Food Security

 

Food is at the heart of our communities. It connects us across cultures, nourishes us, and sustains livelihoods.

In response to COVID-19, QARI has provided nearly 2,000,000 culturally sensitive meals and fresh produce boxes to elders and families across Massachusetts and NYC. These door-to-door deliveries are not just providing free and nutritious food to vulnerable individuals, but also love and hope that we all need during this challenging time.

When communities, like New York City, quickly became the epicenter of the pandemic, QARI partnered with local restaurants, business owners, and grocers to create a task force to tackle the growing emergency. We used the power of food to connect with people and used our creative social entrepreneurship to create pathways for survivorship and growth.

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  • Pathway to Healthy Adulthood

    The Pathway to Healthy Adulthood (PHA) program, in collaboration among NYC public schools, Montefiore Health System, QARI, EGL Foundation, Stop & Shop, and City Harvest, will educate and empower Bronx youth to become better stewards of their health, provide access to quality food (fresh fruits and vegetables) and nutrition education to their parents and members of the community.

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  • Germantown Neighborhood Center Food Pantry

    QARI partners with the South Shore YMCA to provide culturally and linguistically competent social services to Asian families and seniors frequenting their food pantry. Together, we provide a wider array of resources to help immigrants get on their feet.

  • GetFood NYC

    Early into the pandemic, QARI recognized the need to support vulnerable families and elders unable to access to fresh, nutritious meals and connect them with emergency resources. After securing a $2 million grant through the city of New York’s GetFoodNYC Program, QARI mobilized a catering and delivery network to provide daily meals to program participants across all five boroughs.

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  • Met Council

    Our partnership with Met Council, the largest Jewish anti-poverty organization and headquartered in NYC, allowed QARI to support food access for Holocaust survivors during the pandemic out of their kosher and halal food network.

  • Technology Infrastructure

    QARI is working with farms to create more accessible pathways to locally grown food for immigrant communities, including working with farmers to grow more culturally sensitive fruits and vegetables. With funding awarded by the Massachusetts Food Security Infrastructure Grant, we created the QARI FoodHub. QARI FoodHub is a multilingual digital platform that enables non-English speakers to purchase farm-fresh foods for weekly pick-up at local farmers markets.

  • Local Restaurant Partners

    QARI partners with local restaurants to help support Pan-Asian meal production for the GetFoodNYC program. Their team prepared hundreds of meals every day for elders and families being impacted by the COVID-19. Our vision is to use food to empower the community and provide a lifeline to these local immigrant business owners through this unprecedented time.

  • A Community Workforce

    As of May 2021, QARI has exceeded our goal to deliver one million culturally sensitive, nutritious meals to homebound elders. As the anchor Pan-Asian provider for GetFoodNYC, we are proud to partner with local restaurants and delivery teams to support employees to get back to work while ensuring that the most vulnerable members of our community have access to the food they want and need.

  • Fresh Produce Box Deliveries

    In partnership with Kam Man Foods, QARI delivered weekly free, fresh produce boxes to Asian elders in the Quincy, South Shore, and Boston areas unable to access culturally-sensitive grocery stores during the pandemic. QARI’s goal was to increase access to food for all while continuing social distancing measures. Thank you to our community partners who supported this project.

  • City Harvest

    QARI has partnered with City Harvest, NYC’s largest food rescue & distribution organization, to support language access and provide on-site social services at mobile food access points. These include two of their mobile market locations in Bed-Stuy and Queensbridge, areas with large Asian and immigrant populations.