A Bronx and Brooklyn-based developer has teamed up with a Manhattan nonprofit to distribute thousands of homemade masks to residents of both boroughs.
When New York City shut down in March, L+M Development Partners formed partnerships in the communities where the firm builds and manages buildings to help keep their tenants, employees and the communities they serve safe during the quarantine by creating a mini PPE supply chain and helped keep a network of tailors in business at the same time.
One of those partnerships was with 100 Tailors of Harlem. An initiative based in the Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market’s small business incubator, 100 Tailors mobilized seamstresses, clothiers and tailors in northern Manhattan to produce critically-needed PPE, including masks and gowns.
“The coronavirus has unwittingly unmasked, in many respects, some of our best human cooperative instincts and possibilities,” said Dr. Mujib Mannan, executive director of the Malcolm Shabazz Development Corp. “The joint venture between 100 Tailors of Harlem for Peace and L+M Development Partners to produce and distribute face masks for underserved community residents in Brooklyn and The Bronx is an example of the synergetic magic that is possible when our best productive efforts have united. The challenges of life present real opportunities for us to identify and confess the true beauty of the human spirit that we share as one humanity. This was one of them.”
L+M helped to support the businesses of the craftsmen and craftswomen of 100 Tailors during the quarantine and was able to direct one of their partners to 100 Tailors in order to create and distribute hundreds of masks at their Bronxchester development in the south Bronx.
A total of 400 masks were made for Bronxchester residents. GDSNY also funded the Bronx masks.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic struck the tri-state area, it was important to us that we respond and help keep our residents healthy, safe and secure,” said Gingi Pica, director of community investment at L+M Development Partners. “By collaborating with 100 Tailors of Harlem for Peace we were able to not only provide critical PPE to our residents in The Bronx and Brooklyn, we also helped these tailors continue to earn a living while so many others faced unemployment and uncertainty about their economic futures. L+M is a community-minded development team, and we are proud of this collaboration and look forward to working with 100 Tailors of Harlem for Peace and the Shabazz Center on projects in the future.”
