Valley Stream
HERALD
lending library on the Village Green
Ambrosino heads to prison
final village election results
Page 5
Page 4
Page 3
Vol. 31 No. 39
SEPTEMBER 24 - 30, 2020
$1.00
Local launches mentor program Group seeks to address inequity by creating new connections gram aimed at students of color or those from lower-income families. The goal, she said, is to give In June, Valley Stream native students the knowledge that they and 2016 Central High School need to pursue a career path. She g r a d u a t e N a t a l y A g u i r r e graduated from Boston Universiresolved to take on ty this year and the thorny issue currently works as of systemic raca health coach. ism in America. interested in a “We don’t just Amid a historic want them to go to mentorship? conversation college,” Aguirre about race after Contact peeR said. “We want the Memorial Day them to go to colon Facebook at police killing of lege to compleValley Stream peeR, George Floyd, and tion.” on instagram recalling studies According to @valleystreampeer discussed in her the latest job pator by email at behavioral health tern figures from classes at Boston the U.S. Equal valleystreampeer@ University, which Employment gmail.com showed better outOpportunity Comcomes among mission, in 2018, patients of color white men and treated by doctors who look like women working as professionals them rather than white doctors, nationwide outnumbered Black Aguirre, 22, was aware of how and Latino men and women nine under-representation by people to one. The disparity is even more of color in certain professions pronounced at the executive and can lead to material harm, and senior management level, where continue racism’s vicious cycle. the figure is 22 to one. PEER Her solution, the Valley seeks to address this inequity by Stream Program for Education intervening at the high school Equity and Resources, or PEER, level. seeks to break that cycle, target“We’re trying to address eduing the high school-to-college-to- cational disparities when it career pipeline by establishing a tutoring and mentorship proContinued on page 14
By PETER BElfioRE pbelfiore@liherald.com
Christina Daly/Herald
MASjid HAMzA REcENTly opened a food pantry in partnership with the Islamic Circle of North America. Shumaila Noor, far left, Ruhee Kapadia and Noshi Ahmed helped make it possible.
Feeding families in need
Food pantry aids hundreds amid pandemic By NicolE AlciNdoR nalcindor@liherald.com
One man, an Uber driver from a community near Valley Stream, was in a car accident and lost his job, which left him wondering how he would find money to feed his children. Another, a woman from Queens living in a shelter with her two children, was unsure where they would find their next meal. Similarly, a single mother from Centereach did not know how she
would feed her five children. The situation for the three families changed for the better, however, when they discovered the food pantry established on Aug. 31 at Valley Stream’s Masjid Hamza through a partnership between the mosque and the New Hyde Park-based nonprofit Islamic Circle of North America, according to Shumaila Noor, ICNA’s outreach coordinator. “When I spoke to those three families and so many
other families who need food, I was in shock because if you were to walk by those people in their neighborhoods, oftentimes you can never tell what they are actually going through,” Noor said. “There are a lot of needs in this world, more than we recognize, and we are filling in a gap or building a bridge by helping meet the needs of those who are truly in need.” The pantry is the first that Continued on page 3