COVID-19 Information; Emergency Food Services for School Children, Seniors and the Community; plus Other Resources

APRIL 3, 2020

We understand you may be concerned about COVID-19, the Novel Coronavirus that has spread worldwide and is now here in America with New York being the epicenter of it. Your risk of being exposed to the virus is greatest if you have had close contact (within 6 feet) of someone who has COVID-19. If you are having symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath, call your health care provider. If you are severely ill, call 911.

What You Can Do to Stay Healthy

• Wash your hands often. Use soap and warm water and scrub for at least 20 seconds before rinsing. If you can’t wash your hands, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow, not your hands.
• Don’t touch your face (especially your eyes, nose or mouth) unless your hands are clean.
• Don’t shake hands! Greet people with a bow or an elbow bump.
• Avoid places where there are large groups of people. Try to stay six feet away from others.
• If you feel sick, stay home. Call your health care provider if you need advice.

How to Get the Health Care You Need

The Institute for Family Health has health centers in New York City and in Ulster and Dutchess Counties. We offer primary medical care, mental health care, and dental care to people of all ages, regardless of ability to pay. Our centers are open and we can offer many services by video or phone – please call us. Click here for a complete list of locations and phone numbers.

Emergency Food Services for School Children

The Office of School Food and Nutrition Services is working around the clock to ensure that students have access to nutritious meals every day. Adults, parents, students and young people under 18 can access breakfast/lunch grab and go bags from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at any of these NYC school sites (Food Hubs).  Text "FOOD" or "COMIDA" to 877-877. Signage indicating food service may not be visible, so students and parents should knock loudly on the front door. The security guard should provide you with a to-go bag. There are Regional Enrichment Centers in NYC where children of first responders, healthcare and transit workers can receive educational programming and 3 hot meals daily.

Food Services for Seniors

These locations are serving free meals to seniors:

• PSS Andrew Jackson, (356 East 156th St), 9AM-10AM and 11:30AM-1PM
• BronxWorks Heights Neighborhood, (200 West Tremont Ave), 11AM-1PM
• Hope of Israel, (1068 Gerard Avenue), 12PM-2PM
• Mid-Bronx Senior Center, (900 Grand Concourse), 11AM-4:30PM
• PSS Morrisania Air Rights, (3135 Park Avenue), 12PM-1PM
• PSS Highbridge Gardens, (1155 University Avenue), 12PM-1:30PM
• PSS Highbridge (1181 Nelson Avenue), 12PM-1:30PM
• RAIN Findlay House NORC (1175 Findlay House), 11:30AM-1PM
• William Hodson (1320 Webster Avenue), 1PM-2PM 

Food Services for Community Members

Farmer’s markets and Fresh Food Box sites.

Red Rabbit provides emergency grab-and-go meals delivered to daycares, schools and community organizations.

FoodHelp NYC Map of food pantries and community kitchens.

COVID-19 Food Hub NYC.

How to Stay Informed

Only get your information from trustworthy sources like the CDC, the New York State Department of Health and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. For updates on the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and fatalities in New York City, click here. Also, you can call the New York coronavirus hotline at 1-888-364-3065. In NYC, text COVID to 692692 for text updates from Notify NYC.

Community and Faith-Based Leaders

The City is actively monitoring and responding to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As a community and faith-based partner, you play an important role in helping keep New Yorkers safe and informed.

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and NYC Emergency Management hosts a weekly COVID-19 informational call for community and faith leaders. Each week they will provide updates from various city agencies.

Below is the conference call information to join the call:
The dial in number is (800) 832-0736.
The room number (access code) is 5245195.

New York City needs your help. Here’s how individuals, businesses, and non-profits can help the City and fellow New Yorkers during this COVID-19 crisis:

Share Your Space: If you own or manage a large space, then take the Share Your Space Survey. The survey identifies spaces in your community that could potentially support the City’s emergency operations, such as their response to COVID-19.

