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God's Love We Deliver Cooking Meals In New SoHo Building For First Time

By Danielle Tcholakian | July 31, 2015 5:25pm | Updated on August 3, 2015 8:47am
 The charity, which makes and delivers healthy meals for sick New Yorkers, is back to work in its multi-million dollar new building in SoHo after two years of renovations.
God's Love We Deliver Back To Work In New Building
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SOHO — God's Love We Deliver is back to work, now in their new building in SoHo.

Friday was the organization's first day operating out of the Michael Kors Building at 166 Sixth Ave., named for the designer in thanks for the $7 million he and John Idol, the CEO of his company, put toward the renovation.

The city also contributed a $7 million grant. The new building is double the size of their old facility, up to 48,500 square feet from their previous 18,000.

“This is an historic moment in the history of God’s Love We Deliver,” said Karen Pearl, its president & CEO of the organization that brings food to people too sick to cook for themselves in a statement highlighting "an ever-increasing demand for our food and nutrition program."

In an interview on Friday, Pearl said the renovation was necessitated by the organization's commitment to never having a waiting list. In their previous two-story building, they were running out of space to meet the needs of their clients.

God's Love, which has no religious affiliation, provides individually-tailored meals to sick New Yorkers, as well as a special children's menu for their kids and additional meals for caregivers to seniors.

"If they don't keep up their strength, the whole thing falls apart," Pearl said.

The organization has been in operation for 30 years, and currently serve more than 1.4 million meals to nearly 6,000 people per year, Pearl said, with a staff of 87 assisted by 8,000 volunteers. The new space is meant to allow them to increase production to 2 million meals annually.

The new five-story building is more approachable, with massive windows to allow people to see volunteers at work and a glass-enclosed entryway "to make it welcoming to the community to come in, volunteer, take part, and refer friends," Pearl explained.

The design, Pearl said, is meant "to say to the community, this is what God's Love is and does."

Their new digs also include the Anna Wintour Volunteer Center, named for the Vogue editor, who has been a major supporter of the charity, and the Joan Rivers Bakery, to honor the late comedian's decades-long support of the organization. Rivers sat on the charity's board for more than 20 years, Pearl said, and was a "great ambassador" of the organization for even longer, before her death last year.

"She knew we were going to name it for her, which is great," Pearl said. "She loved bringing birthday cakes to our clients."

The building boasts a sunny rooftop garden with a long outdoor dining table and chairs and sweeping views of the city, from the Empire State Building on one side to 1 World Trade Center on the other. Tending the garden is one of the ways in which volunteers can choose to help.

Pearl said the transition into the new building has been smooth, and they've been able to serve the needy without interruption, thanks to the temporary space they occupied in Brooklyn for the two years it took to renovate their building.

The renovation stirred controversy in the neighborhood because the charity sold its air rights to a developer, allowing a nearby building to be taller than it otherwise would have. Locals questioned the legitimacy of the sale because the city had sold 166 Sixth Ave. to God's Love with the condition that the building only be used for community purposes.

The new building's design was circumscribed by the city's demand that the upper floors be smaller than the lower floors, but the mandated setbacks actually worked to the organization's benefit, allowing them to have manicured balconies for volunteers enjoy — and where potential luxe fundraising events can be held.

The entire second floor is devoted to the kitchen, because it was the only floor where no setback was required. Pearl said it was important that the new kitchen take up "the entire floorplate of the building."

"It's sort of the heart and soul of what we do," Pearl said. "We really wanted to get our kitchen for the first time out of the basement so our volunteers, cooks and chefs could enjoy the same light that everyone else is getting."