COVID-19 PHILANTHROPY
In the challenging times we faced in 2020, Estuary and its sister bakery, Ebb & Flow, remained open for take-out and delivery, serving our community in a time of need and working tirelessly to keep our doors open. From delivering meals to hospitals to hosting events for the community, we could not have done it without the support from our local network of companies and most importantly, our guests like you!
We hope you are staying healthy, happy, and fulfilled while we stand ready to help our community
Updates:
MAY 29, 2020
Appreciation was our theme for Thursday this week – all employees across our four companies took a much needed break as a team to appreciate each other and what we’ve achieved together during these past 7 weeks – and shared photos we’ve received from nurses, doctors, therapists and more who sent their gratitude for our work to support theirs. Montefiore Children’s Hospital always takes time to send a pic thanking us each week for breakfast and dinner with photos such as the one attached.
Additionally, the last of our out-of-town first responders from Squad 830 dropped in to say their goodbyes and to thank us for our hospitality. We exchanged tee-shirts, mementos and hopes to see each other sometime soon and served them a final meal before they went back to Fort Totten and a very early wake up to leave for home. Brian Lankford, our second and last Task Force Leader received surprise gifts from local ambulance teams stopping in for a bite to eat who thanked him for stepping in with his team for the crisis.
This morning, the team returned to work with bakers starting before the sun was up getting ready the 160 breakfasts going to a new hospital in the Montefiore system and team members cleaning food moving bins in prep for tonight’s larger delivery of 350 meals going to Coney Island Hospital tonight. As NYC moves into this next phase of the crisis, we continue to seek out and serve those still serving our community. We truly appreciate your support of our work!
MAY 27, 2020
With each meal a new friend: This week we have served another 700 meals so far, adding some new friends to our community including residents, MD’s, nurses and staff at Lincoln Medical Center and St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx where we delivered dinner last night and breakfast at North Shore University Hospital this morning. We’ve been swapping happy social media pics of staff across ICU, ambulatory care and transit enjoying our food in exchange for pics of our staff taking care of the drop-off outside these busy medical centers where teams are still treating and discharging COVID-19 patients along with a larger volume of those needing regular hospital care. Our salmon dinner and cookies have gotten 5-star reviews and smiling staff munching on breakfast have cheered us through our day today. We’ve enjoyed adding new friends to our contact lists and promises to come and visit us on the water.
We want to thank Tom Jocelyn and his Scientific Electric Company for continuing to help us with delivery as the distances become further from our home-base on the waterfront in Brooklyn Heights. When asked how many hours and miles SEC has clocked, Tom’s only response has been “whatever your team has needed.” Emmy and her crew have also offered to lighten the load as we juggle opening up our marina and sailing club businesses and continue to staff these donations. We are so grateful to our community – our friends who have continued to support this project as the crisis extends further from our immediate environs -- and welcome our new frontline friends and help our old friends to enjoy a meal from Estuary and Ebb & Flow while they continue to serve.
MAY 25, 2020
The last of Squad 830 will be demobilized this coming week as NYC comes out of the crisis that required FEMA and our community to support our local frontline teams. We have come a long way since late March when our quiet neighborhood was surprised by the arrival of so many from across the country to help us.
Many of those who have gone home stay in touch with us and we have sent care packages from Ebb & Flow -- their “home away from home” – to our friends such as Amy who was with us for almost 45 days shown in one of the pictures in her backyard in Kentucky enjoying a Christophe Toury chocolate chip cookie.
Our local responders are now joining us at the waterfront and we are welcoming teams from NYU Langone and local AMR crews who continue to care us as we cautiously venture back into the Park. Where we would find 1-2 pedestrians compared to 20-25 ambulances in April, we now find 20-25 park-goers and maybe 1-2 ambulances now at the end of May. Our work, however continues to provide free sustenance and the “cleanest bathrooms in NYC” to our frontline. Your support helps us continue this work as we turn to another week of food delivery as well to 6 hospitals in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
If you feel like stretching your legs do drop in and say hello to our team if you haven’t yet and enjoy the better weather. We’d love to put faces to donations and you can maybe meet some of our local frontline teams as they take a quick break during the day.
