WoodSpoon, a home-cooked delivery service connecting local home chefs with customers craving homemade food, unveiled its initiative to provide free weekly home-cooked meals to Holocaust survivors in Queens and the Bronx. The expansion of the initiative follows a successful rollout in Brooklyn and will provide even more survivors with high-quality nutritious food that evoke the flavors of their home countries while creating a greater sense of belonging. The meals are developed by home chefs on the platform and are fully funded by private donors partnered with WoodSpoon, which is waiving all fees for this initiative.
WoodSpoon has developed a community-based marketplace that allows chefs to extend the beauty of their culture and heritage to others, and many sub-groups in the New York area have gravitated toward the platform to get a sense of the cuisines from their native lands. Throughout the summer, WoodSpoon has delivered over 100 meals weekly from different chefs which were made with the survivors’ preferences in mind. Survivors shared their preference between chicken, fish, beef, or vegetarian and each chef put their own unique spin on the dish each week that comes warm, fresh and ready for the survivors to enjoy. Each home-cooked meal also arrives with a hand-written note and personal message from the chef who prepared it.
“Having access to a hot, home-cooked meal has been wonderful. The food has been unique and delicious. I got a honey cake this week that reminded me of the one my grandmother used to make; I felt a sense of community” said Svetlana Fidel, Holocaust survivor. “We are extremely thankful to WoodSpoon and these donors for their wonderful generosity.”
Jewish community center Kings Bay Y provided a list of survivors in need to be a part of this initiative. To deliver the meals, WoodSpoon uses its delivery partner Hailify to pick up the meals and bring them straight to the survivors’ houses.
“It’s gratifying to be able to support Holocaust survivors in this way,” says Lee Reshef, co-founder and COO of WoodSpoon, who is leading this initiative. “We’re humbled at the opportunity to serve this community that has survived an awful time in our history and bring a sense of home back to them through the foods prepared by our home chefs. And, we look forward to helping more survivors as we grow the program.”
WoodSpoon is covering all operating costs for this initiative and its private donors are paying for the meals and compensating all participating chefs to ensure each is being paid for their time and efforts.
