 New York's Chinatown has been a community since the 1870s even predating pizza in Manhattan But when the shutdown happened to these businesses got hit the hardest it didn't feel like there was much outside help at first What would you recommend people do draw more attention to Chinatown and just try to sustain the businesses? It's like 70 restaurants that are rethink restaurants right now, and they're just like Asian-inspired restaurants They're just doing meals Winston Chu the chief strategy officer of rethink food is also worried which is why he's doing everything He can to end the stigma and hunger Asian communities like Chinatown and flushing are facing Winston and other volunteers went door-to-door Thursday in Nicaragua village in the heart of Chinatown Bringing meals to the hundreds of residents who signed up with their door sticker system tough times call for tough people We're meeting with some of the unsung heroes stepping up to hold Chinatown together a new welcome to Chinatown initiative Is supposed to help draw momentum back to the neighborhood Can they do it? Hey We are here with Jen and Victoria from welcome to Chinatown What motivated you guys to start this because you guys recently started this nonprofit during the pandemic, right? We believe that Chinatown small businesses are the microcosm of the neighborhood Like they're really the ones that maintain and preserve the culture of the neighborhood So it's finding resources for them and helping them identify ways that they can not only just like live throughout the impact of COVID but also identify new revenue streams for them to sustain like what's to come one of our most successful initiatives Which was feed our heroes so it's raising money for donations that could purchase meals for central workers We were looking for something that could have consistency across the board So today when we wrapped up our feed our heroes initiative We raised over $150,000 that went back into Chinatown My like identity and my yeah my experience is like really really rooted in Chinatown right now We're at 46 mot bakery and we're gonna chat with Patrick Mott during New York City's pause Patrick has been feeding the Chinatown community every single day with free meals serving upwards 300 to 400 meals a day Businesses like this need to exist because it still serves that community of older population. So this is why you know Patrick spot is special 46 month is like your average Chinatown bakery that keeping it old school But with a touch of new for growing up here you see stores closed down all the time But one day closed down you remind yourself when you get over how much will you miss this place? That it's that nostalgia that I want to keep in Chinatown during COVID tell us about what that was like And what made you decide to serve the community? I started making a hundred meals a day with the help of our assembly woman to give out to anyone who needs it Especially the homeless and the elderly in the area But that just kind of blew up and I started doing 300 to 450 meals a day And I've been doing it for too much. It was literally the community coming together helping the community It will be a uphill battle, but at the same time doesn't hurt to try I started this conversation Now people are more aware of what's going on. Some heroes serve tofu far, right? Just remember that What do you think about the some businesses that might not reopen again? You think people will come back eventually? Yes, Chinatown is Chinatown. No one can change it. People will come up. Come down to 46 month. Come check it out Who wants a T egg? Go ahead grab it. This egg got real small. Oh, it's saucy though The canto tea eggs the formula is more simple. There's like how dad makes it everybody pick its own Vic What's your zone of choice? Ideally the ones my grandma used to make have like all the lobsters She would like Oh Lobster and pork or lobster and chicken Yeah, yeah, yeah, pork She would always stuff way too much things in there. This fat right here. Look at that. That's gonna mix in with the rice Oh my goodness, man. Oh and they got a piece of lobsters in there That one kind of like fell apart in my mouth just after trying two items here I don't think 46 months going anywhere, man. No, this is I gotta ask as all ABCs who care about the community Do you think the nostalgia is strong enough the pure like desire for the nostalgia? I get it like I think that this spot's gonna last I think some more traditional spots are gonna last, but I don't know if all the traditional spots last I Actually really do like I had my doubts, too But I I do part of the thing that does need to change is they need to be open to Modernizing areas where they're okay with modernizing you mean like marketing or even the decor or signage Yeah, just like putting their name out there because it's so typical Chinese people to not want credit for their work And just like kind of stay behind the scenes We didn't want to come in as saviors of any sorts like we wanted to come in as partners We actually created a set of values for our initiative and that's one of them Is we're not gonna come in and tell you what to do we want to work alongside you Understand like what's meaningful to you and then build a brand around that and they've become a lot more susceptible to like knowing that We'll partner with them. They're much more open to to that change because change is hard We saw so much outpouring love for the community even if you know, they weren't in the neighborhood They still wanted to find a way to support the neighborhood All right We're finishing up here at 46 mod and it was so cool to talk to Patrick about his mission and kind of what he's been able to do during this whole time our next spot is walk