Monday, June 13, 2022

East Village Loves NYC issues a fundraising appeal to help continue feeding New Yorkers in need

East Village Loves NYC — the local volunteer group formed in the spring of 2020 to feed people in need during the pandemic — is on the brink of shutting down.

The group put out a last-ditch fundraising appeal on Friday — they need $36,000 to keep going from their HQ at the Sixth Street Community Center.


Some positive news: Since sounding the alarm this past Friday, EV Loves NYC has raised more than half its fundraising goal of $36,000.

From an Instagram post on Saturday:
"The support we've received from our community over the past day has been absolutely incredible. Hundreds of calls, texts, voicemails, to let us know that you refuse to see us go.

We don't want to go. We want to keep helping the city we love, while building lasting memories with you and our community. We want to continue spreading love and helping those who need it most."

You can find the GoFundMe link here.  

In the spring of 2020, a handful of friends got together to prepare meals for neighbors. Early on, Ali Sahin, the owner of C&B Cafe on Seventh Street near Avenue B, donated his kitchen on Mondays for the group to cook its meals. By June 2020, they had outgrown the space and started assembling deliveries at the Sixth Street Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

Eventually, the group became known as East Village Loves NYC with 1,400-plus volunteers. In year one alone, the group cooked more than 100,000 meals for New Yorkers  ... not to mention donated 325,000-plus pounds of groceries and 7,000-plus pantry bags.
 

Image via @evlovesnyc

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought the city just agreed to increase the budget for food insecurity programming?

"Fighting Food Insecurity and Improving Nutrition

Increase funding for Emergency Food Assistance Program ($30 million in FY23, for a total investment of $53 million).
Launch the Groceries to Go pilot program to provide New Yorkers living with food insecurity with access to an online marketplace for local grocery stores ($10 million in FY23)."
https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/383-22/mayor-adams-speaker-adams-reach-early-handshake-agreement-balanced-responsible-fiscal#/0