GOYA, QUEENS TEACHERS FIGHT FOOD INSECURITY

Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee has announced a partnership with Goya Foods to donate nearly one ton of food to the I.S. 61 school community in Corona, one of the communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as Queens continues its all-encompassing push to meet the needs of families struggling with food insecurity.

The generous donation augments the dedicated efforts of many I.S. 61 teachers who, throughout the pandemic, have gone above and beyond by purchasing groceries and delivering them directly to the homes of students and their families.

Today, June 30, Borough President Lee and Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, facilitated the distribution of 1,829 pounds of donated food, including red pimientos, lentils, black beans, chick peas, vegetable barley soup and more.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey assisted in the transportation of food to Queens from Goya’s storage facility in New Jersey.

Goya’s critical donation of nearly one ton of fresh food augments Queens’ ongoing effort to stem the tide of food insecurity exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic emergency — more than 1.3 million New York City residents have filed unemployment claims between the weeks of March 14 and June 20, according to the New York State Department of Labor.

To date, Borough President Lee’s ongoing partnership with FreshDirect since March 24 has resulted in the distribution of more than 31,000 grocery boxes to 102 different CBOs — including I.S. 61, which received 100-box donations on May 18 and June 10 — across all 14 Queens community districts.