DonateNYC: DonateNYC, a program of NYC Department of Sanitation, has resources for individuals, businesses, schools, and agencies to give and receive donated items.

HelpNow NYC: HelpNow NYC can connect New York State licensed medical professionals for potential surge staffing shifts in response to COVID-19.

New York Cares: If you are not a licensed medical professional, you can still help the COVID-19 response through New York Cares.

You can give back by giving blood. New York City needs approximately 2,000 people to donate blood every day to maintain its supply. Find a New York Blood Center near you.

Fresh Food, Fresh Attitude! Increasing Access to Healthy Grab-and-Go Items at Bronx Bodegas

William is the owner of Makey Deli, located at 2704 Third Avenue in the Bronx.

This post was written by Kelly Moltzen, Program Manager for Bronx Health REACH’s Creating Healthy Schools and Communities.

On average, Americans eat more than 3,400 mg. of sodium daily – more than double the American Heart Association’s recommended daily limit of 1,500 mg. 77% of the sodium that Americans consume comes from processed foods and food served in restaurants.

In the Bronx, items that people often buy at bodegas are processed foods high in sodium, including chips, deli meats, and cheese. Bronx Health REACH, Montfiore Medical Center and City Harvest are part of the Bronx Bodega Partners Workgroup, offering healthy food retail initiatives to encourage stores to stock healthier items, such as low-sodium deli meats and healthy snack alternatives. The Workgroup launched the Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh healthy bodega marketing campaign to increase awareness of these healthier options throughout the Bronx community.

Bronx Health REACH, with support from the American Heart Association’s NYC Community Impact Grant, is collaborating with the Bronx healthy food advocate, Shen’naque Sean Butler and his “FRESCH” campaign to expand the number of bodegas selling healthy grab-and-go items. To date, Sean has organized taste tests at bodegas, schools, and in the community, offering hummus, three-bean salad, a vegan salad, and pico de gallo. Future taste tests include cut vegetables with dip, fruit cups, and overnight oats. We hope the combination of taste tests and increased access to these healthy items for sale in the community, coupled with the Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh healthy bodega marketing campaign will offer Bronx residents new items they will get excited about and support their health!

Montefiore Medical Center is collaborating with the Jerome Gun Hill Business Improvement District (BID)  to support bodega owners selling healthy foods such as The Bronx Salad and other healthy grab-and-go items. By partnering with NYC Small Business Services, the Jerome Gun Hill BID offers bodegas compliance consultations, financial education, trainings, advertising and promotional support, and other business support resources.

City Harvest has established a relationship with Fairway to get healthy grab-and-go items sold in supermarkets and corner stores in the Bronx. After an initial pilot phase, the following seven Bronx stores are participating in the grab-and-go program:

1. Borinquen Supermarket, 436 Brook Avenue
2. Met Food Supermarket, 649 Jackson Avenue
3. Real Supermarket, 795 Prospect Avenue
4. Makey Deli, 2704 Third Avenue
5. D & D Deli, 100 West 168th Street
6. Moe’s Quick Deli, 469 Brook Avenue
7. Wanda’s Deli, 104 Elliot Place

Consuming less sodium and more fruits and vegetables – including the items promoted through the grab-and-go program – are part of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet plan, and is an important step in reducing the risk of diet-related diseases such as hypertension and stroke.

For more information, contact Kelly Moltzen via email or call (212) 633-0800 x 1328.

Men’s Health Workshop Debuts at the Institute for Family Health Stevenson Family Health Center

Eight men attended the Men’s Health Workshop at the Institute for Family Health’s Stevenson Family Health Center. Joseph Ellis, author of this article, is fourth from the left.

This post was written by Joseph Ellis, a Community Health Worker at Bronx Health REACH.

As a Community Health Worker for Bronx Health REACH and the Men’s Department Coordinator for my church, Bronx Deliverance Center of Faith, I have been working and communicating with men in the community and the churches for several years. Our conversations have been on various subjects such as spiritual growth, finances, community involvement, and health.

