Connecting communities to food and ensuring that every household has access to local, nutritious food.
Leader
Kim Calichio
Location
49-09 5th Street Long Island City, NY 11101
The COVID-19 crisis has made more apparent than ever that communities are struggling to receive the healthy, nourishing food they need to survive. 1.2 million people across NYC are food insecure and the gaps in our broken system are wider than ever.
Through our Lifeline Grocery initiative, we make weekly deliveries of groceries, completely free of charge, to 700+ families a week throughout Queens who have lost work due to the pandemic and do not qualify for government assistance.
For $35, we can provide a week’s worth of fresh, nutrient-dense groceries to a family of four. But we need help! Winter’s are especially hard for sourcing good food, and the weather takes a toll on staff and volunteers at our outdoor-only packing facility.
$42,000 of money raised will go entirely to sourcing our food for the next three months.
$15,000 will help us with high need changes to our job site. Two-thirds goes to paving our current dirt (and mud!) parking lot where we do all our packing. One third helps us insulate and power refrigeration for our shipping containers so we can safely operate in the warmer months.
Our first step is ordering fresh, whole foods from local farms and distributors.
Next, we will package and directly deliver each grocery bag to our recipients in neighborhoods across Queens.
We reach households from Western Queens to South Queens in neighborhoods like Corona, Elmhurst, Jamaica, Ozone Park and more.
Each week, we are in close contact with our neighbors receiving groceries to ensure they are getting what they need and that we are providing additional community resources along the way.
This work is straight forward, but to be done with dignity and care, it requires many hands and the engagement of whole communities.
We believe that food is a lifeline to EVERY household and that everyone deserves access to nutrient-dense ingredients. Our Lifeline Grocery Initiative is our way of ensuring that every person in Queens has access to local, nutritious food.
We saw how traditional relief efforts and government led programs let people down and left many out. And we are here to radically recreate our systems of food access, security and distribution. A system built from within our community and with people first.
We talk with our neighbors, look in our own kitchens, raise money, and buy raw foods from local farms and vendors so that food is no longer a choice, but a right enjoyed and experienced by all.
Join us in moving towards a community where nutritious food is a human right and where we are committed to one another in recreating what food access is.