Temporary Restraining Order remains in effect at East River Park; first look at new green space

A few updates on what has (and has not) been happening at East River Park with the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR)...

• A Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), dating to Nov. 4, remains in effect at Project Area 1 in East River Park ... the TRO brought the construction/demolition to a halt. Work started on Nov. 1 below Houston Street at the Brian Watkins Tennis Center. (Read more about East River Action's TRO here.) 

• A nonprofit sued the city for allegedly not including enough minority- and women-owned businesses in the construction contract for the ESCR. Media coverage includes NY1 ... the Post ... and The Village Sun. 

 • A third lawsuit (dating to the spring) was brought against the city by The Tully Group, a large contractor that issued one of the two bids for the ESCR. 

IPC Resiliency Partners, a newly formed joint venture, was the winning bidder.

Per NY1:

In a hearing [Nov. 12] before a panel of appellate judges, Jeffrey Cohen, a lawyer for Tully, argued that IPC effectively fudged its bid in order to meet a city requirement that the contractor have grossed at least $1 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year. 

"What we are concerned about almost as importantly as the flooding, almost as important as the ravages of climate change, is the integrity of the bids," Cohen told the judges.

More background here. 

• The DA on Friday declined to prosecute East Village residents Alice O'Malley and Allie Ryan, who were arrested on Nov. 1 for blocking the construction entrance to the tennis courts when preliminary construction got underway.

Per East River Park Action in an email: "They were in and out of court in 10 minutes when their desk appearance tickets were dropped."

• And here's a look at the former Compost Yard ... the city started removing this in mid-October when we took this photo (first reported here) ... 

Despite the TRO, work was allowed to continue here ... as the staging ground of the Lower East Side Ecology Center's composting operation was converted into green space to make up for some of the lost park access during construction/demolition over the next four years... here's a look at the area on Saturday...

And for some background... East River Park Action and other advocates say there are alternatives to preserve the park and provide flood protection, such as the one mapped out in the years after Sandy. In late 2018, the city surprised community stakeholders by announcing a complete overhaul of a plan discussed over four years of local meetings.

Opponents of this version of the reconstruction project stress that there's a better path forward to protect the Lower East Side and surrounding neighborhoods from a 100-year-flood event and sea-level rise — one that doesn't cause 1,000 mature trees to be chopped down.

A look at the 'Heroines of the Lower East Side'

Been meaning to check out the completed work on Centre-fuge Cycle 13, the rotating outdoor gallery/construction trailer here along East First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

All the art this time is by Lexi Bella … for a collection titled "Heroines of the Lower East Side" … as part of the first Lower East Side History Month.

Aside from the more recognizable portraits of Debbie Harry and Rosario Dawson … Bella honors the Russ Daughters (of Russ & Daughters fame) …



LaMama founder Ellen Stewart …



Educator Catherine Ferguson, who founded the first Sunday school in New York City …



Hell-cat Maggie, "who fought alongside the Dead Rabbits and other Five Pointers against rival nativist gangs from the Bowery" …



… Lexi also paid tribute to her daughter Roxy, as BoweryBoogie pointed out…



Find more info about Centre-fuge here.

Mr. Peanut and his Nutmobile to christen new peanut-shaped city park today

From the EV Grieve inbox...

*** UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL OCTOBER 3rd ***

MEDIA ALERT

Mr. Peanut to Open Planters Grove Urban Park in New York City!

WHAT: First look at a vibrant, unique urban park – the Planters Grove - as it opens to the public on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on the grounds of the New York City Housing Authority’s Lillian Wald Houses community.

WHO: Mr. Peanut and his new biodiesel Nutmobile
Margarita Lopez, Commissioner of New York City Housing Authority
Scott Marcus, Senior Brand Manager for Planters
Sally Prouty, CEO/President of The Corps Network
Lisbeth Shepherd, CEO of New York’s Green City Force
Ken Smith, Landscape Architect

WHEN: Monday, October 3

9:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Short remarks: 10:00AM
Community planting to immediately follow

WHERE: Lillian Wald Houses, Avenue D between East 4th and 5th Streets (near Houston St.)

WHY: Planters, America’s leading snack nut brand, and the iconic Mr. Peanut will commemorate the opening of a new green urban park – a Planters Grove – at the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) Lillian Wald Houses on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Residents of NYCHA will be joined by local officials, NYCHA representatives, community volunteers and youth service corps members for a day of planting and celebration.

