Coronavirus Update: 'People Like This Are Angels' -- New Yorker Hands Out Food To The Homeless
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- As millions of New Yorkers stay at home to help stop the spread of coronavirus, volunteers are still not giving up on their mission to help the most vulnerable among us.
Neighbors are helping neighbors, including the homeless, CBS2's Dave Carlin reported.
Chun Rosencranz handed out food on Sunday in Midtown.
"This is what do when people are hurting. We show up. We take care of them," said Rosencranz, a Chelsea resident.
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Rosencranz and two volunteers don't linger long, just enough time to say here you go and get a heartfelt thanks in return.
"I got up at 7 a.m. I went shopping. Westside Market gave me a discount because they heard what I was doing. We have basically an assembly line, basically, in my tiny New York apartment kitchen," Rosencranz said.
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For more than a week he has been hand-delivering several hundred sandwiches a day.
"This is what we need. People like this are angels," one young homeless man told Carlin.
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With a Sharpie, each sandwich wrapper gets the name of someone who donated to this cause.
"They want people who are experiencing homelessness to know they are cared about and that they are loved," Rosencranz said.
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Rosencranz is a social worker, but he's not getting a paycheck right now. He considers this his job and said it doesn't fill his bank account, but it fills his soul, Carlin reported.
His two helpers -- choreographer Paul McGill and pianist Danny Zelibor -- work in the arts.
"It feels useful in this moment," McGill said.
"Might as well do something good with all the time we have on our hands now," Zelibor added.
When asked if he thinks there is a movement going on, people helping other people, Rosencranz said, "I think that humanity in times of crisis always shows up as its best self. There are people all over this city, all over this country, and all over this world who are literally putting their lives at risk to take care of other people and I think that's incredible."
He said it is true he is not isolating himself, but added he's being careful and helping where there is a desperate need.