MAY 22, 2020
Someone said that there are only three days of the week during this crisis – today, yesterday and tomorrow. For us the days of our week consist of meal preparation, packaging and delivery – sometimes with each day happening simultaneously! This may seem mundane as a bakery and restaurant, however, for our team it is anything but boring.
While bringing up our summer menu and longer take-out hours to meet the warming weather and neighbors out and about, we cooked and served 1130 meals this week (a light week!) across Brooklyn and the Bronx. This included deliveries to our weekly friends at Coney Island Community Hospital, Montefiore Children’s Hospital, SUNY Downstate and FDNY. It also included our last week of meals to The Brooklyn Hospital Center who no longer have a need for staff meals as their patient load and schedule returns to “normal” and would prefer for us to focus on places which are still being hard hit. To that end, we have added in new hospitals for next week in the Bronx and on Long Island where staff are still working long hours without a break and will begin service to those still serving our community next week.
Christophe Toury who leads our bakery side and preps with his small team making all our desserts and carrying the load for breakfast summed up how our team has experienced our efforts during these past weeks in an interview he had with NBC4 yesterday
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/this-restaurant-has-delivered-4000-free-meals-to-ny-hospitals/2427764/
Meal prep, packaging and delivery may be our days of the week, but we also know that this means for our frontline friends that the day may consist of a warm meal or freshly baked croissant and for us a shoutout on social media from a happy nurse, an emailed photo of a group of doctors enjoying a snack or an almost teary interaction with an ambulance worker thanking us for caring for them for the past 6 weeks. We are happy to prep, package and deliver for as long as we are needed and your support continues. Thank you!
MAY 16,2020
ONE MONTH UPDATE: Its hard to imagine that it has (only!) been one month since we formally started this project on Go-Fund-Me (5 weeks donating meals). We wanted to give our community a sense of what we have achieved together -- partners, donors, staff and neighbors -- to serve those serving us. Our statistics:
1. 4156 meals delivered to six hospitals and various first responder groups across 3 boroughs. This translates roughly to:
• 625 lbs of protein (including 325 lbs of salmon, 250 lbs of chicken, 90 lbs of beef)
• 200 lbs of rice
• 3,240 eggs
• 180 lbs of dairy and butter
• >120 pints of berries
2. 1550+ Ebb & Flow food and beverages for first responders (ambulance, FDNY, NYPD and hospital front line walk-ins):
• +500 pastries, cookies and desserts
• +650 cups of coffee, soda, water
• +450 meals from our menu or family meals
3. We’ve brought our internal cost of providing meals from $13.49 down to $6.32 in large part due to:
• 1000+ hours of donated time by ONE15 of chefs, cooks, servers, and staff across all businesses to prepare, package and serve;
• Scientific Electric Company partnering with us to deliver our meals across NYC;
• 3 of our purveyors (D’Artagnon, Down East Seafood and Baldor) donating or allowing us to purchase product at cost;
• Fund raising initiatives on our behalf by neighbors such was Waterfront Wines;
• Gifts in-kind from neighborhood restaurants and friends including butter, cheese and citrus, as well as from our sailing friends who have sourced boat related equipment.
4. Reached more donors and those in need from:
• 10 independent media stories covering our help to hospitals, first responders and dockage guests
• Nearly 100 posts about our work including 25+ hospital Instagram posts, >60 posts from nurses, neighbors and other friends and being featured in neighborhood blogs, and newsletters such as Capalino+Company
And, of course, over $25,000 you have donated through Go-Fund-Me which has paid for 40% of our overall meal costs to date. While the volume and quality of food we are able to deliver and serve is high, your generosity and the continued support of our partners and neighbors will allow us to serve another 1100 meals across NYC in 8 deliveries this coming week and keep our doors open to host first responders dropping in. We are so very grateful for your help in allowing us to do this work and proud of what we have been able to achieve as a community.
MAY 14, 2020
We only know that Rachel and Tom – two nurses who are staying in our marina – who have been working their 12 hour shifts on behalf of NYC at NYU Langone are far from home (with Rachel’s husband who is the skipper of their vessel) from the care packages and mail we receive on their behalf. They never complain about their isolation on their vessel in our almost empty marina and distance from friends and family. They remind us often that they are “here to serve” and ask if there is any way they can help us or the greater community which makes our small contribution to their stay seem very small. These three represent the best of America as do all the frontline that we are humbled to serve through our contribution of food and friendship. We thank you for supporting them through your support of us.