With the goal of promoting healthy lifestyles and sustainable living, Kraft Foods’ Planters brand has partnered with The Corps Network – the nation’s Service and Conservation Corps – to transform underutilized land into unique, peanut-shaped parks across America. The building of Planters Groves and their ongoing programming encourages outdoor activity and community interaction, as well as provides the health, environmental, social and economic benefits that engaging green spaces provide a neighborhood and its residents.

In New York City, the Planters Grove is being built with the help of youth service corps members (also NYCHA residents) from Green City Force, an organization recently recognized by President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative for its outstanding contribution to enriching young lives. Designed by New York City landscape architect Ken Smith, the New York City Planters Grove is inspired with Lower East Side influences, as well as locally-sourced reclaimed materials and native plants and flowers.

An oral history of the Lower East Side

Filmmaker/video editor Paul Dougherty shoots John J. McCroary's recollections of growing up on the Lower East Side while looking at the book "Life on the Lower East Side: Photographs by Rebecca Lepkoff, 1937-1950." Dougherty, a native New Yorker and East Village resident, tells us more about McCroary on his YouTube post.



I have posted other video works from Paul here.

Quote of the day: "Beer pong is not the Lower East Side"

From a DNAinfo article by Patrick Hedlund on the proliferation of bars in areas other than Avenue A:

Just south of Avenue A, Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side counts 19 bars/restaurants on the three-block stretch between Houston and Delancey streets.

While many of these places have arrived without incident, a decidedly déclassé bar featuring drinking games doesn’t necessarily fit with everyone’s idea of a neighborhood pub.

“A frat bar is not representative of this once-bohemian neighborhood,” said Community Board 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer, a longtime East Villager who counts the proliferation of bars as one of the board’s most pressing issues.

“Beer pong is not the Lower East Side.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Of the 147 storefronts on Avenue A, 70 of them are bars, restaurants or vacant

Photo by EV Grieve

Get your Load on again today

From the EVG inbox...

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) hosts its eighth Load OUT! — a twice yearly "riot" of repurposing and recycling activities today. FABnyc will gather gently used materials from arts organizations and other donors throughout the East Village/Lower East Side for this one-of-a-kind extravaganza, taking place at 11 E. 3rd St. (between Second Avenue and the Bowery) from 12-3 PM.

Load OUT! is specially designed to showcase creative thinking about sustainability and the arts. Artists and art students are welcome to take home any costumes, props, and furniture they need for their artistic endeavors, free of charge. Community members and non-artists can also attend Load OUT! for a small entrance fee of $5, and take away any amount of materials free of charge. Everything remaining will be repurposed or recycled responsibly by GrowNYC, Wearable Collections, Lower East Side Ecology Center, and United War Veterans Recycling. Any unrecyclable items will be properly disposed of by the NYC Department of Sanitation.

Load OUT! also features clothing, textile, and e-waste community collections - open and free for everyone from 12-3PM. Lower East Side Ecology Center will collect e-waste, and GrowNYC will collect clothing and textiles. A list of accepted donations is available here.

Helping publish 'Time and Space on the Lower East Side'

Lower East Side-based photographer Brian Rose is wrapping up his Kickstarter campaign to raise money to publish "Time and Space on the Lower East Side."

Golden Section Publishing, a small company run by photographer Bill Diodato, is publishing the book, which has more than 100 photos split between 1980 and 2010. (Such as the two 1980 shots above, and the before and after below.) Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega wrote the book's introduction. (Rose and Vega have a long history together involving music and photography.)

The book should be available in the first part of 2012. You can find out more about about the Kickstarter campaign here. We first wrote about the project in July 2010. You can find that post here.

An East Fifth Street before and after from the book...

Taqueria St. Mark's set to open Thursday

The former Taqueria Lower East Side is ready to start life anew as Taqueria St. Mark's at 79 St. Mark's Place just west of First Avenue.

Taqueria Lower East Side had to find a new home after developer Ben Shaoul bought up the corner of Orchard and East Houston for a new luxury development. BoweryBoogie reported that the 4-year-old Taqueria closed at 198 Orchard St. after business on Sunday.

