Island Harvest Food Bank announced today that it was awarded a $50,000 Love Takes Action Award from the New York Life Foundation based on Chef Belkis Crowe, a Garden City resident’s contributions to the community during the pandemic.
Crowe selected Island Harvest Food Bank as her designated charity to receive the $50,000 grant from the New York Life Foundation. The grant will support ongoing hunger-relief efforts for Long Islanders impacted by the continuing COVID-19 crisis.
“We are grateful for the New York Life Foundation’s investment in our organization and to Eugene Lutz, managing partner of New York Life’s Westchester General Office for recognizing Belkis Crowe for her extraordinary community service during COVID19, which brought about this grant, and will change many lives for the better,” said Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO, Island Harvest Food Bank.
During the pandemic’s height, Belkis Crowe, a Garden City resident, and chef, tirelessly cooked and brought food to hospital workers who worked on the frontlines among others. “During the quarantine period, I was cooking out of my rented kitchen in Baldwin and delivered home-cooked meals twice a week to the hospital workers,” said Chef Crowe. “It moved me to see how appreciative the hospital workers were to have a home-cooked meal. I would drop off the food to three hospitals in a day at times, traveling all over from Long Island to Queens.”
The Love Takes Action Award program awards $50,000 to local nonprofit organizations championed by New York Life agents and employees. Thirty-five community members from across the nation embodying Love Taking Action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be honored. Each honoree selected a nonprofit to receive a $50,000 general support grant from the New York Life Foundation.
