'Unprecedented' Coronavirus Rush Daily At Bed-Stuy Food Pantry

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Two weeks ago, a flood of donations helped ease a coronavirus-driven strain on The Campaign Against Hunger in Bed-Stuy.

Turns out the break didn't last long — the pantry's founder Melony Samuels said it's a day-by-day struggle to get enough food to hungry, self-isolating, quarantined and unemployed Brooklynites.

"People are calling and asking can you drop off 300, can you drop off 200? It’s unprecedented,” Samuels said."It's unprecedented."

And that's not counting troubles with supply. On Wednesday, the campaign's director of programs Tamara Dawson learned from a supplier that a shipment of milk, children's cereals and chicken and tuna salad meals would be short.

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Why? New York City's public schools had bought them all, Dawson said she was told.

Other shortfalls came in bulk items like grains and pasta, Samuels said. She said City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo had tapped the campaign to deliver meals to seniors in Crown Heights on Thursday.

"We don’t know if can make it tomorrow," Samuels said Wednesday afternoon.

Volunteers packed food for 600 families on Tuesday alone — three times more than a normal day before the coronavirus, Samuels said. The pantry estimates it has served 46,000 meals since the coronavirus outbreak, she said.

Things are much-changed since Samuels last spoke with Patch about two weeks ago.

Back then, the campaign's recipients could pick out what food went in their bags, volunteers had time to sort through food and deliveries were made face-to-face. But the first wave of concern over the coronavirus crashed over the pantry and caused real concern it meet all the requests for help.

Samuels said donations and volunteers flowed in after people in Bed-Stuy and beyond heard about the drought. They only lasted so long, though, and supplies run low on a nearly daily basis.

"We keep running out of rice, pasta, cereal — everything we need to buy," Samuels said.

Now, the campaign's few remaining volunteers prepack bags for recipients. They're now delivered — whether when people pick them up directly or dropped off at senior centers — from a safe distance.

The pantry is occasionally buoyed by help from groups like City Harvest and online businesses like FreshDirect, which this week came in with 400 boxes, Samuels said.

But shortages still come up out of nowhere, as they did on Wednesday.

Dawson said the supplier managed to scrape together some items like tuna and children's cereal for a delivery later than expected, perhaps Friday or even Monday.

Samuels said donations are still, and always, needed. Cash gives the campaign a chance to buy cheaply in bulk, she said, but supplier problems on Wednesday extended to bulk, meaning the campaign had to look at buying much more expensive brand name items.

Food donations, while appreciated, generally aren't preferred because the campaign no longer has enough volunteers to sort through everything that may come in, she said.

But Dawson said if people or grocers have an excess of food items, particularly rice and pasta, that the campaign will accept them provided they're unopened.

Donations can be made through The Campaign Against Hunger's website or by calling 718-773-3551, extension 152.

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