News

We will be closed on Thursday, February 18, 2021 and Friday, February 19. due to a predicted winter weather. As such, there will be no food deliveries to CHiPS or to Caribbean Women’s Health Association.

We will return on Saturday, February 20.

We are happy to announce we will be assisting Brooklyn-based West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA). Their mission is to promote, develop and celebrate Caribbean culture, arts, history and traditions through year-round programs culminating in the annual, iconic West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn in Labor Day Weekend.

In an effort to assist neighbors at this difficult time, they have started WIADCA cares and are providing pantry distribution on Wednesday’s from 12-2p outside their offices at 323 Rogers Avenue. Today BRK delivered 100 produce bags, including 100 gallons of milk.

We will be closed on Tuesday, February 2, 2021 due to the predicted winter storm. As such, there will be no food deliveries to CHiPS or to St Marks Methodist Church. We will reopen Wednesday.

Dearest Friends of Brooklyn Relief Kitchen,

As we near the end of 2020, we’re reflecting on what a difficult year it’s been, and on how lucky we feel to have found a way to make a small difference for the folks who’ve had it really hard. We could not have done it without the hard work and kindness of our volunteers, community partners, and our generous donors who have supplied the funds to keep us feeding thousands each week.
Special thanks goes to our repeat benefactors and their sustaining support as our work continues.

Keep up-to-date with us!

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Increased Needs on the Horizon

As the pandemic worsens and businesses struggle to stay afloat, the number of families in food crisis increases. The massive relief box distribution from Farms to Families is ending this week, and many other suppliers are winding down or losing government funding, which puts a big hurt on all those folks who’ve been depending on it for survival. The pantry & produce boxes we prepare for Workers’ Justice Project and Caribbean Women’s Health Association will become more essential than ever.
Which brings us to the actions of some very generous neighbors jumping in to help:

Local Food Drives

In an effort to increase the number of grocery kits we provide to families, donations of pantry goods are more crucial than ever. Neighborhood organizations, scout & school groups and local families have generously set up food drive events. The response has been fantastic. Very special thank you to the 5th Avenue BID, champions of small businesses.

Local shopkeepers who are helping with donation jars and food collection include Giftman, Good Wine, Acme Dog Run, Tarzian Hardware, Seawitch Tavern, Littleneck Restaurant and Slope Vintage, Cafe Martin, Ample Hills Creamery, and Planted Park Slope.
We thank them and hope you’ll support them!

Neighbors and Community

We give thanks to Old First Reformed Church – the generosity they’ve shown in providing their kitchen, workspace and operational support is literally the home and heart of our operation.

Our Donation Tent in front of the church is a daily reminder of the generosity that exists in our neighborhood. Whether it’s a dollar from a passerby or a car load of groceries someone drops off anonymously, every bit put to good use.

We’re grateful to a lot of wonderful people making a difference……

A collaboration between The Old Stone House, The Pablo Ramirez Foundation, The Skate Garden, and Friends of 51 Skate Park held a food drive and matching donation campaign, raising more than $1000 for the Kitchen.

Our volunteer Annie inspired her employers at AlgiKnit, a company developing eco-conscious algae-derived textiles, to collect a truckload of goods for us from the food drive they held at their offices at the Brooklyn Army Terminal.

A couple of local families of 5th graders from Brooklyn New School organized a drive outside Steve’s C-town and raised a tidy sum and a massive amount of excellent groceries.

Youngsters in the care of welearnwithanna held a Ladybug Food Drive and collected a ton of much-needed canned goods and baby food.

Our young friend Laila sold hot chocolate from a card table on PPW and donated $95 from her (very) independent efforts. PHOTO

Special thanks to Corcoran Realty for their kind donation of lovely new baby & toddler PJ’s and kids’ books, which will be distributed next week to the new mothers at Caribbean Womens’ Health Assoc in East Flatbush.

