Trinity Real Estate this week announced a $16,500 donation to Citymeals-on-Wheels, which will help provide more than 2,570 meals to homebound elderly across New York’s five boroughs.
The donation is the result of a successful partnership with the NYC Food Truck Association, which brought a rotating roster of New York’s best food trucks — the likes of Schnitzel & Things, Kimchi Taco Truck, Gorilla Cheese NYC, Cupcake Crew and Shortys on Wheels — to Hudson Square to provide expanded lunch options for the neighborhood’s growing community of creative, media and high-tech businesses.
“What began as a simple idea to bring a few food trucks to the area in response to growing tenant needs, blossomed into a wonderful six-month program that contributed to the neighborhood’s vibrant energy and will help do good in neighborhoods around the city,” said Jason Pizer, president of Trinity Real Estate. “This program far exceeded our expectations and we are delighted to be able to make this level of donation to Citymeals-on-Wheels to support its critical mission.”
Two to three days a week a diverse range of food-toting trucks would park at the Lent Space site, which is owned by Trinity, and offer their culinary specialties to eager employees who work in the Hudson Square area, which is underserved in terms of food options. A “rental fee” from each participating truck was allocated for donation to Citymeals-on-Wheels.
The program, initially set to run just during the summer, was met with an enthusiastic response from area commercial office tenants, resulting in the program’s extension and the total accumulated donation of $16,500.
Pizer presented the check to Beth Shapiro, executive director of Citymeals-on-Wheels, at the philanthropy’s major fundraiser, the Power Lunch for Women, at The Plaza Hotel.
Shapiro said, “This wonderful donation comes at a time of great need for our organization. In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Citymeals’ emergency food supply was depleted when we provided 64,000 extra meals to frail homebound elderly and others stranded by this devastating disaster.”
The nonprofit Citymeals-on-Wheels raises private funds to prepare and deliver weekend, holiday and emergency meals to the homebound elderly throughout New York City. Last year, Citymeals underwrote the preparation and delivery of more than 1.8 million meals to nearly 17,000 elderly New Yorkers.
The fenced-in location in Duarte Square, at Canal and Grand Sts. and Sixth Ave., is a development site for Trinity, where it plans a high-rise residential tower with a public school in the base.
The Trinity lot was coveted by Occupy Wall Street as a location for a new outdoor base camp after it was evicted from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan last November. But Occupy’s attempts to “take” the lot were repeatedly repelled by the police at Trinity’s behest.