Please see some recent press telling the story of their work on our behalf and our efforts to support the frontline like Rachel and Tom that are sustaining us through this crisis:
https://abc7ny.com/rachel-hartley-nurse-sails-to-nyc-marina-brooklyn/6180449/
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/coronavirus-nyc-hospitals-nurses-recruitment.html
https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/nurse-sails-from-virginia-to-nyc-to-fight-coronavirus/
MAY 13, 2020
We’ve found through this COVID-19 crisis that many are simply “Choosing Kindness” as their position within our community – those of you who have donated to our project (some of you many times), dropped down to offer a first responder a homemade card or share a few moments of conversation, or stopped in to cheer our team on as we prepare meals for delivery.
Additionally, the first responders who we are hosting continue to generously tip our counter staff, hospitals whom we are serving have insisted on paying for pastries or other food outside our delivery to help us out and our neighbors and business colleagues continue to surprise us with in-kind donations (see Penny K dropping off very fancy butter for our bakers to use!) and support in getting our fund raising efforts out to a wider audience (Thank you Emil and Capalino+Company!)
By Choosing Kindness to each other we are all creating a stronger community and we thank you all!
MAY 11, 2020
“Food is the ingredient that binds us all together” --and these past few days have shown us how this is true. Following our 500 meals to CIH Wednesday night, our team returned early Thursday morning to cook, package and make deliveries of about 325 breakfasts to Brooklyn Hospital, Montefiore Children’s Hospital and FDNY HQ at Metrotech. And, with the weather turning cold again, first responders and members of Squad 830 were able to grab some food or get out of the weather at the end of their shift before heading back up to the Bronx Zoo.
Our weekly round of drop-offs around NYC and open drop-in at our waterfront oasis not only allow us to share a hot meal with those serving our community, but provide a time for the ONE15 teams and our new front-line friends to check in and see how everyone is doing. The ties we have built these past weeks continue even when some have left Brooklyn for home or been reassigned. A cookie, salmon stew dinner or cup of coffee has become the foundation of friendships across NYC and the USA due to your support of our efforts. We thank you for allowing us to sustain and build through food and friendship our community.
MAY 7,2020
PART II:
Our team prepped, cooked, delivered and served 500 dinners to Coney Island Hospital to help their administration celebrate nurses and all their health care providers during this crisis. The team met out of town healthcare workers from places as far flung as Texas and Missouri who continue to help NYC through this crisis. CIH Staff enjoyed a choice of Moroccan Chicken, Salmon Stew, two pasta choices (one vegetarian) or a fresh mixed spring greens salad and a cookie of choice including our famous chocolate chip, gluten free chocolate or oatmeal. Impromptu cheers punctuated service started by both the Coney Island staff in appreciation of our efforts or from our team to thank the healthcare providers starting or ending their long shifts.
In addition, earlier in the day, we also delivered a special order of mixed muffins ordered by Andrea to surprise her team at Brooklyn Hospital and thank them for their work.
As the last picture shows, our team (Estuary/Ebb & Flow’s Chef Jonathan, Manny, Prabal and Angel; ONE15 marina staff Dallas, Sam and Simba; and Scientific Electric Company’s electrician Roman) at the end of the day was tired, but immensely satisfied at being able to serve those serving our community.
MAY 7, 2020
PART I
Wednesday and the start of Nurses Week was celebrated by two surprises:
Ebb & Flow and Estuary were wonderfully surprised by Brooklyn Balloon Girls who decorated our storefront to add some cheer to our walkway and celebrate Squad 830 and our own work for the community. All day through the gloomy weather the rainbow colors lifted everyone’s spirits.
Brooklyn Balloon Girls have been gifting local businesses around Park Slope and environs with this gesture of cheer to help enliven their sidewalks and allow folks see what businesses are still operating during this crisis. Their help to drive business to local shops is invaluable! Thanks Christina and Brooklyn Balloon Girls!
