SNAP benefits are scheduled to run out on November 1rst, which will have a huge impact on the children and families of South Brooklyn.

In a crisis like this, we have to fund local food banks.

We must help the helpers.

Personally, I can't let children I know from playgrounds and school recitals - or their parents - skip meals without taking action. Any donation, big or small, makes a difference for a local family.

People in Need is a great local organization that feeds our neighbors in the neighborhoods of Kensington and Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

Nowshin Ali started People in Need with her incredible restaurant, Jalsa, on Coney Island Avenue in 2016. She is also a personal hero of mine. When COVID first hit Brooklyn in March of 2020, she reached out to hundreds in our community. Together, we figured out who was sick, who needed food, and how we could all pitch in to get supplies to neighbors who needed them.

Nowshin changed my idea of the responsibilities I have to my neighbors forever. And she is well prepared to help our children get meals in this food shortage crisis.

Nowshin and P.I.N. have been honored by groups such as the NYC City Council, Bklyner, and even the George H.W. Points of Light Foundation (ah, simpler times).

Here are two articles about People in Need and Jalsa from the New Yorker and Bklyner.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/20/an-indian-restaurant-in-little-pakistan-feeds-its-neighbors

https://bklyner.com/an-extraordinary-neighbor-nowshin-ali-is-100-present/