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God’s Love Comes To Far Rock



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God’s Love We Deliver has helped Kareen and her family. Photo courtesy of DKC News

Dozens of families across the peninsula are being fed and cared for every week by an organization known as God’s Love We Deliver, a Manhattan-based group that has been reaching out to the city’s weakest and sickest populations for decades.

God’s Love We Deliver was started in 1985, at the height of the HIV epidemic, when the organization’s founder realized that many individuals afflicted with the disease might be too weak to do food shopping or to even cook for themselves.

With this in mind, God’s Love We Deliver was born, and their client base quickly expanded across all five boroughs.

Today, the group serves up meals for more than 7,000 people each year, 95 of whom live right here in Rockaway.

The Wave reached out to a Far Rockaway resident named Kareen to get her impression of God’s Love We Deliver.

Kareen, a mother of three, was only 27 years old when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in 2011.

Almost immediately, Kareen’s life turned upside down, and even the simplest things became difficult. Life was made even harder when, just a few years later, her oldest son was also diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma as well.

Overwhelmed and increasingly weakened by her cancer, Kareen was told about God’s Love We Deliver by a social worker at Queens Hospital, and food began arriving the very next day.

“I hadn’t even completed the paperwork yet, and they were there,” Kareen said. “They have helped me in a very big way.”

Kareen currently receives food deliveries every Monday and Wednesday, getting specially prepared meals not just for her, but for her three children too. Everything from meals, to even snacks like fruit cups, raisins and other goodies are brought right to her door, and on special occasions the group also prepares tailored meals and bakes personalized cakes for birthdays.

“On Thanksgiving, we provide the family and a guest with a traditional Thanksgiving meal and dessert,” God’s Love We Deliver’s President and CEO Karen Pearl told The Wave. “And for the December holidays, we provide special meals as well.”

“If you have a special diet, they make that for you too” added Kareen, highlighting the fact that the group customizes their meals to best suit their clients’ needs.

In order to help get all those packages ready to go, God’s Love We Deliver has 105 people on staff, as well as more than 10,000 volunteers, many of them children from local school groups. These kids take part in decorating packages, creating holiday and birthday cards, and even delivering holiday meals.

“The delivery people are very good,” Kareen said. “They are almost like family members, you look forward to seeing them, and they always ask how you are doing.”

And Kareen says that she has paid nothing for the service. In fact, according to Pearl, the majority of the funding comes from donations, while around 20 percent comes from the government and another 20 percent from other financial sources.

For those who are interested in the service, Pearl says that anyone can reach out to the organization through their website at GLWD.org, or through their phone number at 212-294-8102.

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