MAY 5, 2020
As the pictures show, the team had some fun today joined by Aimo and Louise from our building who came down to see the nearly 300 dinners being packed up for delivery toinght, followed by a quiet moment on the back of Scientific Electric Company’s van before heading over to Brooklyn Hospital where dinner and sweets were delivered to Lorna and the team at their front door and then on to Montefiore Childrens Hospital where the second delivery was made.
While Estuary’s and Ebb & Flow’s chefs Christophe and Jonathan with their small teams begin prep for the meals at 6am in the morning with the baking of fresh cookies and ending around 5pm when the dinners are counted and loaded into bins to be dropped by 7pm, the satisfaction of knowing that everyone’s hard work will be enjoyed by healthcare workers on shift or at the end of their long day makes the effort worthwhile. Its even more fun when friends drop in to cheer us on and we get to work with our partners and supporters. Thank you all for your help that allows us to continue to build and strengthen the community around us.
MAY 4, 2020
We have been serving the frontline for 3 weeks now and we have some new friends to add to our community efforts as well as some we are sad to say good bye to today.
On a happy note: Our good friends at Waterfront Wines are running a promotion to benefit this GoFundMe! Owner Ben Bohen has chosen 3 popular wines from their Under $14 selection, where each purchase will send $8 to our fund to feed healthcare workers. The wines include a 2019 Giuliano Rosati Pinot Grigio ($11/bottle), a 2019 Domaine Poli ile de Beaute Niellucciu Rose ($14/bottle), and a 2018 Cuarto Dominio Lote 44 Malbec ($14/bottle). The wines are available in store at their Brooklyn Heights location (call 718-246-5101) or online via the below link:
http://waterfrontwinesnyc.com/14-under/
While we welcome Ben and Waterfront Wines, we are sad to announce that squad leader Kelly Holloway came by on his last shift before he heads home today. Some of the AMR Day Command came by last evening to show their appreciation for the food and facilities that your donations have enabled. They are an amazing team of ambulance workers and we are honored to serve them and will continue to do so while this crisis goes on. AMR Regional Director Patrick Pickering offered some very kind words to our staff that we’d like to share with you:
“Estelle and her team have welcome us with open arms and have developed a wonderful relationship with Kelley and his task force crew over the past 5 weeks. She has opened her doors to the crew by feeding us with the best coffee and food, and the cleanest bathrooms we have ever seen in NYC. Estelle and her team have extended that friendship to the greater AMR community and we wanted to return the favor and show our appreciation and support because these folks still have mortgages and bills to pay during this difficult time.”
Thank you for helping us build and extend our Brooklyn community across the USA -- serving those who have left their homes to serve ours
Pictures: Kelly, Task Force 3 Gear, and in-kind donors
MAY 2, 2020
50 lunches were brought to Mt Sinai Hospital today in response to a request by Mara who volunteers her time to help coordinate food for crucial yet behind-the- scenes teams at Mt. Sinai providing services to patients and families. Our team brought individually wrapped meals of what we’ve found to be favorites at some of the other hospitals we serve: Spaghetti Bolognese, Salmon Stew and Mixed Spring Salad….. and of course our most requested freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert! These meals bring our weekly total to 1075 meals brought to those serving our communities.
Your donations and ongoing support from purveyors and partners -- lowering our food costs and transporting our meals for free -- help us continue our work. We thank you for the opportunity to serve those serving us. You’ll see new faces delivering meals in our pictures as more of our team gets to share the experience of seeing where everyone’s donations and efforts go and why our work makes a difference in our community. Thank you!
MAY 1, 2020
We’re overwhelmed by the appreciation we’ve received from those we’re trying to serve. We’ve received so many kind notes and happy photos from frontliners across the city, which just makes us proud and happy to be doing what we’re doing. Enjoy some pictures sent from Monetefiore staff and Coney Island Hospital staff, many of whom are out of towners being bused to and from their temporary housing in Times Square each shift. We sent out 1,020 breakfasts lunches and dinners this week, and will send even more next week. Thanks to all of YOU for your generous donations which make this possible.
