State Senator Leroy Comrie is leading an effort to deliver food to frontline healthcare workers at Queens Hospital Center in Jamaica which experienced a significant influx of COVID-19 patients over the past four weeks, and to struggling residents who are disabled and/or elderly with the help of community members who are eager to give back.
Volunteers packed, sorted and delivered hundreds of both hot meals and groceries to community residents in need Thursday with a grab-and-go operation outside his district office.
“Residents reach out every day asking how they can help, they want to give back to the frontline workers,” Comrie said. “There is a significant population in southeast Queens that wants to volunteer their efforts and time in a safe and effective way and we want to continue to harness that positive energy by partnering with our veterans, SEQ UO Front and our small businesses like Maxine’s on the Boulevard, Remax Realty, and the Door Restaurant.”
Those who would like to participate in future efforts to support frontline and other essential workers can contact Comrie’s office at 718-765-6359.
Meanwhile, the senator joined a slate of local, state, and federal elected leaders from southeast Queens in partnering with Advanced Cardiovascular Diagnostics to provide free mobile cardiovascular testing, detection, and prevention services to residents of southeast Queens.
As hospitals, particularly emergency departments, manage the proliferation of COVID-19 patients across the city, cardiologists and other healthcare professionals have feared people at risk for heart attack and stroke are losing access to preventative and lifesaving care.
“Our hospital system has braved unchartered territory by expanding capacity and taking on unprecedented numbers of patients due to the ongoing pandemic,” Comrie said. “But we know there are still thousands of southeast Queens residents who are at risk for heart attack and stroke that cannot wait for this outbreak to pass to be assessed by medical professionals. Our partnership with Advanced Cardiovascular Diagnostics helps fill the gap and brings attention to non-COVID-19 ailments that are still affecting folks in our communities.”
The mobile van will operate outside of the Robert Ross Johnson Family Life Center at 172-17 Linden Blvd. in Jamaica. For the safety of patients and medical staff, strict adherence to social distancing guidelines will be applied at the site.
