“It started up in my office, and Neil came up and said he wanted to do this food truck,” Brodsky told the Brooklyn Eagle. “I’m embarrassed to be honored today, because I was there at the spark of the beginning, but I don’t do this thing every day.”
The organization has two full-time staff members — Chiu and Kitchen Manager Anjali Suneja — and a few part-timers, but the bulk of operations are run by a team of over 900 volunteers who pack and distribute food, drive the trucks and more. Most volunteers live in North Brooklyn.
“There are so many people moving to North Brooklyn, and they don’t know how to connect and make community and find long-term friendships,” said Kate Covey, who leads a weekly shift as a volunteer captain after four years of volunteering. “We all get to know each other so well, and we see each other out in the community, we have lunch together, we have happy hours together, we have group texts. It’s just such a wonderful environment, and you meet people from all sorts of different backgrounds.”
The program can be as valuable to volunteers as it is to the people they serve. “It’s a lifeline,” said longtime volunteer Sophia Schneider. “Ask anyone.”
North Brooklyn Angels volunteers serve boxed sandwiches to the attendees in Ascension Hall. Photo: Julie Thompson/Brooklyn Eagle
The organization is an antidote not just to the affordability crisis but also to the isolation that residents of the heavily gentrified neighborhood often experience, said Chiu. Community is built between those waiting in line, volunteers, and volunteers and meal recipients.
“There’s a familiarity that forms when folks are waiting on line for food. It’s not stigmatizing. Everyone can use a free meal,” Chiu said. “We don’t means test or screen for eligibility for meals, because the whole idea is whatever can bring the community together.”
“There’s a natural community that forms among our meal recipients and our volunteers, especially our regulars. If you don’t see [someone] for a couple weeks, we start to ask other folks on the line, ‘Have you seen so-and-so?’ We try to respect their privacy, of course,” she continued. “It’s kind of this old-school meeting people on stoops that really doesn’t exist as much these days, but it exists around our trucks and among our volunteer population.”
North Brooklyn Angels volunteers man the beverage service station, including beverages provided by sponsors Brooklyn Brewery. Photo: Julie Thompson/Brooklyn Eagle
The hyperlocal nature of the organization means that NBK Angels can truly get to know the people they serve each week. Otherwise, “we wouldn’t get to know our neighbor,” said Suneja. “We’d just simply be handing things out, handing things out, handing things out. And now we reallocate resources along with finding out what their needs are. Because we’re so hyperlocal, we’re able to focus.”
These annual luncheons were first held at the Williamsburg live music venue Warsaw and eventually moved to the Church of the Ascension, where Merz is the rector. The funding raised from the events over the past six years has allowed the organization to hire Chiu and Suneja full-time and to continue and expand its offerings.
This year, NBK Angels is launching a new free program, Live Local, which will help community members in Greenpoint and Williamsburg navigate the affordable housing lottery. Over 30 volunteers have already been specially trained in education on the “cumbersome and intimidating” lottery system, said Chiu.
“We’re trying to help them navigate a pretty tight system, and with the cost of living, it’s a very real reality. The most we can do is start a little bit of optimism by creating community,” said Chiu.