Volunteers at East Village Loves NYC prepare meal for Ramadan; celebrate 1st anniversary

East Village Loves NYC — the local volunteer group that formed last spring to feed people in need during the pandemic — is continuing to make meals and celebrating the multiple religious holidays of New Yorkers

For Ramadan, the volunteers collaborated on an interfaith dinner. Per the group's website: "In Islam, there is a concept called Iftar. It occurs during Ramadan, and it's a time where Muslims all over the world serve free food so that people from all walks of life can eat together."

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the Sixth Street Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C the other day as the volunteers prepped the meals that went to five mosques in the Bronx and one on Long Island...

East Village Loves NYC — which has attracted some 400 volunteers — recently celebrated its first anniversary.... and in that time, has cooked more than 100,000 meals for New Yorkers during the pandemic ... not to mention donated 325,000-plus pounds of groceries and 7,000-plus pantry bags.

As they noted on Instagram:

What started with our team of five or six friends doing a cooking session to help their neighborhood, turned into a massive family of hundreds of volunteers gathering every week to deliver thousands of meals to New York City.

Early on, Ali Sahin, the owner of C&B Cafe on Seventh Street near Avenue B, donated his space on Mondays for the group to cook its meals. By last June, they had outgrown the space and started assembling deliveries at the Sixth Street Community Center. By the end of the summer, East Village Loves Queens expanded operations and announced its new name — East Village Loves NYC. 

Find out more about the group and how to donate at this link. Follow them on Instagram here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• These East Village residents are helping feed families in Queens during the COVID-19 crisis

• East Village volunteers expand their outreach to feed more neighbors in need

• East Village Loves Queens expands: Meet East Village Loves NYC