Caring for workers and restaurants on the North Shore
When she learned of a GoFundMe project based in Garden City that was dedicated to providing meals to workers at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola in March, Allison Moss immediately thought that the North Shore community would be a perfect place for something similar.
Moss, 47, of Sea Cliff, said such work not only helps those workers directly facing the coronavirus, but also provides business to restaurants that are suffering as a result of the pandemic. Since the North Shore community is so small, she said many residents have known restaurant owners for years and treat them as friends.
Feeling energized and motivated, she and fellow Sea Cliff resident Courtney Citko, 35, created North Shore Cares on March 26, a grassroots organization that collects donations used to purchase food from local establishments and bring much needed meals and snacks to workers in Glen Cove Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Port Washington. Moss and Citko deliver the meals themselves.
Now over a month into its existence, North Shore Cares has collected over $9,000 in donations, something in which both Moss and Citko said they take great pride. All of the marketing for the organization has been done by the two via social media, and 100 percent of the donations go right to purchasing food.
“It’s that feeling that we’re really united and we’re all in this together,” Moss said. “It’s in our power to help our friends.”
“People just need the help right now,” Citko said. “[Hospital] staff is overwhelmed and slightly underappreciated. We just want to find a way to thank everybody for helping and supporting [us] in all this craziness.”
Susan Rassekh, director of patient experience and communications at Glen Cove Hospital, said the contributions made by North Shore Cares have been enormously helpful. One of the things she said she appreciates most is Moss’s and Citko’s dedication to people working midnight shifts. Since nearly all restaurants are closed overnight, hospital staff working late into the night cannot have meals brought to them. Rassekh said North Shore Cares recognizes this and makes a concerted effort to provide them with bagels, coffee and snacks. This is a thoughtful way of looking at things, she said, since hospitals are open 24/7 and the stress level is almost always high.
“When we receive a donation of food and snacks and water,” Rassekh said, “it’s almost as if there is someone trying to hug us and say thank you.”
The help that Glen Cove Hospital has seen from the community since the Covid-19 outbreak has been incredible, she said, and that the contributions ordinary residents make on a daily basis do not go unnoticed.
“There’s not enough gratitude to go around for all the support we’ve received,” she said. “We’re just deeply, deeply thankful."