Here's more on them via Fork in the Road: "Taqueria, an offshoot of a Jersey City restaurant, amassed a stable of neighborhood regulars during its run here, thanks to its cheap fare, solid margaritas, and excellent tacos. For our money, it makes some of the best carnitas in town."

Fork in the Road said that you can expect "the same line-up of tacos, tortas, and platters plus margaritas and Mexican beer" on St. Mark's Place.

With this opening, will the neighborhood finally have enough taco/taqueria options?

After the Typhoon Lounge closed at 79 St. Mark's Place in May 2012, the space has been home to the quick succession of Saints Tavern and Kamikaze & Co.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Taqueria Lower East Side relocating to St. Mark's Place

EVG Etc.: Lower East Side Film Festival underway; new Essex Street Market concerns

[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

City Council Member Carlina Rivera reportedly doesn't want 24/7 bus lanes on 14th Street during the L train shutdown (Streetsblog)

The Lower East Side Film Festival continues through Wednesday (Official site)

Details on Sunday’s Puerto Rican Day Parade (Curbed)

Report outlines concerns that longtime residents have about the new Essex Street Market (The Lo-Down)

The first comprehensive NYC retrospective of the work of filmmaker Betzy Bromberg (Anthology Film Archives)

Patti Astor revives Fun Gallery in Hermosa Beach, Calif. (The Beach Reporter)

Service on the new Lower East Side ferry route, including at Stuyvesant Cove, is on schedule to begin at the end of the summer (Town & Village)

When kids listen to Swans (uh, the band) (Dangerous Minds)

More IHOP-IHOb theories (The Post ... previously)

A quest to correct a mistake about the London Calling album cover, shot at the Palladium on East 14th Street (Flaming Pablum)

Caffe Vivaldi is closing after 32 years in the West Village (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Meryl Meisler's Lower East Side of the 1970s and 1980s

[On the Bowery in 1977]

NYC-based photographer Meryl Meisler's work will be on display starting tomorrow in an exhibit coinciding with Lower East Side History Month.

"LES YES!" showcases some of Meisler's photography taken on the Lower East Side during the 1970s and 1980s.

The opening reception is tomorrow night from 6-9 at the Storefront Project, 70 Orchard St. between Broome and Grand. The exhibit is up through June 3. Find more details here.

Meisler was born in the South Bronx and raised in North Massapequa, Long Island. After college in Wisconsin, she returned to NYC in 1975. Here's part of a recent feature on Meisler in the Times:

"I felt like I belonged," she said. "I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, even though I had a teaching degree. Maybe because the city itself was out of joint. I had just come out as a lesbian, but I felt like I belonged here. I felt safe.”

She eventually spent 31 years as a NYC public school art teacher.

Here's a sampling of the LES photos that will be on display...




[On East Houston]


[At the Henry Street Settlement]


[At Famous Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse]

In a recent interview with Bedford + Bowery, she said that she still sees some of the old LES here despite all the changes. "It’s busy and alive and yet, there are still people on the street that are true New Yorkers. New York is always changing, but I still see the essence of it there."

All photos by Meryl Meisler ... and courtesy of The Storefront Project & Stephen Kasher Gallery. Reprinted with permission.

A campaign to co-name this block of Avenue C after Casa Adela founder Adela Fargas

Photos by Stacie Joy

Updated 8:15 p.m.

District Leader Assembly District 74 Part A Aura Olavarria, who drafted the petition, reports that the CB3 committee approved the street co-naming this evening.

--

A campaign is underway to co-name Avenue C between Fourth Street and Fifth Street after Adela Fargas, the founder and namesake of the popular Puerto Rican restaurant Casa Adela on the block.

Fargas, who ran Casa Adela here for decades, died in January 2018. She was 81.

Adela's son Luis Rivera, who has been running Casa Adela with his sister Abigail, is collecting signatures of support at the restaurant, 66 Avenue C...  

The petition — drafted by District Leader Assembly District 74 Part A Aura Olavarria — reads in part: 

Adela Fargas was a working-class, Afro-Puerto Rican fixture in Loisaida and the owner and matriarch behind the iconic and authentic Puerto Rican restaurant, Casa Adela. She was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, where she became a domestic worker who prepared frianbreras, or packed lunches, for factory workers. 

