[slow piano music]
- It was mid-March where World Health Organization announced
that COVID 19 was a pandemic.
[upbeat piano music]
We started to feel the impact of it early on in January.
- Yeah, it was January.
Chinatown was desolate.
- It was desolate. - It was shuttering.
- [Yin Chang] It was sad.
- Businesses in Chinatown were suffering way
before the closures had to happen.
[slow piano music]
People were afraid to come out.
So many people were very fearful thinking that,
if I go to Chinatown,
anyone who is Asian presenting is the disease.
When this guy was walking by us,
he leaned in towards me and said,
"Motherfucker go back to China."
[upbeat piano music]
- [Yin Chang] We knew we needed to act
to help those in need
and so we set a part of dinner safely delivering sustenance
to those in need.
- Food is the ultimate language that we show
that love people.
Finding a way to redistribute that to our community.
We couldn't sit still
and see and know about community members
who are elderly home bound and frail
that shouldn't be going out.
- It was like 200 meals out of this tiny apartment.
We just surpassed 80,000 meals.
We're on route to our 250,000 goal.
[upbeat piano music]
- If there is an elder listening right now,
I would just thank them for all of their sacrifices.
Everything that they've done to come here
and pave a new start, a new chapter in their lives,
gave us something to stand on.
[upbeat piano music]
- Heart of Dinner to me means having a community
that rallies together and to really provide a sense
of warmth and family, especially during a time
that was so bleak.
[upbeat piano music]
Heart of dinner it's not you and I anymore.
It's this whole group of volunteers who expand not only
in New York, but also throughout the US
and into Asia and Europe.
So it become this really big collective effort
of everybody involved.
- Heart of Dinner is empathy wrapped up
in a thoughtful care package.
[upbeat piano music]