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Feeding the Hungry

April 6, 2007

By JAMES FERGUSSON

Hands On New York, a local non-profit, put the “giving” firmly back into Thanksgiving, Nov. 20  when it dished out more than 100 free turkeys to needy Bronx families.

The giveaway, at Fordham Lutheran Church on Walton Avenue, was organized by Haile Rivera, Hands On New York’s founder and executive director. A donation from popular Bronx Bachata crooners Aventura helped pay for the meat. “They came through big time,” Rivera said of the band. Haile Rivera

Hands On New York is run out of Rivera’s University Heights apartment. “We don’t have a space or a budget,” he said. “It’s our hobby, not our job. It’s something we do on the side.”

Still, November was a busy month for the group. When Tropical Storm Noel Noel hit the Caribbean, Rivera sent the word out that they would be collecting toothbrushes, towels, canned food, and the like, which would then be shipped to the devastated town of San Jose de Ocoa, in the Dominican Republic. On Nov. 4, on the sidewalk outside Ocoa Restaurant on East Tremont Avenue, the community helped fill 100 boxes. They are currently on their way to the Dominican Republic. Both Rivera and the restaurant’s owner, Mirtha Rivera (no relation), are from San Jose de Ocoa. Mirtha Rivera’s mother lost her house in the storm.

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