New York, NY - After tremendous organizing and advocacy, Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (D/WF-Manhattan) is thrilled to announce that staff and volunteers at food pantries, banks and grab-and-go sites have finally been added by the State to the list of people currently eligible in Phase 1B to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Despite being designated as essential since the beginning of the pandemic, staff and volunteers who work at New York’s food banks, pantries and grab-and-go sites providing food to low-income New Yorkers had been conspicuously left off the list until now. 

The updated list may be accessed here.

“The number of unsheltered and food insecure New Yorkers has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though staff and volunteers at food banks throughout the state put their lives and health on the line to get food to hungry New Yorkers, they had not, until now, been prioritized to receive the vaccine. Given the fact that other similarly situated professionals, such as grocery store workers and restaurant wait staff, had already been on the list, it should not have taken a mobilization of dozens of lawmakers and food bank leaders to win this victory, but I am relieved that we were successful because now thousands of essential, frontline workers will be protected against COVID-19,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal. 

Assemblymember Rosenthal, along with her colleague Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas spearheaded a February 23, 2021 letter to Governor Cuomo, supported by more than 30 of their colleagues, urging the Governor to include these professionals in Phase 1B of the vaccine roll out. The letter may be accessed here.