Nourishing New Yorkers in Times of Need

As we have experienced firsthand during this pandemic, New Yorkers have the ability to turn something bad into something good for their community. There is a heartwarming example of this in FeedingNYC, which was launched while the city was going through a different time of devastation, the tragedy of 9/11.

Back then, with the Thanksgiving holiday on the horizon, Rob LoCascio simply wanted to deliver some turkeys to those who needed them. But what started as a small endeavor for the tech entrepreneur — who invented the live-chat customer support function and whose company LivePerson is now publicly traded and worth billions — to give to those less fortunate, turned into an organization that has fed 80,000 families in the five boroughs since its inception.

That first year, after employees and friends asked to join him in this worthwhile mission, LoCascio, a Midtown East resident, partnered with Women in Need, the city’s largest provider of family shelters, and delivered 70 turkeys to 70 families at the Jennie Clark shelter in Harlem.

Due to COVID-19, their usual group of 500 that gathers at Chelsea Piers the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to pack the turkeys and fixings was scaled down to 20 this year. However, the nonprofit still managed to raise over $200,000 dollars to nourish those most vulnerable. Next November, FeedingNYC will celebrate its 20th anniversary with an even loftier goal of providing meals for 20,000 families.

You were once fired by fax and that led you to start your own company.

I started my first company about a year out of college because I was fired from this first company. And then I was building interactive kiosks for college campuses from ’91 to ’95. In ’95, that company went under. I moved to New York. I was pretty in the dumps at the time when I lost my first company. I was sleeping on the couch in a small, 200-square-foot or so sublet of a guy who made t-shirts. He subleased a little place in his loft down in Tribeca. I didn’t have a shower, there was just a bathroom that I shared, so I got a health club membership at New York Sports Club, so I could shower. I was getting help at the time, really reworking my thinking and my life, and the guy I was working with said, “You know, even though you’re sleeping on a couch, kind of in the dumps and broke, I think it would be really great if you went out and helped others.”

Then you started volunteering by sleeping with the homeless at St. Bart’s.

They have a shelter where people come in for the night. Volunteers feed the people in the shelter and sleep over and make sure they get up in the morning, have some coffee and go. I did that and it really made me realize that no matter what situation I was in, there are always people less fortunate. That set me straight on no matter how successful you become, you’ve got to give back.

After 9/11, you founded Feeding NYC. Tell us what that first Thanksgiving was like.

After 9/11, I was in the city and it was impactful to all of us, and so I really wanted to give back. I decided to go and deliver turkeys. I was just going to get five or 10 and just find people or families in need. At that time, there were about 20 people in my company in New York, and they heard about it and said, “We’d love to do this too.” So people in the company and a few friends came out. And we found Women in Need, which is a wonderful group that runs shelters in New York City and focuses on families and women who have been battered in tough relationships and end up in these shelters with their families.

What was an unforgettable moment from that first year?

We bought the turkeys from a company and the saleswoman who sold them to us said, “Do you mind if I come with you?” My last turkey delivery was like an act of God. I knock on the door and this kid, he was probably six or seven years old, African American, opened the door, looked up at me and said, “Are you a good person or a bad person?” So I said, “No, I’m a good person.” I knelt down and showed him the turkey and all the trimmings, candied yams, a pie, and he was just like, “Wow.”

And then his sister came out, she was a little bit older. The mother was in the bathroom and when she opened the door and saw this grown man with her children, she came running towards me, screaming, “Get away from my children!” She was running to hit me and knock me over. I said, “No ma’am, I’m here to deliver your turkey dinner,” and I showed her. And she stopped, looked down, looked at me and started to cry and said, “I thought people had forgotten about me.” She hugged me and we talked a little bit more, and she said, “For the rest of my life, when I get out of this shelter, I’m going to feed somebody.” For $35 in product, two people’s lives were changed — my life and her life. I wish I could find this family. Funny enough, when I walked out, the woman who sold us the turkey said, “What happened?” She could see I was visibly changed. She said, “I used to live in this shelter. You don’t know the impact you’re having on people’s lives.”

Who have been some memorable volunteers over the years?

I’ll tell you the most interesting one I’ve had. So I’ll go out in the truck and do the deliveries and remember this couple from the UK was on my truck with their kid. And I was like, “How did you find us?” They said, “We’re on vacation in New York and we just wanted to give back.” We took them around the whole day seeing the city for this vantage point. At the end, we usually go and have a quick meal together. We were up in Harlem and went to Amy Ruth’s and had fried chicken and all of the trimmings. And they said, “This is the most special day we’ve had in our life.” AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] came down three years ago — when she got elected, before she went to Washington — and did the delivery. This year, there was Kimberly Vallejo, from Governor Cuomo’s administration, who is the director at the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets.

To learn more, please visit www.feedingnyc.org