20210309 EMC Food Distribution Event
Channel: Hemi TV
Date: 31/03/2021

COVID-19 brought untold suffering to migrant workers, families, and neighborhoods across New York City, taking lives and livelihoods in vulnerable communities. Lost jobs, the exposure of essential labor, illness at home, and the uncertainties of undocumented status produced exponential hardships. As the pandemic struck, migrant-led activist networks, churches, and other allies immediately mobilized to confront the very real menace of hunger. The Hemispheric Institute, with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, launched an initiative to support and document this mobilization through four organizations across New York City. Since March 2020, these local heroes have distributed tens of thousands of food baskets and hot meals, even as they support migrants confronting the ongoing threat of detention and deportation.

The Hemispheric Institute has chronicled the efforts of organizations and volunteers who have fed hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. Many of those mobilizing against hunger are migrants themselves, returning the generosities of mutual aid in their communities. The updated Local Ecologies of Migrant Care archive includes 20 new, bilingual interviews that document their response to the pandemic.

On Tuesday March 9 at 5pm, we invite you to join Hemispheric Institute Director Ana Dopico and Managing Director Marcial Godoy for the inauguration of this historical documentary archive. We celebrate the work with a panel discussion featuring some of the activists and volunteers who have sustained their communities and one another by fighting hunger during this crisis.