walk Nostalgia tradition and community. That's what keeps Patrick driving forward You can tell that he wakes up every day with a mission in mind He could be reselling supreme or working in a counting job, but he's serving traditional food for the community and the elders You know the soul of Chinatown I'm at how resilient this neighborhood is right and so you start to see it in the ways that they're like Pretty, you know, they're being scrappy. They're putting together their own outdoor drying areas and everything like that So it's it's hopeful like more than anything. It's really hopeful of what's to come This is why you know, it matters to stay informed and learn more about like the people behind the community Like who's advocating for like who's actually advocating for you. That's a big thing that we put it We close the first week because we don't know what's what what's going on, right? And then after a week we decided to Reopen it once the restaurant closed down is very hard to reopen it. I love the kitchen food all this stuff You know, I rather try to stay open and see what happens over here We are very close to a couple of hospital police office We cook whole big part of curry and then serve 500,000 people. It's just helping the business go It helps feed people kind of gets people involved in the donation process. Yes We're gonna just take the menu All right, we got our spread here at walk walk. I think Eric was so kind man He brought out the works for us. He busted out a dish. I've never seen before you guys smell this It's called stinky bean and chicken smells good actually Walk walk, which is a Chinese Malaysian spot. I do think that Chinatowns are gonna start to look more like Asia Towns Yeah, like Pan Asia Towns. Do you guys see that? I think if it can be done in a way where it's like still tastefully honoring the legacy and it's not this pseudo Chinatown that none of us can identify with the Chinese culture Chinese food is still the thing that brings people back So that's where you still see a lot of restaurants newer places still honoring a lot of Chinese cuisine If Chinatown is only one style of food Obviously you people are not gonna come to Chinatown and eat that style of food every day of the week Maybe the doctors and nurses were eating good I think that we heard about the most is how happy they were to get food from Chinatown Guys, we're looking at three different types of chicken here at walkway. I have chicken satay skewers And then I got the style of guy so a little bit like the fried crispy skin Versus this one is like the poached this style high non It kind of feels like dodgy guy a little bit like the Cantonese fried chicken They do it really authentic here on the bone Andrew This is actually when you're in Malaysia and Singapore and more tastes like this Some of the fancier spots kind of debone it Do the hind and east chicken like walk walk is the best flavor. They also give you like this ton of meat I'm glad they kept their kitchen open because clearly their skills are sharp You don't cook anything like this if you took a four-month break shout out to Eric There's a drink down there the pink one is the bandam that's a very popular drink Malaysia What do you think about it? It's good It's like not too sweet has a pretty unique rose flavor to it. I like the herbal jelly in it This was delicious. This is like one of the most modern spots They're just like the sort of part of the Chinatown narrative, right? But I think the next spot we're headed to is one of the oldest spots this part of Chinatown narrative Yeah, right. Let's go to hopkey I'm welcome everybody come here to open a restaurant any kind of different kind of food But I still think authentic food you still be a staple food for Chinatown Despite Eric reopening and increasing his presence on delivery apps He wonders how long the lack of office workers and lunch crowd will affect his business I mean, it just goes to show you that even good restaurants are still struggling And in the meantime, he'll continue to break even on supplying meals to the nearby hospital workers Hey Janet Victoria, what is the difference between war hop and hopkey? Same family, but like they kind of have different management But they've all been on the block for a really long time And if it's serving the Chinatown community, it's known for like family dinners, people get together Hopkey is one of those staples and a rite of passage for many And it serves the quintessential Chinatown cuisine And in the 40 years it's been owned by his family, he could have never predicted this But if this cuisine goes away, does it leave forever? And what are Peter's options? Like many business owners, he's left with some hard decisions to make Peter, man, your family has been in the business for so many years, right? 1968? Yes, that's 1968 I'm sure you guys never closed down for more than a few days at a time Then COVID hits and you guys are closed down for what, months, right? Yeah, we were closed since March 16th So I reopened for takedown May 2nd What did it do to the economy of Chinatown? Went from being very busy to basically nothing Nobody's walking in the streets, no business So if they shut down, how hard is it going to be to be able to reopen? Do they lose their chefs? Do they got to rehire new people or retrain people? That's what's been happening with the neighborhood, other restaurants They're not open today, my assumption is they didn't have the capacity to go forward Wow Up to 30% of Chinatown businesses might close down forever Do you think that number is lower or higher than the reality? Well, I think that number is pretty much towards maybe 50% In here, this neighborhood, we rely on lunch Right, from the courthouse From the courthouse people