Coronavirus-Hit Brooklyn Nursing Home Gets Fresh 'Thank You'

COBBLE HILL, BROOKLYN — Sheets of rain changed, but didn't stop, plans to pass out fresh food bags at a Brooklyn nursing home for National Nurses Day — after all, its staff didn't stop caring for their patients as the new coronavirus swept through.

One hastily-erected tent later and volunteers Wednesday were back on track, hustling together 250 bags of fruit. Innovation and saying thanks go hand-in-hand during our coronavirus era, said organizer Nancie Katz.

And few workers need more thanks than the staff at Cobble Hill Health Center, which until recently saw the most reported coronavirus deaths of any nursing home in the state.

"When I saw they were getting in trouble I wanted to do something for workers," Katz said.

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Katz knows the Henry Street nursing home well. She not only leaves a half-block away, but her mother stayed there for rehabilitation.

"They always took such good care of her," she said.

It came as a shock then for Katz to hear about the grim situation inside the home amid the coronavirus — more than 50 patients dead from the virus, administrators' pleas for help rejectedand staff valiantly trying to care for residents.

Katz decided to step up and show thanks. Her charity Seeds in the Middle helps provide healthy, sustainable food to communities where it's in short supply.

Those communities — Crown Heights, East New York, Flatbush and others in Brooklyn — just so happen to be where many Cobble Hill Health Center workers live.

So as other neighbors and groups like the Cobble Hill Association stepped up to show support for the nursing home, Katz floated the idea of a fresh food hand out to a friend who works there.

"I asked whether the nurses would want this and she just lit up," Katz said.

Staff showed up to collect their fresh fruit bags, rain trickling off their protective gear. Meanwhile, Katz, her husband and three volunteers scrambled to assemble the bags, filling them with apples, oranges, pears, kiwifruit and a range of strawberries and grapes.

It's a sweet, fresh "thank you" to workers who continue to labor through the bitterest of times.

"They were always very kind," Katz said.

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