In the days following Hurricane Sandy, one of New York City’s oldest rescue missions has been overflowing with people displaced by the storm.
The Bowery Mission saw its crowds double, World magazine reported. On the Monday of the storm, 160 men slept in the chapel and dining hall- -triple the Bowery Mission’s normal overnight capacity–even though the building did not have any heat. The overnight crowd later swelled to 250.
When other shelters began to run out of food, many of the displaced turned to Bowery. A mission cook arrived ahead of the storm and planned to stay as long as necessary, and a donated generator kept the freezers and refrigerators running so the mission could continue to provide food.
“Hurricane Sandy was a calamity for New York City’s street homeless, an underreported story,” Bowery Mission President Ed Morgan wrote on the organization’s website. “There is nowhere to go that’s dry. Familiar places like doorways and grates are full of debris. The parks are barricaded. The subways are roped off. That’s why we’ve had an unprecedented number of overnight guests staying in every corner of our building — three times the normal number. And yet we are serving each one of them with hot meals and a safe place to sleep. All with the use of a single generator.”
Celebrity chef Sandra Lee also pitched in at Bowery Mission, helping to serve meals and arrange for donations, the New York Daily News reported. Lee brought the organization a $25,000 check from the holding company that owns Sears and Kmart, and the company also sent five large trucks full of food and supplies from Georgia. Bowery Diner chef Mathieu Palombino brought an additional 75 pounds of brisket, which Lee helped carve.
“Anyone who is able to pitch in and help, needs to,” Lee told the Daily News.
