Basketball City on the LES a Food Distribution Site for City’s Low Income Communities
Over the last several weeks, we’ve been hearing from readers on the Lower East Side waterfront about increased activity at Basketball City at Pier 36. Tents are up, official cars and trucks, and taxis, plus the appearance of National Guard troops.
Apparently, Basketball City has been coordinating with the Economic Development Corp, the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and the National Guard during the COVID-19 shutdown to transform the warehouse into a food distribution site. The goal is delivering meal kits to low-income communities and the elderly by taxicabs.
Unconfirmed chatter indicates that about 10-percent of the million meal kits distributed per week around the Five Boroughs comes from Basketball City.
“I’m glad that we are able to use our facility to really make a difference,” a riverfront tipster tells us.
This from a business that often plagued locals with its large-scale events.