NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A huge donation has a Queens non-profit celebrating this holiday season.
The River Fund New York on Tuesday announced it had received a $500,000 donation from the Steven and Alexandra Foundation, presented as a gift in honor of their new Mets family as well as re-launch of the Mets Foundation and their ties to the Queens community.
The money will be used to help the charity “feed and empower those we serve to move beyond the lines of poverty.”
Over the years, the organization has supported thousands of families in all five boroughs. At the beginning of 2020, that number was at 15,000, but because of the pandemic, the number grew to 33,000 by Thanksgiving.
According to the River Fund, the money will provide for the cost of warehousing, trucking, purchasing and packaging of food.
“Since the inception of our family’s Foundation, we’ve worked to help so many charities and causes over the years. With so many suffering due to the pandemic, our foundation has selected The River Fund New York, as they are leaders in feeding families that are the most vulnerable,” said Alex Cohen, President, Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. “One of our main missions as the Mets Ownership group is to make a substantial impact in our communities. We are grateful to be in the position to be able to make a donation that will provide food for so many, especially during these challenging times.”
Otto Starzmann, Chief Production Officer at the River Fund, spoke with WCBS 880’s Lynda Lopez about the generous donation, saying the money was greatly needed and appreciated.
“This is going to help us to weather, what we perceive to be a pretty slow donation period over the next couple of months as the new year begins, to be able to continue to respond to the need in the community with the same robustness that we had in the past several months,” Starzmann said.
He says the donation came at the perfect time as the organization rarely sees sizable donations during the first few months of the new year.
Starzmann also notes that he is a Mets fan and it’s been great getting to work with the team.
“The Mets have been supportive of the River Fund for quite some time, even prior to the donation from the Cohens, and we have been fans of theirs as a result of that support for quite some time and I really love working with the Mets,” Starzmann said.
Since 2015, both foundations have combined to donate more than $335,000 to help the Queens organization fight poverty. That financial support went towards this year’s Thanksgiving Program which delivered 6,000 turkeys to families. Additionally, the Cohen Foundation drove in-kind donations toward the organization’s annual Christmas Toy Giveaway Program. That endeavor delivered more than 5,000 toys to children who otherwise would not have received a present.