I’ve noticed that when we begin to talk about our health, we come up with many reasons why we are not giving our health top priority in our life. For example, we work, we are tired when we get home, we have no desire, we are not interested in exercising because it takes too much time, we eat whatever our partner cooks, or we do not have time to go to the Doctor.

Normally men have a difficult time discussing issues concerning our health. Our perception of ourselves is often: whatever we face, we can handle. Irrespective of the challenge, men believe they are indestructible, and can address any issue on their own, even if it’s a health one. But this is not always the case.

Many of the men I have spoken with mentioned having struggles with health concerns like diabetes, being overweight and losing the weight, being stressed about work and providing for their families. As a Community Health Worker, I wanted to do something to address these concerns. If I could get them all together in a workshop and have their health concerns addressed by a doctor, maybe they would be more receptive to opening up about the challenges they have as men regarding being healthy.

With the help of Ms. Tabasa Ozawa, one of the interns at Bronx Health REACH, we created a Men’s Health survey that we distributed to men to get a broader idea of the other health topics they are concerned about. Using this survey, I was able to outreach to 160 men from different ethnicities and ages in the community, churches, and masjids. It took a couple of months to gather all this important information together.

From the information gathered, I organized a Men’s Health Workshop at the Institute for Family Health’s Stevenson Family Health Center in the Bronx. Dr. Eric Gayle, the NYC Regional Medical director for the Institute for Family Health, led this first Men’s Health Workshop on Saturday, January 18, 2020.

Dr. Eric Gayle led the workshop and answered questions about Men’s health.

Several health topics were chosen that we felt would encourage a dialogue among the men.
Those topics were:

a. Age Dependent Preventive Health
b. Health
c. Wellness
d. Interacting with your Primary Provider
e. Cancer Screenings


The interaction between the men and Dr. Gayle was dynamic. He talked to them and not at them. As they warmed up to him, the questions just kept coming. This workshop was designed to get the men to open up about their health concerns, and they did. Scheduled for two hours, the workshop easily went another half an hour.

Questions were addressed about diabetes, family history, discussing your health concerns with your doctor; (the doctors are here to help you but need you to communicate to them what is bothering you), sexual health, prostate growth and cancer, what are the options to combat these concerns and more.

The workshop hit home for the men and they wanted to know when we would be holding the next one. When the workshop ended, a couple of the men hugged Dr. Gayle and prayed for him. Wow! What a positive response to a dynamic workshop.

Attendees were encouraged to be proactive in managing their health.

As a Community Health Worker, I am encouraged that having these Men’s Health Workshops will be a tremendous help in assisting the men in our communities to take charge of their health and become more proactive. With the help of Dr. Gayle and other providers at the Institute for Family Health, we will continue to organize more workshops to provide a forum where men can have an open discussion about their health.


If you would like more information about the Men’s Health Workshop, contact Joseph Ellis at (212) 633-0800, ext. 1341.

Bronx Health REACH Meets with Senator Alessandra Biaggi

Left to right: Maxine Golub from the Institute for Family Health; New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi; Kelly Moltzen and Moria Byrne-Zaaloff from Bronx Health REACH; Jacqueline Chiofalo from the Institute for Family Health.

On December 12th, Bronx Health REACH's Kelly Moltzen and Moria Byrne-Zaaloff from our Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program, along with Maxine Golub and Jacqueline Chiofalo from the Institute for Family Health met and spoke with State Senator Alessandra Biaggi. Kelly and Moria discussed the WELL Campaign (Wellness, Equity & Learning Legislation) which asks for a New York State model school wellness policy, and funding to go to the New York State Education Department for school districts to develop and implement wellness policies based on the model state wellness policy.

As a supporter of the WELL Campaign, she was surprised to learn that even though other states have school wellness statutes in place, New York does not. Senator Biaggi is also a sponsor of the New York State Health Act [A.5248, S.3577], and was pleased to know that Institute for Family Health and Bronx Health REACH staff testified at hearings in the Bronx and in Kingston, NY, in support of the Act.