Ocean Hill/East Bushwick Elder Boxes

Because of the pandemic, our community elders should be staying inside. They are among the most vulnerable to Covid-19. Because we recognized the danger, the Fresh Food Box Program at Phoenix Community Garden began collecting money to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to elders in isolation. We have recruited a team of volunteers to deliver the bags of produce and pantry staples following social distancing protocols. These volunteers are also checking in with the elders, making sure they're ok and have everything that they need. As the weeks have worn on, it looks like shelter-in-place and social distancing restrictions will be going on for several more months. We are committed to providing food security to every elder that we add to our list. We are also working with Ocean Hill-Brownsville Mutual Aid to procure more pantry staples for the bags.

The process is pretty simple. On a weekly basis, we determine a count of bags that need to be delivered on Saturday, when we pack the bags and do distribution.  The steps are:

Monday: Place order with our distriutor, GrowNYC, which is a food distribution hub that sources from regional farmers

Saturday: Receive delivery, pack bags, hand off bags to our volunteer deliverers.

Sunday: Call the bag recipients to see how they like the bag and take notes for next week.

Even before the pandemic, Ocean Hill was a "food swamp" -- you could get all the fast food and potato chips that you wanted, but fresh healthy fruits and vegetables are not readily available. By providing a weekly bag of produce plus high-quality pantry staples, we are making sure our elders are fed and their immune systems are boosted.