By Amanda Kwan, Media Relations Staff

In mid-March, as the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact began to reshape life across the New York-New Jersey region, Peter Malo and Mike Stamatis started talking about the economic impact. Not on their business, but the community.

“We started thinking, ‘This is going to be bad. What can we do to help?’” said Malo, the president of Redi Fresh Produce, a food importer based in Queens, N.Y.

ILA workers sort and unpack pallets in Brooklyn

Malo works regularly with Stamatis, the president of the Red Hook Container Terminal (RHCT). His company’s fresh fruits and vegetables arrive through the marine terminal in Brooklyn. He knew an order of pineapples – 20,000 in total – would be arriving soon from Costa Rica, and Redi Fresh had a retailer to take them. But he and Stamatis wanted to give them all way.

At a time when businesses have closed, jobs are under threat and consumers are panic-buying, more people than ever are turning to local food pantries to help feed their families. Without restaurants or markets donating unsold goods, the food importers and distributors that receive shipments through the Port of New York & New Jersey’s marine terminals are stepping up, and so is the Port Authority.

“This generous initiative is a wonderful use of the Port Authority’s widespread community connections through our projects regionwide, and we are pleased that we can help by connecting our partners at the Port with community groups and food pantries facing serious problems getting food donations and resources,” said Beth Rooney, the Port’s deputy director.

In early April, Stamatis and Malo hatched a plan to donate pineapples to the neighborhoods around the Red Hook terminal. One of the most underserved communities in New York City, the Red Hook neighborhood has always been a supporter of the work at the container terminal, Stamatis said. With the pandemic, he and Malo knew that getting fresh food would become a major problem for local residents.

In the week before Easter, the pineapples arrived in two shipping containers. International Longshoremen’s Association workers sorted and unpacked 3,360 boxes totaling 70,000 pounds of pineapples for MTC Transportation, an RHCT trucking partner, to deliver to neighborhood food banks, pantries, and houses of worship. One container of pineapples went to City Harvest, which distributed them to five community food groups in Gowanus and Sunset Park.

MTC Transportation delivers pineapples to New Jersey

The second container of pineapples was delivered by MTC Transportation volunteers to more than a dozen food banks and houses of worship in Red Hook, including the Center for Family Life Food Pantry (960 pineapples), Community Help in Park Slope Inc. (480), the Red Hook Arts Project (300), the Red Hook Initiative (300) and the New York Police Department’s 76^th Precinct.

Some were distributed in fresh produce boxes organized by RHCT volunteers for local pickup at the gates of the container terminal in time for the Passover and Easter holidays. ILA workers, considered essential to the supply chain during the pandemic, were also given pineapples to take home.

“This community has supported us so much, we just wanted to do something to give back,” Stamatis said. “The Red Hook Container Terminal, its people and the surrounding community is truly a special place.”

Redi Fresh Produce donated a third shipping container of pineapples that arrived April 15 at the Brooklyn terminal. RHCT, which also has a facility in Newark, donated those 10,000 pineapples on April 17 to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey (CFBNJ) in Hillside, N.J., a supplier to more than 1,000 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across New Jersey. The fruits made their “warehouse smell amazing,” said CFBNJ’s communications manager Nicole Williams, who added that the produce would be distributed this week.

To help organize similar donations, the Port of New York & New Jersey has identified more community food groups in need of assistance and is reaching out to its marine terminal operators to find more opportunities for donations of goods arriving at the terminals.

Stamatis also said more donations are coming from RHCT. Two other RHCT partners, E. Armata Inc. and Exp Group LLC, both distributors based at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx, have donated or will be donating incoming shipments of bananas, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, rice, apples and oranges.

And yes, more pineapples, this time from Ecuador.

By Scott Ladd, Media Relations Staff

The date of May 1 had been circled on Gene Cala’s calendar for some time. That was to be the start of the next phase of his life: retirement from PATH after 32 years and leaving his native Jersey City with his wife of 42 years for a quieter life in South Jersey.

But the best laid plans are no match for a global pandemic. Come May 1, Cala likely will be working a double shift at PATH’s Car Equipment Division in Jersey City, cleaning and sanitizing train cars to keep them safe for the movement of essential workers during COVID-19.

Retirement will just have to wait.

“That was the game plan until all this happened,” Cala, 66, said recently during a break from his shift at the facility known as the ‘Car Wash.’ “But this isn’t the time. It’s the time to help keep our passengers and our employees safe.”

Gene Cala in his home away from home

Cala, a general maintainer (GM), is one of about 20 workers assigned to the facility who are instrumental in keeping the trains running cleanly, safely, efficiently. They are a tightly knit group, often operating on double shifts to meet the daily demands of cleaning and disinfecting the cars. Every day, Cala said, is a “team effort.” The job for his five-person crew entails a rigorous sanitization effort by mopping car floors and wiping down seats, doors, and handrails.

In addition to moving essential workers to and from their destinations, PATH’s maintainers, as well as dozens of other cleaners and inspectors assigned throughout PATH, are themselves essential workers.

“Our GMs together have been cleaning and disinfecting the PATH fleet around the clock for weeks to ensure our riders have a clean and safe ride during this crisis,” said Pete Harris, the PATH Superintendent who oversees car maintenance and cleaning operations. “Gene and the other GMs, as well as our car inspectors and foremen who clean the fleet and respond to in-service issues around the system, deserve special recognition as they are on the front lines in facing this pandemic.”

Cala and the ‘Car Wash’ team

Cala knows his retirement date will one day arrive, even if he isn’t sure exactly when. In the meantime, he’ll continue to pull on his protective gear and show up for work until the crisis has passed.

“I’m a very fortunate person,” said the PATH veteran, who has rarely missed a day of work in his career. “Coming to PATH was the best thing I ever did in my life.”