{"id":50581,"date":"2025-11-24T18:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T18:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/50581\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T18:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T18:03:13","slug":"brooklyn-borough-hall-liberty-players-and-local-volunteers-team-up-to-feed-families-for-thanksgiving-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/50581\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Borough Hall, Liberty players and local volunteers team up to feed families for Thanksgiving \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooklynites are joining forces more than ever this holiday season to help community members facing food insecurity, a problem worsened by the food affordability crisis and a recent freeze in SNAP<\/a> benefits during the federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n

At Brooklyn Borough Hall, Borough President Antonio Reynoso and his staff hosted a Thanksgiving food distribution on Nov. 21, handing out more than 60,000 pounds of goods, including turkeys, fresh produce such as sweet potatoes, corn, apples, and onions, and nonperishable items like pasta and rice. The food was distributed to more than 125 organizations addressing food insecurity and homelessness across the borough, including houses of worship, community kitchens, nonprofits, and other community-based groups.<\/p>\n

\"\"Volunteers were busy loading the vans and cars with Thanksgiving staples.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Over 60,000 pounds of food were distributed to organizations across Brooklyn.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Reynoso said that, with support from Borough Hall\u2019s special partner UA3<\/a>, as well as National Grid, Optimum, Ponce Bank, Citizens, Met Council, Macerich, Food Bazaar, and the Hispanic Federation, the office raised more money than in previous years.<\/p>\n

Organizations had to pre-register for the event, and Reynoso emphasized the importance of distributing the food throughout the borough.\n<\/p>\n

\u201c[The distribution event] just comes at a time when food insecurity is high. The national government and the Trump administration are being very clear about wanting to cut SNAP benefits,\u201d Reynoso said, noting that his administration is prepared to support Brooklyn families in need should the benefits be reduced.<\/p>\n

\"\"Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso also lent a helping hand. \"\"Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and volunteers help distribute holiday food to community members facing food insecurity.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ready, we\u2019ll keep doing this type of work, and we need to do it every week to make sure that people are fed,\u201d Reynoso said. \u201cI hope that there\u2019s a level of confidence in these families to know, \u2018Look, maybe the national government is not there for us, but the local government is showing up.\u2019 So today is about family. It\u2019s about being grateful, being thankful, but also being confident. We got your back. Brooklyn is going to take care of Brooklyn!\u201d<\/p>\n

A slew of volunteers, including Borough Hall staff and other organizations, efficiently packed trolleys with holiday staples from a sea of pallets of food before loading them into cars and vans lined up along a well-organized assembly line in Borough Hall Plaza.<\/p>\n

Joyce French, president of the Community Education Council 19, told Brooklyn Paper that her organization would distribute the food to about 100 families, noting that families were struggling as she waited in line to have her car loaded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely need to have the events, because a lot of our families are not wealthy,\u201d French said. \u201cThe struggle is a little bit worse than it was before because not a lot of money is coming in, and people are really struggling. So this is such a big asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York Liberty<\/a> guards Natasha Cloud and Rebekah Gardner were among the volunteers loading holiday goods onto vehicles.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"New York Liberty Guards Rebekah Gardner and Natasha Cloud were among the busy volunteers loading the holiday goods onto the vehicles.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"New York Liberty Guard Natasha Cloud said it was important to remember blessings around Thanksgiving.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Cloud, who said she is not \u201cbig on holiday stuff\u201d but is \u201chuge\u201d on family gatherings, told Brooklyn Paper that it is important to remember one\u2019s blessings.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI always appreciate when a full family can get together and just truly be present in the moment of what they are thankful for, especially with the chaos that is happening around us all the time,\u201d Cloud said. \u201cI think it is still very important to prioritize and remind ourselves how blessed we truly are.\u201d<\/p>\n

She gave a shoutout to the Brooklyn Borough Hall team, particularly Deputy Borough President Kim Council, whom Cloud has gotten to know as a caring person.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to pull something like this off, where you know you are going to feed thousands and thousands of mouths over a holiday season, where families didn\u2019t know where else it was going to come from like that, truly is [remarkable],\u201d Cloud said. \u201cWe need more politicians like her who truly do care. And it\u2019s really a blessing for me to be a part of it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardner said Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday because gratitude is a \u201chuge\u201d part of her life.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome that there\u2019s a day to recognize it, where you get to spend time with your family and do things like [volunteering] and give back,\u201d Gardner said, hoping more communities will host events to help people in need.<\/p>\n

\"\"Volunteers with Brownsville In Violence Out lent a helping hand.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Mel Quan and his friend Kemori, with \u201cSave The Next Generation,\u201d were part of the \u201cBrownsville In Violence Out\u201d (BIVO) volunteer group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to give back. I like to do for others,\u201d Quan told Brooklyn Paper. \u201cI just like to be a better version of myself every day.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Kemori added that they would be busy giving out turkeys in their community in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
\n\"\"Newlyweds Patrick and Kelly paused to take wedding photos and help out, appreciating the event during challenging times.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann\n<\/p>\n

While volunteers spread holiday cheer, newlyweds Patrick and Kelly paused to take some obligatory wedding photos on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall and stopped for a bit to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough times right now, so this is definitely great,\u201d the groom told Brooklyn Paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooklynites are joining forces more than ever this holiday season to help community members facing food insecurity, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,13005,21313,100,99,28273,28274,8768,25663,17399,4760,9,24,8915,28275,28276,12,370,63,26489,28277,6967,28278,28279],"class_list":["post-50581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-borough-hall","tag-brooklyn-borough-president-antonio-reynoso","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-citizens","tag-food-bazaar","tag-hispanic-federation","tag-macerich","tag-met-council","tag-national-grid","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-new-york-liberty-guard-natasha-cloud","tag-new-york-liberty-guard-rebekah-gardner","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-optimum","tag-ponce-bank","tag-thanksgiving","tag-thanksgiving-distribution","tag-ua3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}