She moved to the United States at age 39, where her first job in the Lower East Side was at a restaurant on East 4th Street and Avenue D. When the restaurant closed, Adela found a way to provide for her family and feed those less fortunate through selling pasteles on street corners. In 1973, Adela opened her family-run restaurant, Casa Adela. 

Adela Fargas's impact goes far beyond a restaurant, which represented an important meeting place for the Puerto Rican community in New York City, in the diaspora, and worldwide. Outside the restaurant's walls, Adela was a center of Latino life on the Lower East Side and a tireless community advocate. Adela became the godmother to many on the Lower East Side, employing those who lived in the neighborhood and feeding anyone who came in hungry. 

Her soul food attracted a profound sense of community and this street co-naming will serve to honor her living legacy. Each year at the Loisaida Festival, Adela provided food for the community and organized dance and music for the festival as well.

Tonight at 6:30, members of Community Board 3's Transportation, Public Safety, Sanitation & Environment Committee will hear the item. (You can join in via Zoom.) 

As reported in early December, the building's landlord — a Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) — at 66 Avenue C is looking to increase the rent on the LES institution to a rate that Luis Rivera says is not feasible. The two sides were working on an agreement, and we have not heard any updates. 

City to unveil Adela Fargas Way this weekend in honor of Casa Adela's legendary founder

Tomorrow (Saturday, Sept. 17) at noon, the city unveils new street blades for Adela Fargas Way on Fifth Street and Avenue C. 

Fargas was the founder and namesake of the popular Puerto Rican restaurant Casa Adela on the block. Fargas, who ran Casa Adela here for decades, died in January 2018. She was 81.

As we reported in May, District Leader Aura Olavarria drafted the petition ... and worked with Adela's son Luis Rivera (pictured below) and other community members-groups. They collected hundreds of signatures and presented the petition to Community Board 3's Transportation, Public Safety, Sanitation & Environment Committee, who overwhelmingly approved the petition ... and the entire Board passed a resolution in support on May 24. 

On July 14, the New York City Council Committee passed Councilmember Carlina Rivera's bill for the co-naming.

Here's more about Fargas from the petition:

Adela Fargas was a working-class, Afro-Puerto Rican fixture in Loisaida and the owner and matriarch behind the iconic and authentic Puerto Rican restaurant Casa Adela. She was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, where she became a domestic worker who prepared frianbreras, or packed lunches, for factory workers. 

She moved to the United States at age 39, where her first job in the Lower East Side was at a restaurant on East 4th Street and Avenue D. When the restaurant closed, Adela found a way to provide for her family and feed those less fortunate through selling pasteles on street corners. In 1973, Adela opened her family-run restaurant, Casa Adela. 

Adela Fargas's impact goes far beyond a restaurant, which represented an important meeting place for the Puerto Rican community in New York City, in the diaspora, and worldwide. Outside the restaurant's walls, Adela was a center of Latino life on the Lower East Side and a tireless community advocate. Adela became the godmother to many on the Lower East Side, employing those who lived in the neighborhood and feeding anyone who came in hungry. 

Her soul food attracted a profound sense of community and this street co-naming will serve to honor her living legacy. Each year at the Loisaida Festival, Adela provided food for the community and organized dance and music for the festival as well.

Photo from May by Stacie Joy 

The Lower 'Eats' Side festival returns to the Lower East Side

The annual Lower 'Eats' Side festival takes place tomorrow (Saturday) from 1 to 4 p.m. at PS 110, 285 Delancey St. at Lewis Street.

Here are details via the EVG inbox (or above on the flyer) ...

The Lower East Side’s historic Public School 110 (Florence Nightingale School) will hold an international food festival, Lower 'Eats' Side, featuring home-cooked food from more than 20 countries, prepared by the school’s own parent chefs.

The food festival will represent the different cultures and nationalities that make up the school today, and will be held at the school’s 1905 building at the eastern end of Delancey Street, rain or shine.

There's live music featuring global sounds from guest performers as well as the stylings of PS 110's own parent band — The Nightingales.

The food festival will also feature a tag sale and organized games for children.

Tickets are $10 and available at the door.

The school first held this festival in 2015 to commemorate 110 years of PS 110.

Tonight: Lower East Side Unity Rally against gun violence

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Tonight at 5:30, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer will lead Lower East Side residents in a solidarity march against gun violence. There have been at least five major shootings in the Lower East Side since July of 2012 – and the most recent on January 4th resulted in the death of Raphael Ward, a local high school student.

