Upper Manhattan Mutual Aid for Covid 19

Upper Manhattan Mutual Aid has been providing Upper Manhattan residents with fresh food, PPE, and other essentials since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic. New York City is hit hard by the pandemic, and many of our neighbors are in crisis.  Your donation will allow us to continue our efforts to support these neighbors. 

One of our most common requests is for fresh fruits, vegetables and proteins. You can help us bring healthy food, medicine and other basic necessities to our families in Upper Manhattan. Our mutual aid delivery network provides a safer alternative, especially to vulnerable individuals, and provides families with healthy foods that can be difficult to find elsewhere. 

This is what we do. Through social workers, independent living centers, and our website, we are connected to a person who urgently needs help and we take their shopping list and buy as much as we can. Then we carefully pack and safely deliver food, cleaning supplies - even medicine - right to their door. Then the process starts again. And again. And again.

We have many neighbors contacting us. Some request specific grocery items or baby items, while some are happy with a generalized grocery run. Our volunteers shop for the neighbors and deliver the items to them. We try to use the local pantries to keep our costs down, and we also buy grocery items in bulk and store them in our apartment pantries. Our delivery volunteers can pick up items from the apartment pantries for our neighbors. 

We plan to spend $1200-$1500 per week and support 25-30 families per week.

Food insecurity was already on the rise in NYC, but since COVID 19 began it has become another epidemic, with a 91% increase in first-time visitors to NYC food providers. Many food pantries have been forced to close and the remaining ones have had to turn people away, UMMA is helping to close the gap. 

Our work has allowed us to keep our spirits up in these challenging times. The smiles and ongoing relationships with neighbors have enriched our lives. We are working on ways to involve these neighbors with us, so they can also contribute to keep the community strong.