Shore Soup Project

We are harnessing the momentum built from our relief project, which began as an effort to provide healthy emergency meals in our Rockaway neighborhood after Hurricane Sandy. As the community’s needs have evolved, we are expanding our project into a long-term, sustainable, pay-as-you-can restaurant and community center.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as residents of Rockaway and small business owners, we formed the Rockaway Rescue Alliance to offer support to our neighbors. The boardwalk, which was the previous location of our concession and mobile food businesses, has been destroyed and many homes were flooded, structurally compromised and covered in black mold. Residents were without power, heat and hot water, a situation that for many continues to this day. Immediately, it became clear that in the absence of a large-scale initial institutional response, what was needed was for neighbors to begin helping neighbors. For the past three months, we’ve delivered an average of 800 hot meals door-to-door daily and have reached a range of different populations including: home bound seniors, families without access to healthy food, individuals living in public housing and affected renters and home owners. Our network of over 400 volunteers make our soups from farm fresh produce donated by GrowNYC and other farmers’ organizations. Environmental sustainability has always been an important priority for us, because of this, we distribute food by bicycle and tricycle cart, compost our food scraps and primarily use organic ingredients.