COMMUNITY MARKET & GOOD DEEDS GIVEAWAY 3/27 Wrap Up

In collaboration with AAFE and HoGD, the Glow Community Center (GCC) hosted a community closet event on March 27th, 2021, with the help of 42 volunteers from around NYC.

The largely immigrant Flushing community has been disproportionally impacted by the COVID19 pandemic and continues to suffer losses and food insecurity due to the high unemployment in the restaurant and domestic services industries, and strained government assistance programs. This event was completely volunteer-run and was able to provide approximately 118 families with distributed thousands of home goods, food items, clothing, toys, and personal protective equipment items.

Based on event surveys, 65% of participants were unemployed, 58% were in the 25-48 yrs. age bracket and average household size served were 3.1. About 43% of participants were Hispanic and 38% were Asians, and even though 34% of participants had some college education, finding employment in our community remains challenging despite an improving economy. “I had no idea that so many Flushing residents are still struggling due to the pandemic”, expressed an event volunteer after she distributed flyers at a nearby food pantry line that had more than 500 people and did crowd control in our event. The Glow Community staff remains committed to enriching community life and helping our neighbors and resilient immigrant community during difficult times.