During spring break, my group and I visited the Bowery Mission. It was a drop off location during Hurricane Sandy, so we figured we would be able to gather a sufficient amount of information for our project. At the Bowery Mission, we interviewed Matt Krivich, the operations director. Matt was very helpful and insightful compared to the people at the Charles B. Wang Center who were very unreceptive to trying to aid in our project. In the interview, Matt Krivich informed us that the mission lost power for five days like so many others as a result of Hurricane Sandy. However, knowing that the mission still had the duty to provide service and food for the people in the neighborhood, Matt divulged how the mission managed without having electricity. They cooked all of their perishables. Through generator power, they were able to preserve what wasn’t cook. During and following the storm there was an influx of volunteers. Compared to the usual thirty volunteers, there were over a hundred. Matt also told the story about an Asian family who was initially very hesitant about coming into the Bowery. However, after being welcomed in, Matt spoke about how more Asian families started to come to the mission through word of mouth.

-Ashley Haynes