Food Bank Members Collaborate in Queens

Food Bank For New York City’s 2022 Pride Month theme is #ProudlyFed. For us, this means we not only serve the estimated 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ New Yorkers struggling to put food on the table, but that we do it with joy, love, and pride. We also recognize that food insecurity in the LGBTQ+ community is often compounded by things like workplace discrimination, healthcare inequality, and housing insecurity. A citywide survey conducted in 2017 found that over 18 percent of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers had experienced homelessness, with these numbers soaring up to 60 percent for individuals who identified as Black, Hispanic, transgender, or gender non-conforming. Over 20 percent of respondents also reported that they had been denied a promotion, not hired, or been forced to resign from a job due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. To address these diverse and varied challenges, we partner with and distribute food to community-based organizations that not only feed our LGBTQ+ neighbors, but work to provide them with free legal services, educational opportunities, healthcare enrollment assistance, and nutrition workshops. One such organization is Make the Road New York, a Food Bank member agency that serves immigrant, working-class, and transgender communities throughout Brooklyn and Queens. Make the Road doesn’t shy away from difference; on the contrary, the group finds power in bringing together New Yorkers from all different walks of life to advocate for collective change. To learn more about the group’s unique approach to service, we spoke with Mateo Guerrero-Tabares, the Trans Justice and Leadership Program Manager at Make the Road New York. Mateo pictured at Make the Road New York’s office in Queens. Photo credit: Feeding America. Mateo found his way to Make the Road in 2010 after arriving in New York City as an undocumented minor. He began his journey as both a client and volunteer, receiving aid from the organization to adjust his immigration status and stay permanently in the United States. Make the Road quickly became a “political home” for Mateo and was one of the first public spaces in which he felt comfortable embracing his identity as a transgender man. As he told us: “It was very special to be able to say, ‘Mateo, he/they pronouns’ and be uplifted and cared for in such a beautiful way.” Volunteers working the weekly food distribution at Make the Road New York. Photo credit: Feeding America. Now, in his role as the organization’s Trans Justice and Leadership Program Manager, he’s working to bring that same level of solidarity and support to the immigrant and transgender New Yorkers he serves, especially when it comes to providing them with reliable access to fresh, nutritious food. In fact, Mateo started a special “bike brigade” at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to deliver groceries to nearly 400 families a week. It was a way to sustain the sense of togetherness that has long fueled Make the Road’s mission to build a more equitable future for New York City’s most marginalized residents. “I want our members to be able to define what it means to exist in New York — and not just survive — but have a dignified life,” he said. “That sense of pride comes from a place of resiliency and community.” Mateo pictured at Make the Road New York’s office in Queens. Photo credit: Feeding America. We couldn’t be prouder to partner with and provide food to organizations like Make the Road New York that put our LGBTQ+ neighbors first. For more on how we serve these New Yorkers now and throughout the year, click this link. You can also donate directly to our Pride Month fundraising campaign to help raise crucial funds for organizations just like Make the Road. Give here. *** A special thanks to Feeding America for partnering with us on a suite of stories featuring LGBTQ-serving agencies in our extensive member network of over 800 food pantries, soup kitchens, and campus partners across the five boroughs. View the stories here.

At Food Bank, we are proud to be a grant recipient of the Grubhub Community Fund, which provides resources to organizations like ours to empower and support our neighbors. This Hunger Action Month, Grubhub has taken its partnership a step further by sponsoring our “Together We Rise” series, which features stories of resilience and strength from the folks who power our mission every day. Patricia Raghunandan is the team lead at the Ozone Park Pantry, an organization that serves New Yorkers in the Queens neighborhoods of City Line, Ozone Park, Woodhaven, South Ozone Park, and beyond. Launched at the start of the pandemic, the Pantry now regularly reaches over 1,000 families throughout the borough, providing them with the culturally relevant food items they need to thrive. We caught up with Patricia as Food Bank’s Mobile Pantry Program stopped by for its monthly distribution with the Pantry to speak about the needs of her community and what she wants New Yorkers to know about the folks she proudly serves. Patricia (right) with volunteers at a Mobile Pantry distribution in Ozone Park last June. What is your name and what is your relationship to Food Bank? My name is Patricia Raghunandan and I am the lead at the Ozone Park food pantry. Every month, we partner with Food Bank’s Mobile Pantry Program to feed the local community. How many households do you think you’ll feed today? I would say maybe 200, maybe more. We give all of this food out, so we’ll be here until all of the different items are gone. Can you tell me about some of the food items? We always want to make sure that we have some sort of halal food because this neighborhood here in City Line has a lot of Muslim people, and they only use halal products. So, we make sure we have halal beef and halal chicken for them. We also want to provide fresh vegetables, which are prevalent in many of their traditional dishes. What would you like people to know about your community? This community is incredibly resilient. For many years, our Muslim neighbors here were afraid – there were attacks on Sikh people, uncertainty about where they could go to feel safe. I want people to know that this is a deserving community... we are often the last set of people to get food and other resources. We want more organizations to know that we need their help, that we need to raise awareness about food insecurity in our community. We want people to come out and help us and you can tell by the line today just how bad the problem is. Believe me, at our food pantry, we have people waiting in line at four o’clock in the morning for a distribution that starts at 7:30 am. If they didn’t need food, they wouldn’t be standing there. If it’s 0 °F, raining, 101 °F, they stand in that line, and the reason they stand in that line is because they need food. Has the problem gotten worse for your neighbors? The pandemic may be going down, but now food prices are rising and jobs are hard to get. When you’re at the grocery store, you see that prices have doubled... how are people supposed to afford food? The problem is definitely getting worse. A lot of places have cut funds for food. It’s hard because people are going everywhere they can to get help. If they can come out here and get a little bit of onion, a little bit of farro, a bottle of juice, it’s something they can hold onto. Every little bit counts... and it helps. What do you rise for? I rise for my community. Food Bank For New York City’s “Together We Rise” series is presented by Grubhub, our Hunger Action Month partner whose immense generosity is enabling us to continue the work of feeding and nourishing ALL New Yorkers in these challenging times.

When Sha-Quana was 19, she found herself in a shelter with her baby girl. Times were tough and there were moments when she had only $10 to her name. How would she spend the money? Would she buy a sandwich to feed herself or baby formula for her daughter? You know what choice she made and know that it wasn't a choice at all. Help us get period products, hygiene essentials, and childcare resources to women and girls in need! Sha-Quana Cromwell at Food Bank's Community Kitchen & Food Pantry in Harlem. But things started to turn around when Sha-Quana got a job at Food Bank's Community Kitchen in West Harlem. At first, it was just a paycheck, but it soon turned into something more. Helping to prepare hundreds of meals a day for New Yorkers in need brought a light into Sha-Quana's life. As she says, she's now on a mission. Sha-Quana with Food Bank Culinary Manager Chef Sheri. To learn more about Sha-Quana and see her in action helping to prepare the hundreds of meals we serve a day at our Community Kitchen, click play below: Join us in celebrating the women we serve and those who power our mission every day at this link. Together, we can make progress on a more hopeful, dignified, and equitable future for ALL.