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Security Amidst the Pandemic: Food, Culture, and Community

  • Writer: Hi Neighbors
    Hi Neighbors
  • Feb 8, 2021
  • 2 min read



It has been one year since the detection of SARS COVID-19 and the initial lockdown of Wuhan, China. At the onset of the pandemic, in the United States, a rise in anti-Asian sentiment was brewing around the country, and these racial divides have been felt deeply amongst the Asian/Asian-American communities in New York City. From Manhattan’s Chinatown to Main Street in Flushing, Queens, small businesses have gone under, local community spaces shuttered up, and people began to quarantine at home in order to stop the spread of the virus.

Over the past year, though, people have slowly started to reemerge, and New Yorkers have shown a resilience and strength, as number of virus cases and deaths skyrocketed in the early months of the pandemic. Some things have not returned to their original state or level of operation. By taking a walk through Chinatown or on Main Street, you will see that several mom and pop businesses have closed their doors for good, and with the decrease in foot traffic efforts from local non-profits, volunteer community initiatives, and donation-based organizations have had to fill in the gaps in terms of food access and security for lots of folks.

Food is at the center of culture and communities. Several new food banks and initiatives in Flushing specifically took to working long hours and starting the fight towards greater food equality and access for all New Yorkers. These organizations have also looked to providing culturally relevant foods, foods for all ages, and targeting wholistic nutrition and looking to get away from highly processed/packaged foods. Not only Facebook groups have sprung up where community members have been both posting asking for help and listing different resources that are there or items they have to share with others. This type of comradery has been seen as necessary as some initiatives were slow to get started or the initial demand for food in the boroughs exceeded the projected need causing many families to wait in long lines and go without food until the following days.

Food security and access is one of the five pillars that we at Hi Neighbor have worked to guarantee we cover on this platform. We believe that folks need access to healthy, fresh foods. In the next two weeks keep an eye on our website as we have been gathering content and information from a variety of these organizations and community groups to map them and provide up to date locations, hours of operations, and the languages that are spoken when you arrive at one of the sites. We can only hope to continue to highlight organizations who are doing the work, as providing food ourselves is currently beyond our capacity and so many efforts and opportunities exist with wonderful staff and volunteers ready to serve their neighbors in Queens. If you have any questions about access to any of these resources, please send us an e-mail and we look forward to connecting you further.

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