Tickets for the upcoming Food Expo are available for $100<\/a>, with no admission fee for children aged 12 and under. All proceeds from the event will go toward two new Queens Together initiatives \u2013 \u201cSNAP BACK\u201d and \u201cAdopt a Veteran.\u201d<\/p>\nThe latter program, which launched as a pilot earlier this year, aims to provide veterans recently discharged from hospital care with one month of fresh meals prepared by local chefs.\n<\/p>\n
Queens Together founder and Executive Director Jonathan Forgash said the program aims to cater to up to six veterans a month and provide freshly-prepared meals for the first month of their respite after a stay in hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first month of recovery is really important for the health and well being of anybody, and it is that first month that we want to target with some compassionate hospitality from a local restaurant,\u201d Forgash said.<\/p>\n
He said the pilot program saw Fuzi Pasta provide fresh meals to 106-year-old Horace Caratelli, a veteran of the Second World War who fought with the 1st Armored Division.\n<\/p>\n
The SNAP BACK program, meanwhile, aims to proactively respond to upcoming federal funding cuts to the SNAP program. The cuts, introduced by President Donald Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill, are set to be introduced next spring and mandates that states pay a share of SNAP benefits. The bill also imposes stricter work requirements on SNAP recipients.<\/p>\n
Forgash said the new initiative will see Queens Together partner with local restaurants and schools to provide culturally-appropriate groceries to families impacted by the cuts.\n<\/p>\n
The non-profit will identify areas in Queens with no food pantries and work with schools in the area to identify families in need, Forgash said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cA restaurant will deliver bags of groceries to the school and the student will be able to bring the groceries home to their family,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the students are contributing and the parents are able to cook a home-cooked meal.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the grocery bags will subsidize a week\u2019s worth of cooking.\n<\/p>\n
Forgash said food has the power to unite the community and added that the International Food Expo will bring people together under one roof.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFood unites us for holidays, gatherings with friends, date nights, and in times of need,\u201d Forgash said. \u201cThe International Food Expo brings it all together on one night to\u00a0celebrate the food, the people, and the spirit of Queens while raising funds to battle food insecurity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Food Expo is sponsored by the Champlain Hudson Power Express and Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec, longstanding partners of Queens Together.\n<\/p>\n
Pete Rose, a senior director of Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec, the clean energy provider of the Champlain Hudson Power Express, described the upcoming Food Expo as \u201ctruly impactful.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thrilled that the proceeds will help fund critical food relief and support small businesses,\u201d Rose said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attendees sample food at the 2024 International Food Expo. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien Search our comprehensive guide to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[30109,9,24,63,122,124,123,30110,30111],"class_list":["post-54984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-jonathan-forgash","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-queens-together","tag-queens-together-international-food-expo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54984","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=54984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Attendees](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20241205_192325.jpg\")
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