Hundreds line up in East Elmhurst for free fresh food from upstate farms

Queens State Sen. Jessica Ramos packed food to give away for free on Friday morning. Her district has been among the regions hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of Ramos’ Office

By Victoria Merlino

By 10 a.m. Friday, more than 700 people had queued up for a fresh food giveaway organized by Queens State Sen. Jessica Ramos in East Elmhurst, an indication of how the the COVID-19 pandemic has strained food pantries across the city. 

Ramos teamed up with the Northeast Dairy Producers Association to shuttle tens of thousands of pounds of produce, beef, milk and other staples from farms in upstate New York to her district, which encompasses Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Corona and parts of Woodside and Astoria. The neighborhoods have been among the communities hardest-hit by the coronavirus in the world, garnering national attention as the “epicenter of the epicenter.”

“In addition to the unspeakable loss of life caused by the coronavirus pandemic, two additional devastating tragedies are unfolding during this crisis — a spike in hunger as the economic pain takes its toll, and the breakdown of our food supply chain,” Ramos said.  “We cannot have hungry families in New York City, and farmers upstate dumping their product because they cannot sell it.”

Food pantries around the city have been especially hard hit by the virus, with city officials estimating that a third of pantries have closed since the beginning of the pandemic, Gothamist reported on April 27.

Despite living in urban Northern Queens, Ramos has developed ties with farms across the state. 

Last legislative session, she sponsored a bill to extend labor protections to farmworkers who had been excluded from a New Deal Era-policy that provided workers the right to collectively bargain, receive overtime or have a day off.