Who: Manhattan Borough President Stringer, Arlene Delgado, the mother of Raphael Ward, other elected officials, LES community members, youths who have experienced violence, residents of Community Board 3, friends and family of victims.

When: Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 5:30pm

Where: Assemble at Avenue D at East 6th Street, marching to Columbia Street and Delancey Street

Debbie Harry, Rosario Dawson and other 'Heroines of the Lower East Side'

Work continues on Centre-fuge Cycle 13, the rotating outdoor gallery/construction trailer here along East First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Unlike previous cycles, No. 13 is a solo effort by Lexi Bella … in a collection titled "Heroines of the Lower East Side" to coincide with the first Lower East Side History Month, which kicks off on Thursday (BoweryBoogie first reported on this back on April 18).

There are some familiar faces so far …





… and LaMama founder Ellen Stewart …



The murals should be completed by Thursday.

Find more info about Centre-fuge here.

--

And sort of an accidental shot…

New Lower East Side Target grandly opens today

EVG regulars Vinny & O shared these photos from the new Target store, which is holding its grand opening celebration today at Grand and Clinton on the Lower East Side. (This outpost officially debuted back on Wednesday.)



Targeters are handing out a variety of freebies ... and there are photo opps with a giant pair of red Target sunglasses.

Not to be found: An homage to the Lower East Side with a CBGB-themed TRGT storefront, which was the widely panned centerpiece of the grand opening on 14th Street and Avenue A last month.

As the Lo-Down reported on Wednesday:

Jacqueline DeBuse, a Target PR rep, indicated that no similar publicity stunts are planned on Grand Street. “We know with the East Village grand opening,” said DeBuse, “some guests loved it, and others felt we missed the mark. So we really listened to that feedback as we were preparing the opening for this store.”

The Target is one of the retail tenants in the 15-story development at Essex Crossing Site 5 — aka The Rollins. A Trader Joe's is set to open in this complex later in the fall.

Tompkins Square Library hosting the East Village Arts Festival on Dec. 13

The Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B is hosting an all-day Arts Festival on Dec. 13.

The day includes a variety of performances, workshops and displays by local artists from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. You can find the full rundown here.

Here's one highlight:

5-5:45pm: 16mm Film Screening. We'll be screening two short 16mm films from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts reserve film and video collection, both filmed on the Lower East Side, in our basement community room. The Heart of Loisaida (1979; 30 min.) Producers, directors: Bienvenida Matias and Marci Reaven. Shows efforts on New York's Lower East Side to revive abandoned buildings through the work and persistence of the local, predominantly Latino residents.

A la Guerra (1979; 10 min.) Producer, director: Thomas Sigel. Actor/poet Bimbo Rivas presents an ode to the struggle against assimilation being waged by the Puerto Rican community of New York's Lower East Side.

Lower East Side legend Sammy's Roumanian Steak House announces its reopening dates

Get ready to break out the schmaltz: Sammy's Roumanian Steak House has announced its return to the Lower East Side. 

For two nights this month (April 22-23), Sammy's will be at its new home, 112 Stanton St., between Essex and Ludlow ... before service on every Friday and Saturday in May. From June on, Sammy's will be open daily.

Per their return notice:

Exciting announcement! Sammy’s is making a comeback and we couldn’t be happier to return to the Lower East Side. Huge thanks to our loyal customers and fans for keeping the Sammy's spirit alive over the years.

We're kicking things off with a two-night Passover special, followed by weekends in May leading up to our grand reopening in June. Enjoy entertainment featuring the one and only Dani Lev, along with our original menu and staff.

Sammy's closed in early January 2021 after 47 years of serving up ice-encased vodka, smeared pitchers of schmaltz and enormous platters of meat from the lower level at 151 Chrystie St.

The restaurant had been shuttered since the PAUSE of March 2020, and this wasn't a business ready-made for delivery or outdoor dining.

In an Instagram post at the time, owner David Zimmerman left the door open for a return.

We may be closed now, but when all this is over and we feel safe enough to hold hands during the hora, we will be back stronger, louder, and tastier than ever before. We are New York. We will survive this. We will always cherish the memories we shared with all of you.

