Location: New York, NY
Region: New York
Founding: 2020
Founders/leadership: Mark Buhrmester, co-founder
Founded in June 2020 in Jackson Heights in Queens — once the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic — Love Wins NYC began as a community-based, collective effort for the LGBTQIA+ community offering a safe environment to access free, high quality, and fresh produce regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, immigration status, or religion.
Love Wins NYC is a volunteer-led organization combating food insecurity in communities across New York City, especially prevalent within low income LGBTQIA+ and immigrant communities, who often face discrimination when seeking assistance from non-LGBTQIA+ competent institutions. Love Wins NYC provides bundles of nutritious and fresh produce to over 20,000 New Yorkers annually, operating eight food pantries across the city.
Love Wins NYC prides itself on creating a safe space for LGBTQIA+ and gender non-conforming people, but eagerly helps anyone in need during these difficult times. Recognizing that not everyone feels comfortable going to a church-based food pantry, the organization operates out of Friends Tavern, an LGBTQIA+ bar, to ensure a welcoming environment for all.