Join our mailing list to keep up with our progress!
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You may now select Brooklyn Relief Kitchen as your charity of choice in the Amazon Smile program. Qualified purchases made at smile.amazon.com will trigger a 0.5% donation to the Brooklyn Relief Kitchen. For more information please visit amazon smile’s information page.

Thanks to the Park Slope Civic Council for their generous donation. Here is a repost from their blog at https://parkslopeciviccouncil.org/the-civic-council-supports-the-brooklyn-relief-kitchenand-so-can-you/

The Civic Council Supports the Brooklyn Relief Kitchen…And So Can You!

On Saturday, November 14, in recognition of the Brooklyn Relief Kitchen’s vital work in addressing the persistent hunger crisis throughout Brooklyn communities, the Park Slope Civic Council presented a $2,500 grant to Andy and Piper Wandzilak, BRK’s co-founders. Piper expressed her deep appreciation of the PSCC’s support by remarking that the grant will enable BRK to feed several thousand households in the coming weeks.

BRK’s collection tent in front of the Old First Reformed Church was an apt backdrop for the grant ceremony, since the church has provided BRK with the space to prepare thousands of hot meals since its operation began in June, 2020. Volunteers staff the tent every week from Tuesday through Saturday, from 10am to 2pm. The hot meals that the Brooklyn Relief Kitchen prepare are supplied to CHiPs Soup Kitchen and Camp Friendship, both in Park Slope; the Workers Justice Project; and the St. Marks United Methodist Church in Flatbush, all of which distribute meals to sustain many families and individuals whose livelihoods evaporated when the businesses that employed them shut their doors. Undocumented households have been a major recipient of BRK’s assistance, particularly as they have been denied Covid-19 relief benefits. Since it appears likely that Covid-19 will be with us well into 2021, The Brooklyn Relief Kitchen’s services will continue to be needed to ameliorate food insecurity within our communities. Their task has been further complicated by ebbing Federal support for food programs in New York State. For these reasons, we encourage our members, readers, and the Park Slope community to kindly chip in with financial support to enable the BRK to purchase food in bulk and continue their invaluable efforts in the community. Your donations enable BRK’s efforts to go much, much further. Tax deductible financial donations can be made payable to BRK’s fiscal sponsor: The Old First Reformed Church, noting Brooklyn Relief Kitchen or BRK in the memo line, and sent to the church at: 729 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215, or simply dropped off at its collection tent in front of Old First Reformed Church on Seventh Avenue and Carroll Street.

Additionally, if you are going on a food shopping expedition, you may also leave food items with the volunteers staffing the tent. The most urgently needed items are canned tuna, fruit, beans and soups, peanut butter/jelly, dried fruit and nuts, shelf-stable milk, pasta, rice and grains flour and sugar baby food/formula, baby supplies and disinfectant products.  Please use your social media and email to urge your friends and neighbors to support Andy and Piper and the many volunteers who have made the Brooklyn Relief Kitchen an organization we can all be proud of. The Park Slope Civic Council appreciates your generosity and commitment to this cause, as we embark on the upcoming holiday season. Thank you!

End of summer, early fall has turned out to be busier than anticipated for The Kitchen, though not surprisingly. As food insecurity in our community is growing, our small but mighty volunteer-led operation continues to expand and broaden its reach. We wish this was not the case, but here we are.

We have so many individuals, businesses and fellow organizations to thank – please know that all of us at The Kitchen are grateful for every share, dollar, food donation, muscle power and kind word that comes our way.

Hot Meals

Chef Kate and The Kitchen volunteers produce over 1800 meals each week. Meals are distributed by our partner organizations: CHiPS, Camp Friendship, St. Mark’s Church, Worker’s Justice Project. We provide hearty servings of much-needed meatloaf, vegetables, bbq chicken, rice and bean dishes, comforting mac and cheese, soups and often a homemade baked treat as well.

