44 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • JUNE 10, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Astoria community leader named one of city’s Hunger Heroes
Photo courtesy of Zone 126
Anju Rupchandani
is named one of
New York City’s
“Hunger Heroes”
for her eff orts
in combating
food insecurity
during
the COVID-19
pandemic.
Queens Farm opens new Con Edison Reading Room
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@schnepsmedia.com
@jenna_bagcal
Last week, Queens Farm announced the
opening of its Con Edison Reading Room,
allowing visitors to do even more at the
outdoor locale.
Th e reading room was converted from
the farm’s “summer kitchen,” a small structure
that was previously used for tomato
storage and had not been open to the
public for the past several years. Queens
Farm collaborated with Con Edison to
develop this new programming, with help
from Queens Public Library and Penguin
Random House Foundation.
“We are very thankful for Con Edison’s
support,” said Jennifer Walden Weprin,
executive director of the Queens County
Farm Museum. “Con Edison’s charitable
contributions facilitate meaningful
community development. As a site of
environmental stewardship, arts and culture,
and education, Queens Farm and
Con Edison have a shared vision of sustainability
and vibrancy for New York
City. Th e Con Edison Reading Room will
expand Queens Farm’s capacity to reach
new audiences and engage farm visitors
in a new way.”
Inside the 12’2” by 16’2” structure,
guests can enjoy over 250 toys and books
that are “thematically tied” to the farm’s
mission and include topics like cooking,
gardening, the environment, health and
wellness, animals, farming, science and
NYC history.
“Th e Con Edison Reading Room will
off er visitors a great way to learn more
about topics such as the environment,
sustainability, farming and cooking as
part of their experience at the only continuously
farmed land in New York City.
We’re proud of our long-standing partnership
with Queens County Farm Museum,
adding the new reading room to our longstanding
sponsorship of the annual corn
maze,” said Stuart Nachmias, president
and CEO of Con Edison Transmission.
Queens Public Library Chief Librarian
Nick Buron added, “It has been a pleasure
to work with Queens Farm to support
a collection that refl ects its mission
and inspires its patrons to understand
and appreciate the borough’s agricultural
heritage and its history. I congratulate
Executive Director Jennifer Walden
Weprin and Con Edison on the completion
of the reading room, and look forward
to becoming a regular visitor.”
Th e Con Edison Reading Room will be
open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. except
for some holidays and special admission
days.
Access to both the farm and reading
room are free. Due to COVID-19 restrictions,
only one pod at a time will be
allowed into the reading room and additional
outdoor seating is available.
As the city continues easing COVID
restrictions, the farm will launch preschool
programming in the reading room.
Visit Queens County Farm Museum
and the Con Edison Reading Room at73-
50 Little Neck Pkwy. Visitor information
and COVID-19 guidelines can be found at
www.queensfarm.org.
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
An Astoria community leader has been
named one of New York’s Hunger Heroes
for her work in combating food insecurity
in western Queens during the height of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
No Kid Hungry, an advocacy group
working to eliminate childhood hunger
and poverty in the United States, chose
Anju Rupchandani, the executive director
of Zone 126, for establishing a food distribution
program that included Astoria
public housing as well as students and
families across western Queens.
”It is a true honor to be named as a
Hunger Hero because of my own challenges
growing up,” Rupchandani said.
“Everyone in my inner circle knows that
I am the social butterfl y of the group, but
outside of the safe circle I am very shy
and introverted. I do not like the attention
on me. I love celebrating others, but
I am humbled to be recognized because
it allows me to amplify the voices of
so many others in our community that
might not have the platform that I have.”
Zone 126 appointed the lifelong
Astorian as its new leader in June 2020
to support families at Long Island City
High School, P.S. 126 and P.S. 171.
Rupchandani, who is of Caribbean, Latinx
and Asian descent, was raised in Astoria
and attended school District 30 public
schools, including William Cullen Bryant
High School in Long Island City.
“Growing up, I knew my family
was struggling and not achieving the
American Dream of the white picket
fence home. Money was always tight. We
were oft en behind on the rent. We struggled
to pay the bills, and we had our own
food challenges,” Rupchandani said. “I
was determined that when I got older
things would change. I was moved by a
special I saw during Th anksgiving of 2011
about how many families were struggling
with food insecurity, and realized that
was some of the challenges I had growing
up but somehow could not articulate still
as an adult. I knew then that I wanted to
establish a school-based food pantry but
the logistics of these things, especially in
schools, can be challenging.”
Since 2011, Zone 126 has operated in
concentrated pockets of poverty in the
ZIP codes 11101, 11102 and 11106. Th e
organization, a sponsored project of the
Fund for the City of New York, brings
together community organizations, public
agencies and private supporters to provide
vital programs for academic support,
enrichment, health, nutrition, parent
education and youth development.
“When COVID hit, I knew immediately
we had to move in to support
our families in public housing
as well as at our schools,”
Rupchandani said. “We knew
we had to keep families home so what
we did was we hit the road and started
home delivery of non-perishable food
bags to our families, hearing them from
a distance as to what they needed and
then taking that information and tailoring
additional relief eff orts.”
As the pandemic started to wane
and people began to venture
out of their homes,
Rupchandani shift ed
the eff ort to include school yards where
families could pick up fresh fruits and
vegetables. She told families that the organization
would continue their food pantry
eff orts as long as children were living
below the poverty line.
“Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy
of needs puts an individual’s physiological
needs at the base of the pyramid.
If those basic needs of food, water,
warmth, rest are not achieved, then
an individual cannot move further
up the pyramid,” Rupchandani
explained. “Our children living
below the poverty line or even
at the poverty line are coming
to school with so much
more than English and math
homework in their backpacks;
they are coming to
school with challenges that
include food insecurity.
We cannot expect for a
child to be engaged in
academics if we cannot
help fulfi ll their basic
need that includes
food.”
Photos courtesy of Queens County Farm Museum
The inside of the new Con Edison Reading Room at Queens County Farm Museum.
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