Flushing Community Celebrates Holidays with Community Meal

Historic St. George's Church (Queens), La Jornada, Green Earth Urban Gardens Inc., Not-for-Profit, EmblemHealth, Crown Waste Corp., the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce organized the 2019 Flushing Community Holiday Meal, where volunteers served hot meals to 500 members of the local community, including immigrants, refugees, and families in need on Saturday, December 21, at St. George’s Church.

Organizers of the 2019 Flushing Community Holiday Meal were joined by Assemblyman Ron Kim, who presented a New York State Citation to Pedro Rodriguez, executive director of La Jornada, for the organization's many years of service as a weekly food pantry for hundreds of local families and senior citizens who are food insecure amid cutbacks in federal funding and more stringent requirements for food stamps. This is the last month in which La Jornada is operating at St. George's Church.

“For the past five years, La Jornada has been serving immigrants and those who are poor in Flushing. Since then, we have seen an incredible increase in the number of people we are serving,” said Pedro Rodriguez, Founder of La Jornada.

According to the advocacy group Hunger Free America, 1.2 million New Yorkers (one in seven of the city’s population) live in food insecure homes. One in five children and 200,000 seniors in New York City do not have enough food to eat. Last year, 40 percent of the food pantries and soup kitchens in New York City indicated they were not distributing enough food to meet demand (35 percent indicated they had to turn people away, reduce the amount of food, or limit their hours of operation).

"Hunger and food security are basic needs. By organizing our Holiday Dinner, we highlight these needs because they should be a birthright for all Americans," said Maureen Regan, Founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens, and a sponsor of today's event.

In addition to Green Earth Urban Gardens, today's community meal was also sponsored by EmblemHealth and Crown Waste Corporation. Freddy Ng, the Marketplace Sales Manager for EmblemHealth, greeted the audience and provided gifts for today's meal participants.

"The Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce is honored to partner with St. George’s Church, La Jornada, EmblemHealth, Crown Waste Corp, and Green Earth Urban Gardens in organizing this year's Flushing Community Holiday Meal," said Taehoon Kim, President of the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce.

Those interested in support La Jornada should contact pedro@lajornadany.org or visit lajornadany.org.

Photos from the event are available via Google Photos.