Strike a Chord: Mobile Soup Kitchen Delivers To New Yorkers Without Access

by Stephanie Kuo | 11/05/2013 | 5:00am

Strike a Chord: Mobile Soup Kitchen Delivers To New Yorkers Without Access

WFUV's Strike a Chord campaign is focusing on soup kitchens and food pantries.

Daniel Velez drives trucks for a living -- but not just any truck. 

Every morning, five days a week, he's commander of the St. John's Bread and Life mobile soup kitchen, an RV custom-made to prepare and cook food. It delivers two hot meals a day to under-served communities like East New York and Brownsville in Brooklyn and Jackson Heights in Queens. On one Friday morning, he and fellow driver Henry Torani and caseworker Marcus Greene, are en route to Far Rockaway, a neighborhood devastated after Superstorm Sandy. 

"We're going to distribute 200 sandwiches today with some tuna salad pasta and a side of green salad," he said.

Velez believes putting meals on wheels is important for reaching out to those without easy access to emergency food services -- like in Far Rockaway, where many are elderly and less mobile. 

"Well, we can't be everywhere but we do what we can," Velez said.

He pulls onto Beach 15th Street at Heyson Road in Far Rockaway, where a line of people already stretches down the block at 10 a.m. Velez rolls up the truck windows and begins handing out bags to thankful residents. One man, who asked not to be named, said he waits every Friday. His life depends on it. 

"It feeds me. That's it," he said. "It feeds us." 

The mobile soup kitchen serves about 700 meals a day and provides information on additional social services for housing, food stamps and counseling. 

Weekdays at Noon

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