LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A duty to shine light on hunger

Posted

To the editor:

I’d like to thank The Riverdale Press for its stories this past year about food insecurity/justice, including a story last March talking about all three meals for the day being available through the pandemic. Another story in August about Episcopal Church of the Mediator members giving food — even during a pandemic.

And a September story addressing the need to refocus from the coronavirus to find a next meal.

Even with this fine reporting, I’m wondering how many in the community are aware of the many different groups that are making a huge effort to feed those in need within 10 minutes of The Riverdale Press offices? They also deserve recognition for their tireless work on behalf of the community.

Here is a list of many of those with whom we owe gratitude for their efforts. It is not an exhaustive list, but representative of the extent of the issue in our local area.

• Bronx Jewish Community Council
• Christ Church Riverdale
• Hebrew Institute of Riverdale Social Action Committee and Rabbi Fund
• JASA Senior Center
• Kingsbridge Center of Israel
• Kingsbridge Heights Community Center
• Kingsbridge Riverdale Marble Hill Food and Hunger Project
• North Bronx Collective Food Justice Ministry at the Church of the Mediator
• North West Bronx Food Justice Coalition at St. Stephen’s Church
• Riverdale Jewish Center Fund for the Needy
• RSS-Riverdale Senior Services
• The Riverdale Y Senior Center and COVID-19 Fund
• The Riverdale Y Sunday Market
• Taste & Sabor restaurant
• The Friendly Fridge
• Bx12
• YMCA of Yonkers

Moving forward, I’d love to see The Press tell more stories of these groups, those running them, and the communities they support. Additionally, I’d like to see an investigative report or series to put the efforts of our communities in the context of efforts borough- and citywide. To share the complexities of federal versus state aid. The nuance of serving different ethnic groups. And the challenge of meeting the demands of the homeless and the undocumented.

When former Riverdale resident Fred Friendly talked about David Stein in a recently republished Point of View (re: “Forget that I died, remember that I lived,” Dec. 17) he shared Mr. Stein’s deep love for our community and his dedication to journalism.

He said of The Riverdale Press under David Stein and his children, Bernard and Richard: “It pursued excellence, and the Joseph Pulitzer admonition that ‘newspapers should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’”

Mr. Friendly’s strong words reminds us that the highest ideals of journalism insist that our hometown paper cover with integrity issues that discomfort us with a passion for truth, covering the entire community’s “strengths and weaknesses” so that the readers will be fully informed — and if necessary, brought to a point of individual and communal action.

We can be grateful that our current editor and staff are also carrying out this noble tradition.

Richard Feldman

Have an opinion? Share your thoughts as a letter to the editor. Make your submission to letters@riverdalepress.com. Please include your full name, phone number (for verification purposes only), and home address (which will not be published). The Riverdale Press maintains an open submission policy, and stated opinions do not necessarily represent the publication.
Richard Feldman,

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