Church is still providing
food and other necessities to members
of the Sunnyside and Woodside community
thanks to the coordination of Sofi a
Moncayo, a Colombian-born woman, and
her neighbors.
Th e Woodside/Sunnyside Community
COVID-19 Relief Group began as a
collaboration of neighborhood civic
and religious groups at the height of the
pandemic.
“It’s been an interesting ride, a lot of ups
and downs along the way,” Moncayo said.
“I’ve been lucky enough to become the face
of this thing simply because I’m good at
logistics, but the real thanks goes to a large
number of volunteers who keep coming
back week aft er week to make this all possible.
I couldn’t have done this without them.
Th is is what a community should look like
when you’re helping others. Most of the
volunteers and donors aren’t even churchgoers.
It’s amazing how it all came together.”
Moncayo was furloughed as a bookkeeper
at a construction company at the onset
of the pandemic, and she and her husband
had to close their martial arts studio
in Woodside.
“I am still furloughed but the company
has continued to provide health insurance,
so that’s a big help,” Moncayo said. “And
we’ve reopened the martial arts school
but we still owe the landlord more than
$20,000, so we’re still negotiating with the
landlord to work that out.”
In April of 2020, the food lines regularly
stretched from the Mosaic Church on 43rd
Avenue, down 46th Street and up Skillman
Avenue. One one day that month, the food
pantry ran out of food with more than 200
people still waiting in line.
Moncayo raced to a local supermarket
and used her own credit card
to purchase more than
$1,200 worth of groceries
for those in
need.
“Th ose fi rst
few months
I was operating
in crisis
mode,” Moncayo
said. “Sunnyside
has so many artists who lost their jobs when
the city closed down, especially last July and
August. If you can source your food somewhere,
then you can pay your electric bill
and keep your lights on.”
Moncayo and her volunteers are still
providing food to nearly 2,000 people
a week.
“Most of the food was donated by neighborhood
restaurants at the start, like Th e
Skillman — they provided hundreds of
dollars in produce from their provider
each week and they also provided muchneeded
storage space,” Moncayo said.
“Th en we were in the USDA’s Farm to
Families Food Box program, but that initiative
has run out of funding so we are
going to have to depend more on fundraising
for now.”
Moncayo was so thankful for the help the
group received from area restaurants, she
created a Facebook group to help publicize
the establishments in the area that were in
danger of closing for good.
Th e group known as 25 for Sunnyside
and Woodside has more than 2,000 members
who share photos of their meals in a
way that promotes the restaurants.
“I just love the restaurants in Sunnyside
and Woodside so much,” Moncayo said.”I
don’t want to see anyone closing down.”
Th e Great Mosaic is a new column
focused on immigrant success stories. To
share your story, email editorial@qns.com.
The Great Mosaic
Photos courtesy of Sofi a Moncayo
Sofi a Moncayo (l.) and her top volunteer Lucy Bodden.
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