APRIL 29, 2020
News12 Brooklyn picked up the story about the make-shift home base for ambulance squads. Please check out the link below to hear wonderful reporting on how our community has come together to support these emergency personnel. Local moms Aeri and Emmy were down here with their children as well, making handcrafted notes of appreciation. These photos capture the surprise and gratitude of the EMT’s when they returned from emergency calls to see the signs. Thanks to News12 for helping spread the word about our fundraiser. We are proud to support these healthcare heroes and so grateful for your continued donations!
http://brooklyn.news12.com/story/42068377/brooklyn-heights-business-offers-food-rest-for-emts-between-calls
APRIL 27, 2020
Here at our makeshift “home base” for the FEMA contracted ambulance squads we continue to supply the dozens of squads with daily meals, WiFi, and bathrooms. Many of our guests come from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Check out the photos to see the the first squad from CHOP, now rotating out, and the new one coming in. We hope there will not be many more rotations but we will support their efforts as long as we can.
We were fortunate to have our own efforts recognized by Fox News, link below. Our story is one of a small business working hard to stay afloat through this health, social and economic crisis while doing what it can to make a positive impact on the community. All of our team deserve props, but check out the video to see our awesome CEO Estelle Lau interviewed, along with words from proud 2x now father (congrats on the new baby girl last week!) Chef Danny Brown.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/america-together-thousands-of-meals-harbor-to-new-yorks-first-responders
APRIL 24, 2020
We received more in-kind donations from our local corporate partners: Bricolage, a Park Slope gastropub which has been closed during the crisis, provided us with bags of citrus from their own trees! We used this fresh fruit in a variety of creative ways, including both breakfast and for desserts. One of Bricolage’s owners, Meir Gal (pictured) stopped by to drop off the donation in person.
Bricolage joins the Park Slope restaurant Scottadito Osteria Toscana and our purveyors D’Artagnan (chicken) and Downeast Seafood (salmon) in donating provisions that help keep our meal costs down to roughly just $7 per meal.
And helping to keep labor costs down is Tom Jocelyn's Scientific Electric Company, who continue to donate their time and trucks to help transport the food across the city.
Thanks to our community partners your dollar goes further towards feeding the frontlines and we can all keep this up for even longer.
APRIL 23,2020
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore shared with us some photos of their healthcare staff enjoying breakfast this morning. We are proud to join forces with you our community during this period of crisis. For every $7 you've donated to this fund, a NYC healthcare worker gets a free meal. Thank you healthcare heroes!
APRIL 23, 2020
The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx received 285 meals from us including 125 dinners last night and 160 breakfasts this morning. These meals were received by more tireless and brave nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers who normally treat children but have remarkably shifted during the crisis to treat the high volume of adult COVID-19 patients. This is a dramatic shift which they have admirably taken on. The Bronx is home to many at risk demographics, making the efforts of Montefiore that much more important.
We were thrilled to receive a note from one of their workers, who wrote us saying “Thank you so much for the yummy and healthy snacks!!!! We get a lot of donations BUT not a lot of healthy choices. Thank you so much. From a respiratory therapist.”
Pictured: our Pastry Chef Christophe Toury and Montefiore's Lorina Bryant, Meghan Kelly and Kelly Garber of Montefiore with Tom Jocelyn of Scientific Electric Company, and Chef Christophe and Elaine Payne in the kitchen beforehand.
APRIL 22,2020
Brooklyn Hospital Center’s front desk staff and CEO of the Hospital received our 250 meals yesterday night thanks to your donations. The front desk staff was thrilled that we include dessert! (Shout out to Pastry Chef Christophe Toury). They noted that their staff is working so tirelessly that many go their entire shifts without access to meals because they don’t have time to order or even drop down to the cafeteria. You as our donors have enabled our team – chefs, volunteers, and staff – to contribute a sustaining warm meal to these truly heroic people. We really cannot say it enough: thank you healthcare heroes.
Despite their need, Brooklyn Hospital Center has graciously lowered their meal amount needs, allowing us to extend our donations to further reaches of the community. Tonight, Wednesday, we will be donating 125 dinners to Montefiore Children’s Hospital in the Bronx and tomorrow we will donate another 160 meals to Montefiore, 125 to Brooklyn Hospital, 125 to Coney Island Hospital, and 50 FDNY's COVID-19 Task Force. Stay tuned for pictures and more details from these coming meals.
