it started with a phone call at the height of the pandemic . . .
It all started with a phone call at the height of the pandemic.
New York was hit hard in those first few weeks — the media referred to the city as the epicenter of the pandemic. But they were calling Queens “the epicenter within the epicenter,” and with good reason. Some of the most financially challenged people in the city were living there, the pandemic had hit hard, and the community was left devastated.
Before the pandemic, one of our co-founders, Mammad, had volunteered at a soup kitchen in Ridgewood, Queens. He had seen firsthand the socio-economic gaps experienced by many of those served. It was easy to imagine how the pandemic had widened those gaps.
The call came from Father Mike—our friend at Hungry Monk in Queens. Before COVID, the Hungry Monk’s “warm houses” project served people who were trying to get back on their feet after experiencing homelessness.
Father Mike shared word from the frontlines and we knew that we had to act right away.
The pandemic called him to step up in a whole new way. “Most of the pantries and kitchens have closed,” he told us. “There are no donations from restaurants as they are all shut down.”
Although Mike was initially feeding his local community in Ridgewood, he started getting calls from other neighborhoods and boroughs.
The story over the phone was always the same: There wasn’t enough food to go around. The number of people who needed help was increasing and the number of places offering it was plummeting.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) even called him about her neighborhood in the Bronx, and showed up to help him serve her constituents.
East Village Loves Queens
At first, we concentrated on fundraising. We’d seen a lot of generosity in the East Village, so we focused locally. What we quickly realized though, is that Queens seemed a world away to a lot of the people around us. To build a bridge between our two communities, we originally called our project East Village Loves Queens.
Father Mike said the greatest need was cooked food, so in addition to sending thousands of pantry packs, we began cooking. Our friend Ali Sahin from C&B Cafe on East 7th Street gave us the keys to his kitchen.
We collected donations by day and cooked in the evenings when Ali’s day shift was over. On the first day in the tiny space, we made 600 meals which were picked up and distributed in Queens.
National Crisis
Eight weeks in, a second wave of challenges to the country arrived with news of the murder of George Floyd. We were all heartbroken, and New York City erupted with outrage. Many of our team joined the Black Lives Matter protests on Saturdays and cooked on Sundays.
Taking advantage of the police’s distraction with the protests, some groups of outsiders looted and vandalized businesses in the East Village. Unfortunately our host kitchen, C&B Cafe, was hit. Thankfully our friend Ali was able to begin rebuilding quickly but we needed a new kitchen.
Howard Brandstein from Sixth Street Community Center offered us use of the center’s kitchen. A new partnership was born.
Sixth Street Community Center
At Sixth Street we were able to expand our efforts. and cook up to 4000 meals in a day.
This meant that our food could get around the city to different shelters and other boroughs that were in need due to the pandemic. The Hungry Monk’s repurposed ambulance collected the food at the end of each shift for distribution.
As time went by other places started reaching out to us. By the end of the first year of operation, we were delivering food to over 25 organizations across the five boroughs.
Rebranding to EVLovesNYC
Our aim was always to build bridges between the East Village and some of the more underserved communities in New York.
Although the pandemic is no longer a threat in the city, its aftermath has left many New Yorkers financially devastated, and it broadened socio-economic gaps.
We are working with community leaders to fill those gaps, provide empowerment projects to help people get back on their feet after COVID, and make sure the city that we love is rebuilt from the ground up.
It made sense to rebrand into EVLovesNYC because we moved from serving Queens to serving our beloved city far and wide .
Now we serve over 70 organizations who come to pick up food from us and ferry it all over NYC.
Because we value the dignity of everyone we serve, basic foodbank meals aren’t good enough. Instead our volunteer chefs — who represent nations all around the world — spend time planning menus that represent the different cultures of NYC. We also make vegan meals as well as meat dishes each week. We are sensitive to cultural and religious needs too.
The food that we cook is tasty, healthy, and varied. We have learned to do this on a very minimal budget, so that we can make a nutritious meal for around $3.20.
We continue to strive for food security and for supporting all our neighbors in need with healthy and nutritious meals, so that they can thrive with dignity and self-respect.
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