Name: Klara Moss

Social Justice Group: Food insecurity in NYC (B)

Date of Fieldwork: January 16, 2025

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Laura Sewell – Executive Director of EVCC

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:

On Thursday, we went to the East Village to interview the executive director of EVCC (East Village Community Coalition), Laura Sewell. We met in her apartment building, which also happened to be Caroline Walker’s home and the person who connected us. Laura was very helpful and helped us learn all about her organization’s work in the neighborhood, other volunteer work she’s collaborated with, and some of the effects and outcomes of hunger in NYC.

Laura specifically talked about the community fridge that her organization put in across the street during COVID when so many individuals and families were struggling. She said that the pandemic was one of the lowest points and struck multiple people who would never expect to be insecure about when their next meal would be, due to loss of jobs and low access to food. This interview also opened my eyes to all the good people contributing in their free time towards this issue. It was amazing to hear about all the food scraps from restaurants and bakeries that get donated to the fridge and how churches open their doors to serve a warm space on cold days. I love this strong community and how they all came together during this hard time to help out fellow neighbors. Hearing about all this mutual aid work made me feel so grateful for my meals and encouraged me to give back more.