Astoria Group Relaunches Fundraiser For Food Pantry Amid Winter Hiatus

ASTORIA, QUEENS — With Astoria's 31st Avenue Open Street closed for the season, the collective that organizes the street program relaunched a fundraiser to help the neighborhood food pantry with its operations during the hiatus.

The Astoria Food Pantry, which has fed thousands of Astorians since the pandemic broke out, garners over $2,000 a month through donations from street vendors installed between the spring and fall.

“We knew that suspending the fairs during the 4 months that the Open Street is on winter hiatus would have a financial impact on the food pantry's operations, so we set a goal of raising $8,000 to offset that lost income,” Cormac Nataro, a volunteer with the collective, told Patch.

The slowdown in donations this winter forced the food pantry to scale back its efforts by cutting half of its food budget. The move reduced their weekly Monday and Saturday giveaways from weekly to just every other week.

The donations throughout December and January helped the food pantry, located at 25-82 Steinway Street, get back on its normal schedule in February, according to Astoria Food Pantry volunteer Katie Fireman.

The 31st Avenue Open Street Collective initially launched the fundraiser on Giving Tuesday last year and has so far raised over $6,900.

Radio station WFUV will host an event on March 5 at the Queens Botanical Garden along with the Astoria Food Pantry to help collect food and donations for the borough.