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Update and Work Day Changes:Tuesday to Saturday

Hello Friends of The Kitchen,

First and foremost, as of writing this update, we have just reached our first fundraising goal of $35,000. We are humbled and full of thanks!

August at The Kitchen was our busiest yet. More thanks to your incredibly generous donations, we had the resources to fill a big need in the local Brooklyn community. While our frontline partner organization Chips was closed for repairs and respite, our dedicated volunteers set up in front of the building Monday to Friday to distribute over 800 meals a week, including lots of well received servings of watermelon! During the last week we had a visit from our local champion and council member Brad Lander. Thank you!

Numerous local businesses and individuals also donated supplemental meals and resources. We are particularly thankful to the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID (@TheOther5th) for helping to spread the word about our work. We received an anonymous donation to our Gofundme last week for $10,000, leaving us beyond thrilled and thankful that we can put those funds towards thousands of meals.

Work Day Changes: Tuesday to Saturday

Brooklyn Relief Kitchen is providing more and more meals and produce/pantry boxes to our frontline partners. New Yorkers continue to face long stretches of unemployment, food insecurity and our most vulnerable seniors and populations continue to practice social distance/safety by staying away from public places and food shopping.
To better meet the needs of our partners The Kitchen will now operate Tuesdays to Saturdays 10am to 2pm.

BRK Food Drive outside Old First Church @ 729 Carroll St.
Every Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 2pm

Our food drive drive outside of Old First Church will also change its schedule. Tuesday thru Saturday 10am – 2pm.

Chip’s will serve our hot meals:
Tuesdays thru Saturdays 11:30am to 1pm
200 4th Ave. @Sackett St. Brooklyn

Camp Friendship will serve our hot meals:
Saturdays 10am to 2pm
Park Slope United Methodist Church
410 6th Ave. @ 8th Street Brooklyn.

September is Hunger Awareness Action Month

As thousands of New Yorker’s are facing hunger, some for the first time as a result of the pandemic, we continue preparation and delivery of more than 1800 meals and pantry boxes a week to a growing number of clients at St. Marks United Methodist Church, Camp Friendship, Worker’s Justice Project and Heights and Hills Senior Services. Later in the month we will announce our collaboration with some new frontline partners. As we and everyone else seems to roll with the punches in these most uncertain times, we are dedicated to our vision of preparing fresh, warm, nutritious meals. Keeping Brooklyn Strong, By Keeping Brooklyn Fed.

All the Ways to Donate:
–Employer Match:
One of our super volunteers anonymously donated $700 to The Kitchen, only to be matched by their employer, Apple! Big thx.

–In Person:
Tuesday through Saturday 10-2pm we are outside at Old First Church 7th Avenue and Carroll St. collecting monetary donations and pantry items!

–Pay it Forward EBT Card:
In the coming weeks every public school student will receive an EBT card valued at $420. If you are fortunate enough, part or all of the value of this card can be donated via the GoFundMe campaign. Many have already started to do this, we thank you so much. *Be sure to mention when donating.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-brooklyn-relief-kitchen

–Time/Volunteer:
As our fabulous high school and college student volunteers start heading back to school (in one form or another), we have a few openings for kitchen prep and packing volunteers. Please contact us at
info @ brooklynreliefkitchen.org for details.

Small Biz Thanks and Support Your Local:
–Shout out to Dontis Produce, who Andy and Piper have been working with for over 35 years, for supplying The Kitchen with donated and discounted produce.
Family Owned + Operated Wholesale Produce Company Since 1962 Now Delivering Veggie & Fruit Boxes to Local Residence Reserve Today: www.dontisproduce.com
@dontis_produce

–Dujour Bakery – Donated delicious baked goods and breakfast.
365 5th Ave
–L’Arte Della Pizza – Yummy donations.
172 5th Ave
–Hiller and Moon – Weekly bread donations, hand delivered!
814 Union

Please continue to follow us on Instagram @BkReliefKitchen, Facebook /BrooklynReliefKitchen and help us to spread the word.

Be safe and healthy.

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Brad Lander Visit

Council member Brad Lander came by and pitched in during our last week at Chips. We thank him for his support and for always showing up. Big Thanks also to our wonderful volunteers and Brother Tom.

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Brooklyn Relief Kitchen Feeds Those Hit Hardest By COVID-19

Thanks to Bklyner and author RACHEL LINDY BARON for telling our story so well!

“Andy Wandzilak can’t not feed people.

Former co-owner of Two Boots Park Slope with his wife, Piper, as well as a caterer at Kings Theatre, Wandzilak had launched the volunteer-led Hurricane Sandy Relief Kitchen back in 2012 when the storm devastated large swathes of the city. Armed with dozens of volunteers and an outpouring of donor support, the team was able to serve over 200,000 meals to those affected by the disaster. Now, eight years later, Wandzilak saw that the city needed them again.”

read more https://bklyner.com/brooklyn-relief-kitchen-feeds-those-hit-hardest-by-covid-19/

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CNN reports on COPO

Mo Razvi and the incredible work of COPO, a wonderful organization feeding thousands of New Yorkers every week (and one of our major suppliers), is featured in this important CNN piece about food insecurity and relief efforts in Brooklyn. Cameo by our very own Andrew Wandzilak and his green hat!

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Fundraising Goal Increased.

Thank you all so much for your online contributions. You have helped us to prepare and serve another 2000 tasty meals this week. Our in person donation tent also saw an uptick in giving, as our visibility, and need grows. We increased our fundraising goal to $35K. This money is crucial in subsidizing our back line food donations. We appreciate your continued interest and hope you will share this post/and fund. Some delicious meals this week included: Chicken tikka masala, Vegetarian chili, Intensely good mac and cheese, Bratwurst and braised cabbage. We even distributed fresh vegetables to our front line partners at St. Marks UM Church in Flatbush. Again, thank you.