Welcome to Chinatown is launching The Longevity Fund, a small business relief fund that aims to fundraise $200,000 for the distribution of grants to Manhattan Chinatown’s small businesses.

We are excited to partner with neighborhood friends Golden Diner to (re)introduce the community to just a few of the many amazing small businesses in our beloved neighborhood. Chinatown has been hard hit with devastating obstacles even before the COVID shutdown, but seeing the lights of small businesses slowly come back on over the past 2 weeks has given us hope and cause for celebration. This community is unassumingly but astonishingly brave, resourceful, and resilient. And where the hell else you gonna go to get $2 dumplings?

We know it’s been some time since we last provided an update. We’ve been spending the last several weeks, like most of you, reflecting, learning and mobilizing in solidarity of Black Lives Matter. Thanks to your generous donations, we have been fortunate to sustain our Feed Our Heroes initiative in the background while using our voice and platform to show our support for the Black community. Today, we wanted to share an update on our latest financial reports — a staple to our commitment to donor transparency — as well as what’s next for Welcome to Chinatown.

Greens for Good successfully raised a whopping $14,305 in donations, which was double the initial fundraising goal, in a matter of two weeks! The money was used to purchase over 7,705 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables from Asian-Veggies.com to date. A portion of this was used to fill 420 produce bags that was donated to the senior community at Hong Ning Housing for the Elderly. With the excess funds, Welcome to Chinatown decided to continue its partnership with Asian-Veggies.com to supply produce to local grocer and bakery, 46 Mott Bakery, who have been feeding the Chinatown community with free meals during shelter-in-place.

We've said and heard too many times: "I don't want to get involved, it's not my business," "I don't know enough about the issue" or "I don't want to cause any problems". Too many of us feel like we don't belong or deserve a seat at the table. But we need to be a part of the conversation and amplify our voices to support our Black communities.