Last May, as we first reported, Community Board 3 approved an application for 191 Orchard St. between Houston and Stanton. 

We're not sure what happened with the Orchard Street space ... as previously mentioned, it had been vacant for nine years and needed a lot of work to bring it into service. Apparently, the Sammy's team needed to move on from the location.

You can make reservations at the new location by calling (646) 410-2427.

Welcome back, Sammy's!

How Henry Street Settlement is helping neighbors in need during the COVID-19 crisis

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’d never been to the Henry Street Settlement’s Boys & Girls Republic on Sixth Street between Avenue D and the FDR.



So when Jon Harper, the acting director of emergency response food distribution, invited me I was eager to see what he and his team of workers and volunteers were doing to help support the community through a food initiative.

I visited twice, first on a Monday afternoon to watch the food arrive (some via a partnership with UPS) and get sorted and packed into bags, and then again the following morning to accompany folks as they delivered the packages to local residents in need.

Afterward, I spoke with Jon about the history of the organization, the assistance process and how those interested can get involved.



Can you speak a bit about the Henry Street Settlement program? How did it come to be at the Boys & Girls Republic location on Sixth Street?

Henry Street Settlement has been around since 1893. It was started by Lillian Wald as the Nurse’s Settlement, and has been responsible for an incredible amount of work on the Lower East Side.

Henry Street Settlement serves more than 50,000 people each year with programming in employment and education, health and wellness, transitional and supportive housing, and arts and humanities. Lillian Wald was very active in NYC’s response to the 1918 pandemic! So it’s only appropriate that we are stepping up now to provide critical services to folks on the Lower East Side and East Village who need them.

Boys & Girls Republic is a youth community center that Henry Street took over in 1997. Formerly called Boys Brotherhood Republic, it was created in the 1930s with a special emphasis on youth citizenship and self-government, which Henry Street carries on. Because congregate youth programming was suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis, this building was available to open the food pantry.







How did this food initiative start? How and where do you receive goods and perishables, and how many individuals and families are you providing supplies for?

Henry Street has several food initiatives that were already in place: a large Meals on Wheels program and daily meals for several hundred older adults through our senior center.

This emergency food initiative started because of the acute need that surfaced almost from the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Ninety percent of the calls to Henry Street’s new helpline are from people facing food insecurity — primarily because they are seniors or immunocompromised people who cannot leave their homes, or because they’ve lost their livelihood.

Another nonprofit that provides extraordinary service to the Lower East Side, the grassroots organization Vision Urbana, reached out to us because their client base was growing quickly due to the crisis, and after some discussion we started up a partnership with them.

Currently almost all of our food comes to us through their relationship with the Food Bank For New York City. We are currently distributing that food to over 400 households.

What is the process, from how someone applies for assistance to receiving the packages?

People can contact the Henry Street Settlement helpline at 347-493-2787. A case worker will talk to them about food as part of a broad range of needs that Henry Street might be able to help them with. Right now, we are working to rapidly expand our delivery capacity so that we can provide food to the growing number of people who are requesting this service.

Then, every Tuesday, we send a wonderful set of volunteers and staff out to deliver each bag of groceries to the recipients. It’s important that it be delivered instead of picked up so that we can maintain social distancing, and also let our recipients stay in their homes where it is safer for them.







How can people get involved? Is there a way for folks to donate funds, goods, and/or volunteer their time?

There are several ways that people can get involved! The fastest way, of course, is to donate money through our website. Just go to www.henrystreet.org and click on the “donate” popup that comes up.

We are not currently accepting donations of food — unless of course you can donate an entire pallet of something! We also are very lucky to have and very reliant upon an amazing set of volunteers for the actual deliveries. Come join us! It’s 9 a.m. on Tuesdays, and usually we are done by noon, though if you can only come for an hour or two that’s still useful. If you’re interested in volunteering, please contact Deanna Sorge at dsorge@henrystreet.org.





This is already a major undertaking and a large-scale program. What’s next for this project?

The need for help with food insecurity is enormous, especially in our neighborhood. We are working very hard to identify more sources of food so that we can turn this from a two-day-a-week on-site operation into a full-time operation; sending food out multiple days every week. We have the people and the space to expand, we just need the food to be able to distribute, and the funds to make it happen!



H/T to Christine Koenig for her help in setting up this interview.