in order for immigration You know, for lunch The government buildings Yeah, the government, yes, exactly So if they lock down, this makes this neighborhood like nothing until 21? Right, it's about a takeout style restaurant No, exactly, it's a family style restaurant I would imagine a lot of your customers, since you guys have been open since 1968 They came here with their dad or their uncle or their auntie It's almost like an nostalgia Generations, yes Kind of the recipes are almost from like 1970, 1980, right? Yes, yes Yeah, that's almost like its own era of Chinese American food This style of Chinese food very much still has its market Jen, Victoria, do you guys have favorite dishes here? Can we do like a Guangchao, okay? Yeah Guangchao, okay Do you have a shrimp? A shrimp, okay See you I'll chop these noodles for you That's great, yeah, that's great All right, so we have a spread here at Hopkey We talked to Peter He was like, yo, this is authentic Chinatown Cantonese food Like this is probably what you would call it You know what I love about this dish is like You probably can't find this exact dish in China Because it's Tazhi guy, but they put their own sauce on it Could you call it Chinatown soul food? Yeah Yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it Yeah So 46 Mott with a pat He was almost like serving breakfast items for a generation I want to say it was like probably 60 to 90 years old And then you went to Wokwok Which is almost like people from the Chinese diaspora To Malaysia coming back And I want to say Wokwok probably only like five years old And then this spot Hopkey is almost like, yo They didn't change anything since 1968 But that's the charm I mean even just in the chopsticks itself Like this is the chopsticks These are the chopsticks they used when I was growing up Now that everything started to reopen The Food for Heroes project has sort of come to an end Right And now you guys are moving on to your next project So the longevity fund That's our small business relief fund And our goal is to raise $200,000 So that we can issue 40 small business grants So $5,000 each The business owners know best what they need So it could be rent It can be labor Even things like we're not thinking about You have to purchase new PPE Just to be able to serve your customers That's something that they even budget for A lot of these small businesses I don't think it's anything new But in the news Many have not qualified for the PPP loans So huge disadvantage A lot of it was going to large corporations There's such an inequity In how the loans and grants are being distributed And so that was really why we felt compelled To start the grant So I guess where can people donate To this prosperity fund? Yeah Welcome to Chinatown.com All the donations can be made there We have our made in Chinatown merchandise line That people are really passionate We're actually launching with Hopkey So they're having like a mug that's coming out So you can purchase All the profit goes back to Hopkey All the profit from the new merch line That you guys are launching Is going to go to supporting these businesses Real quick question Obviously some people are going to be out there How do you pick the businesses That are going to get grants? What's the criteria? Whether there's like social, economical, Cultural challenges That prevented these businesses From applying for the loans That we're going to look at that And then as well to How do they fit back into the Chinatown community So are these small businesses Ones that serve our working class community They contribute to like the legacy, the heritage Those are the ones that we're going to prioritize Do you really think that this is like The role that a lot of like second generation ABCs Can play because I think a lot of them Don't necessarily want to take over the family business Or they don't want to open up a business in Chinatown But they can contribute to something like this Yeah or even telling stories You know that short story telling component I think that this is a story That can be like replicated across Other Chinatowns or any town Chinese people have kind of had a reputation For more like I'm just going to take care of me and mine You guys are kind of like in a way breaking from that Chinatown's the home to my identity And it's the home to where I live now So that's why I'm so passionate about it Welcome to Chinatown, Jen, Victoria Thank you guys so much I mean I appreciate it And yeah I love the heart That you guys have for the community And it's important And man I think there's just It'll be really interesting to see where this goes But shout out to the fund We're going to contribute to that fund Thank you guys for coming to experience the Chinatown The way that we see it And you know speaking with the people that Make this neighborhood what it is You know with videos like this Our goal is not to just make you sad and worried It's really to highlight the people Who are trying to make something happen The people who are trying to communicate With different generations Which is maybe something that hasn't really been done before If you look at the silver lining Leadership amongst Chinatowns growing The community is stronger than ever And it's activating a lot of the second generation That wasn't stepping up before Now struggle often breeds unity And Chinatown has been around for more than a century And I think it'll be around for a lot longer Order takeout And until next time we out Peace Are you worried at all with the whole COVID thing Like Chinatown's going to change permanently And a lot of the businesses are going to close down And never come back No I am a nurse for me It's about education If you know what is the thing You don't have to worry