Like many of our peers, our efforts were featured in the press who are cheering on the efforts of restaurants and companies across NYC who are supporting our community. Links below to articles in Thrillest and Infatuation:
https://www.thrillist.com/eat/new-york/nyc-restaurants-helping-health-care-workers-coronavirus
https://www.theinfatuation.com/new-york/guides/restaurants-helping-the-nyc-community-right-now
APRIL 18, 2020
We wanted to update all of you today to thank you for your generosity and the community you’re helping us build on the waterfront. Our grass-roots “home-base” for first responders has been hosting all of the 44 members of Squad 830 in front of our bakery on a daily basis during their 12 hour+ shifts. They’ve shared with us their gratitude for our Brooklyn hospitality, gifted us home-made masks to distribute to the community and we’ve received numerous notes of encouragement and donations from neighbors walking their dogs, joggers enjoying the promenade and local residents. As Lynne mentioned in a note to us, this is “the best of what Brooklyn is about.”
We are so immensely humbled to be able to do our part to support our front line – EMS, police, fire and medical staff – and thank you for sharing in our care of those caring for us. During this time of isolation to be able to create and sustain community – to build and strengthen ours while embracing our new front-line friends is truly a gift you have all given us. With our gratitude for sharing your spirit to uplift ours and theirs!
APRIL 16, 2020
This morning, Pastry Chef Christophe and Elaine came in promptly at 3am (!) to begin baking and preparing 350+ breakfasts for Brooklyn Hospital, with options including homemade granola and yogurt with fresh berries, our signature croissants, pain au chocolat, and blueberry muffins.
In addition to feeding doctors and nurses, these meals support the unsung heroes like cleaning staff, administrators, and other hospital personnel essential to the fight against COVD-19.
Thanks to Scientific Electric who donated their van and time, the food arrived on time and intact to the hospital!
APRIL 14, 2020
Thank you for your continued support!
Yesterday we donated over 300 meals to The Brooklyn Hospital Center. Options included Grilled Chicken Breast with Mashed Potatoes and Carrots, Salmon with Mashed Potatoes and Carrots, and Roasted Lentils with Squash and Carrots.
To see Channel 12 Brooklyn’s coverage of the drop off, follow this link: http://www.news12.com/story/42002754/brooklyn-marina-teams-up-with-bronx-electrician-to-deliver-food-to-hospital-workers
APRIL 13, 2020
A few days ago our staff noticed numerous ambulances throughout the Heights and Downtown Brooklyn, and it turns out they are largely out of towners with no reliable places to park, use the bathroom, or get food when on break or between emergencies. We have since set up a grass roots “home base” for these EMT’s, paramedics, and other ambulance workers who have come from across the country to help us here in New York. Estuary is providing free sustenance, bathrooms, WiFi to help them with their paperwork, and friendly faces. In the photo gallery you’ll see teams from New Jersey and Pennsylvania gifted us badges to show their appreciation. We’re proud to be able to help, thanks to your donations.
APRIL 12, 2020
Thank you to our good friends at D’Artagnan Foods in New Jersey for donating the protein for tomorrow’s meal at the Brooklyn Hospital Center. This generous donation ensures that our resources will go even further as we support our healthcare heroes. thank you D'artagnan!
APRIL 10, 2020
Thank you to our dear friend Don Minerva of Scottadito Osteria Toscana restaurant in Park Slope, who has generously provided bulk provisions including butter and eggs, in addition to making a cash donation. Thank you Don!
APRIL 9, 2020
Thanks to your phenomenal support, we’ve raised $5,926 in just 3 days -- a rapid response which allowed us to get an early start on providing meals to healthcare workers. FEMA has contracted hundreds of ambulance crews – including EMT’s, paramedics, and drivers – from across the United States to help fight the pandemic here in New York City. Our restaurant team has provided breakfast these past two days and will continue to provide meals to ambulance crews from states including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey who are serving the Brooklyn community.
Thank you all for your important donations and for continuing to spread the word about this cause. Please stay safe and diligent and we will all get through this together.
APRIL 7, 2020
Thanks to your great support from the first day of donations, we are able to provide over 650 meals the The Brooklyn Hospital Center next week. Our team will be providing 300+ dinners on Monday 4/13 and 320-350+ breakfasts on Thursday 4/16. Keep up the awesome support so we can continue to provide these brave healthcare workers with the meals they need!