Meals and thanks for first responders

2001

A home-cooked Thanksgiving

A December 13, 2001 Town & Village caption records Arlene Harrison, Lisa Anastasi and Lisa Bonet of the Edwin Gould Foundation for Children providing Thanksgiving dinner for Emergency Service Truck 1. The photographs show volunteers and officers sharing the table during the months after September 11.

The dinner is an early example of the neighborhood relationships that later supported holiday meals, homecoming gestures and help during emergencies.

2002

An evening at Jazz Standard

An April 4, 2002 report describes Danny Meyer welcoming Emergency Service Truck 1 and the Gramercy Park Block Association’s volunteers to Jazz Standard and Blue Smoke. Meyer thanked the officers with an evening of music and food, and recognized volunteers who had rallied the neighborhood behind them.

The article places the evening within the ongoing GPBA-coordinated relief effort: local restaurants and businesses supplied hot meals and essentials to crews returning from Ground Zero. The restaurant hosted the gathering; the Block Association helped sustain the surrounding network of support.

2010

A meal after the Haiti mission

When Emergency Service Truck 1 personnel returned from a search-and-rescue mission in Haiti, Arlene Harrison contacted neighbor and restaurateur Danny Meyer about a way to thank them. Meyer, Maialino general manager Terry Coughlin and chef Nick Anderer arranged a Valentine’s Day meal for the squad.

The February 18, 2010 Town & Village account describes the detectives’ work as part of New York Task Force One and shows officers and Harrison collecting the meal at Maialino. It records a concrete role for the Block Association: bringing a neighborhood restaurant together with the returning responders.

The Block Association’s February 1 letter had reported five Truck 1 members returning with the New York Task Force One rescue team. The Block Association shared their achievement with neighbors; the deployment itself was the work of the emergency services, not a GPBA operation.

Thanksgiving, even while working

Neighbors Helping Neighbors provided dinner for NYPD Emergency Service detectives working on Thanksgiving. The Block Association’s 2017 account credited Events Committee Chair Kathleen Scupp with organizing that year’s meal.

Restaurants and residents helped

In 2018, the Block Association again reported providing the holiday dinner and thanked Westside Market and Maialino for their support. The meal connected local hospitality with the people whose shifts continued through the holiday.

Appreciation throughout the year

The archive also records a July 2016 delivery of 37 pizzas to officers of the 13th Precinct, Manhattan South detectives and Emergency Service Truck 1. These gestures belonged to an ongoing relationship, alongside the neighborhood’s memorials and public-safety work.

2020

Support during the pandemic

By July 2020, the Block Association reported four sponsored luncheons for the 13th Precinct, Emergency Service Truck 1 and Patrol Borough Manhattan South, with catering help from Westside Market. Coffee and lunch also reached officers stationed outdoors on Second and Third Avenues.

The meals formed part of the wider face-shield and first-responder support effort during the pandemic.

2023

A Valentine’s thank-you

On Valentine’s Day 2023, the Block Association’s members delivered cookies and chocolates to Emergency Service Truck 1, the 13th Precinct and Patrol Borough Manhattan South. The following day’s newsletter shared the completed visit.

The gesture continued the smaller, everyday forms of appreciation that appear alongside holiday dinners and support during emergencies in the Block Association’s record.