Produce/Pantry Boxes

Thanks to the USDA Farmers to Families program, and efforts involving a web of coordination with our friends at Council of People’s copo.org and Brooklyn Packers – who also work in tandem with The 9 Million Reasons Food Pantry at the Evangel Church in Queens which delivers 1,700 boxes of produce per week to St. Mark’s United Methodist Church and Worker’s Justice Project – we are able to assist in the city wide efforts to provide fresh ingredients for home cooking.

This means participants receive gallons of milk, eggs, cheese, grains, meat and vegetables. The Kitchen distributes hundreds of additional produce/pantry boxes as well for the bi-weekly pantry at St. Mark’s Church on Beverley Road, Worker’s Justice in Bensonhurst & Sunset Park, and the Camp Friendship Pantry. Our boxes are supplemented with local farm- fresh, seasonal vegetables generously donated by Brooklyn Grange/Sunset Park and The Flatbush Farm Share. On occasion, we even have a local neighbor donate heaps of freshly grown produce from her home garden in Sullivan County.

New Front Line Partner

Starting Thursday October 22, The Kitchen will be providing hot meals and produce/pantry boxes for The Caribbean Women’s Health Association (cwha.org). CWHA is a social service organization dedicated to providing high quality, culturally appropriate health, immigration and social support services to its diverse constituency. “Transforming Lives, Strengthening Families and Empowering Communities.”

In The Spotlight

On October 1st, Andy and Piper were invited to speak at The Park Slope Civic Council’s first in-person meeting since the pandemic, outside the Old Stone House, to share information about the Brooklyn Relief Kitchen. Attendees were very supportive and will continue to be a source of collaboration and assistance for The Kitchen.

On October 14th, Brooklyn Paper featured a story about The Kitchen. Access here: https://www.brooklynpaper.com/brooklyn-relief-kitchen-park-slope/

Creative Giving

We are humbled by the response and action of the members of this community. The “Pay it Forward,” concept of donating all or a portion of the
P-EBT cards sent to public school families has helped us to raise over two thousand dollars, which goes towards purchasing ingredients and supplies. Others have chosen to use their EBT card to purchase pantry items and baking supplies for our generous and talented home bakers.

Two groups of neighbors, on Carroll Street and on Garfield Place, organized pantry drives during their recent respective block parties. They brought us 4 boxes and 2 wagon-fulls loaded with fantastic goodies!

Extra Special Thanks To

The employees of the new Ample Hills Ice Cream, who have amply (!) shared our efforts with the new owners, who in turn matched donations that went directly to our organization. Likewise, big thanks for the donation of a giant chest freezer, which we urgently needed!

The Carroll Street Block Association for including us in their giving plans.

The Brooklyn Blade Youth Hockey Club, for their very generous check to support both BRK and Camp Friendship.

In perpetuity – thanks to our wonderful and dedicated volunteers!

**If you would like to organize a small food drive or event like the above, or have questions about how to use your EBT card, please message us at info@brooklynreliefkitchen.org

As always, we ask that you share our GoFundMe page, like us on the Facebook and Instagram, and help spread the word to Keep Brooklyn Fed.

Starting Friday October 23 – The Kitchen will be providing hot meals and produce/pantry boxes for The Caribbean Women’s Health Association (cwha.org).  CWHA is a social service organization dedicated to providing high quality, comprehensive, culturally appropriate health, immigration and social support services to its diverse constituency.  “Transforming Lives, Strengthening Families and Empowering Communities.”  

As a result we are now accepting/requesting donations for baby formula, baby food, and baby supplies at our daily food drive tent.

Brooklyn Relief Kitchen featured in brooklynpaper.com in an article by Ben Verde.

“A Park Slope-based food bank is seeing no dip in demand as the pandemic drags on, and is plotting ways to continue their effort to keep Brooklynites fed in a post-COVID world. 

The Brooklyn Relief Kitchen, a volunteer-led organization that launched in June to help supply a local soup kitchen with hot meals, is still cooking up hundreds of meals a week, and demand has only continued to grow… ”

Read more HERE.

Brooklyn Relief Kitchen looks to the future amid growing need