Bowery Mission-Anissa Daimally, Shanin Chowdhury, and Ashley Haynes

Field Notes

The Bowery Mission

Over the spring break, we visited the Bowery Mission and inquired their role in Hurricane Sandy. The Bowery Mission, located on 227 Bowery Street, is an organization that is part of the nonprofit Christian Herald Association. Its purpose is to provide to “provide help and hope to the homeless and impoverished in New York.” We were able to speak to Matt Krivich, the previous Director of Operations and now Assistant Director at the Bowery Mission. He informed us that during Hurricane Sandy, they lost electricity for about five days. Due to loss of power, they were forced to cook perishables until they received generators to store the rest of the food. There was no major infrastructural damage; only a couple of windows were broken. During and after Hurricane Sandy, the organization saw new residents from the Lower East Side and from Chinatown coming for assistance, in addition to their normal guests. These residents came mostly for the meals provided. Krivich mentioned that a Chinese family stood outside of the center, wondering if they were able to come in. The organization was kindhearted and invited the family into the building. After this family received this assistance, word of mouth spread and more families from Chinatown came to the organization for help. Overall, the Bowery Mission proved to be effective during Hurricane Sandy; they had all the resources and experience needed to provide disaster relief.

Reference: http://www.bowery.org/about-us/purpose-goal/