Brownsville Nosh

Brownsville Nosh is a community event to promote healthy eating and wellness for Brownsville residents. During the two-day event on Dec. 12-13, PS298 and other Brownsville partners are collaborating with PS9, Yiddish New York and the surrounding community to give out fresh food for the holidays, matzo ball soup (Jewish) and African-American soups with recipes and warm clothes and items for those in need. Funds will be used to buy an iPad to be used to accept EBT/SNAP at a local farmstand, plus for fresh fruits and vegetables to feed up 200 people, and expenses to promote and carry out the event that celebrates the neighborhood's history - both past and present. Participants will get recipes and ingredients for all to take home.

This will be our third annual event, but given the pandemic, our focus this year is on assisting those in need and continuing Brownsville's tradition of self-help, which started over a hundred years ago when the neighborhood was predominantly Jewish. 

Nov. 25-Dec. 11- Collect gently used coats, socks, hats, scarves and other clothes for those in need, plus prepare recipes, collect ingredients, publicize the event, prepare hot soups, and arrange for fresh fruits and vegetables to arrive. Raise funds for the food and equipment needed.  

Dec. 12-13: Volunteers will come to PS298 at 85 Watkins Street to set up tables and run the event, featuring food and clothes give-a-ways and healthy cooking and eating.

Dec. 18: More fresh food to be given out at Brownsville Houses.

Brownsville is one of the poorest neighborhoods in NYC, suffering from among the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and related illnesses in New Yori City. African-American and Latino residents are dying at twice the rate from Covid-19 as more affluent areas. 99 percent of PS 298 students qualify for free or reduced lunch. A century ago, this neighborhood was inhabited by poor Jewish immigrants, who started "food riots" due to the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables and high cost of food at that time. Today, these same issues afflict the current population, largely minority. We have a chance to bring these different communities together over a common history of social and economic injustice. In 1917, Black Americans were marching for civil rights at the same time Jewish mothers descended on City Hall, demanding that they have the right to eat healthy and affordably. Today, food insecurity is only getting worse during the pandemic, and the hardest hit areas are challenged low-income neighborhoods, exactly like Brownsville. This is day in which neighbors of different faiths and means come together to ensure everyone is taken care of.