{"id":65047,"date":"2025-06-09T01:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T08:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/?p=65047"},"modified":"2025-06-09T10:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:57:14","slug":"heart-of-dinner-delivers-hope-to-asian-seniors-and-a-boost-to-asian-businesses-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2025\/06\/09\/heart-of-dinner-delivers-hope-to-asian-seniors-and-a-boost-to-asian-businesses-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart of Dinner Delivers Hope to Asian Seniors, and a Boost to Asian Businesses, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/div>

Ten years ago, Yin Chang and Moonlynn Tsai hosted a supper club in their modest Los Angeles apartment. A dozen or so people\u2014mostly friends of friends in the Asian community\u2014would crowd around a custom-built 7-foot-long communal table and feast on dishes like char siu ribs marinated with whiskey or share elaborate hot-pot meals with greenmarket vegetables.<\/p><\/div>

\n

Tsai, who grew up in a restaurant family and is herself a restaurateur and entrepreneur, handled most of the kitchen duties, while Chang, an actor best known for her portrayal of Nelly Yuki on the hit show Gossip Girl<\/em>, would entertain guests in the dining room.<\/p>\n

As a young couple, the two found comfort in bringing together strangers over a home-cooked meal\u2014a communal experience they felt was lacking in their lives at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cElders like us, if we have any pain or don\u2019t feel very well that day, we cannot go out to get anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cDinners can bring together people of all cultures and also [present] an opportunity to talk about who we are as people, our heritage, and our love stories,\u201d Chang says. \u201cWhen we were deciding on a name for our supper club, we were trying to figure out what was at the heart of dinner, and the name \u2018Heart of Dinner\u2019 became so fitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admission to these dinners was free, but guests were invited to leave donations in a large urn on the table, with proceeds going to No Kid Hungry<\/a>, a child hunger campaign that supports school and community meal programs.<\/p>\n

Heart of Dinner\u2019s core mission took a dramatic turn during the pandemic. Chang and Tsai, who moved to New York City in 2018 to pursue career opportunities, were deeply troubled by the wave of Asian hate crimes<\/a> and xenophobia that swept across the city in March 2020. After a period of feeling helpless, they sprang into action to mobilize support for the elderly Asian community. They partnered with local senior centers to hand-deliver bags of culturally appropriate groceries and ready-to-eat meals, prepared in their tiny home kitchen, to Asian elders isolated by the mandated quarantines. Within months, the couple were regularly delivering over 1,200 meals per week across New York City.<\/p>\n

As threats to the Asian community lingered, Chang and Tsai formally established Heart of Dinner<\/a> as a nonprofit in late 2020, garnering support from private donors; local, mostly Asian-owned businesses; corporate sponsorships; and foundation grants.\u00a0Today, the organization continues to deliver over 700 care packages every week filled with fresh produce and hot meals to Asian seniors across four of New York City\u2019s five boroughs. Later this year they plan to expand to Staten Island, with fundraising efforts already underway.<\/p>\n

In April, Heart of Dinner celebrated its five-year anniversary. While volunteers from across New York City celebrated the milestone<\/a>, Chang and Tsai were in Los Angeles, where they\u2019ve lived intermittently since January, coordinating relief efforts for Asian seniors displaced by the catastrophic wildfires there (see sidebar below). They believe their experience in New York over the past five years helped them more quickly mobilize recovery efforts there.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Heart<\/a>

Heart of Dinner volunteers at the Lower East Side site organize deliveries for the day. (Photo credit: Adam Reiner)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n

\u201cWe did not see this coming,\u201d Chang says, \u201cbut if anything, it was kismet, and poetic in [the] way that it reminded us of the heart of the mission and how necessary this work is, anywhere in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delivering Hope to Harlem<\/h4>\n<\/div>

On a frigid Wednesday afternoon in February, about a dozen volunteers met at La Marqueta, a Latin food hall in East Harlem, to pack 75 gift bags with groceries like firm tofu, Japanese sweet potatoes, bok choy, and bananas, along with plastic to-go containers filled with stir-fried pork, purple eggplant, and white rice prepared by a partner restaurant in Chinatown. All meals included in Heart of Dinner care packages come from local Asian-owned restaurants. <\/p><\/div>

\n

Each bag, destined for Asian seniors living in nearby public housing, was festooned with colorful, uplifting artwork by volunteers from across the city: drawings and paintings of birds, lanterns, fruit, flowers, and other Asian-themed imagery. \u201cHeart of Dinner\u201d was written in Mandarin characters on the bags, with a personalized note stapled beneath the handle.<\/p>\n

The notes included simple wishes for health and prosperity written in each recipient\u2019s native language\u2014in many cases, messages one would expect a grandparent to give, not receive: \u201cMake sure you drink water\u201d or \u201cPlease eat well today.\u201d Two of the bags had notes written in Thai; other Heart of Dinner sites also prepare notes in Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.<\/p>\n

The volunteers at the East Harlem site came from all walks of life: college students, bartenders, musicians, physician assistants, and retirees. After loading the care packages into large stroller wagons, the team divided into small groups, traversing the neighborhood\u2019s intricate web of public housing developments by foot.<\/p>\n

The volunteers warmly greeted each elder at the door, wearing masks as a precautionary measure, and presented the bags respectfully with two hands. They inquired with genuine concern about each person\u2019s health, as a grandchild would. Most conversations were brief but cordial and ended with gentle bows and exchanges of \u201cxi\u00e8 xie\u201d (\u201cthank you\u201d in Mandarin) with the many Chinese recipients who live in the area.<\/p>\n

East Harlem, which spans from 103rd to 125th street on the east side of northern Manhattan, is a predominantly Latinx neighborhood. But according to the most recent Census Bureau data, Asians now comprise about 9.6 percent of its population<\/a>, up from only 5.5 percent in 2010.<\/p>\n

Due to gentrification, many Asian seniors in New York City are being displaced from Chinatown, forcing them to relocate to neighborhoods like Harlem in search of more affordable housing. The Heart of Dinner founders stressed that this can be particularly isolating for many elders, because these neighborhoods often don\u2019t have familiar Asian businesses that cater to their needs.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An elder in Brooklyn receives her weekly Heart of Dinner delivery. (Photo courtesy of Heart of Dinner)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

In one of the high-rise public housing developments along the end of the route, a soft-spoken 73-year-old woman who introduced herself as Mrs. Xie extolled the virtues of Heart of Dinner through a translator. \u201cI feel so thankful from the bottom of my heart,\u201d she said of the weekly deliveries she\u2019d been receiving for months. \u201cElders like us, if we have any pain or don’t feel very well that day, we cannot go out to get anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another elderly woman, whose husband is in his 90s, joked, \u201ceven our children don\u2019t go above and beyond like Heart of Dinner does for us every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating a Virtuous Circle<\/h4>\n<\/div>

Although Heart of Dinner\u2019s primary mission is to advocate for the Asian elder community, it also provides vital support for many Asian-owned businesses by partnering with local restaurants, wholesale grocers, and organic farmers. \u201cWe intentionally purchase from Asian-owned businesses wherever possible, which also helps to build economic resilience in the communities we serve,\u201d Chang says. <\/p><\/div>

\n

In 2023, they began partnering with Choy Commons<\/a>, an organic farm collective in the Catskills, to supply their East Harlem site with Asian heritage crops such as baby Shanghai bok choy and hakurei turnips.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality of many Asian seniors living in food insecurity is painful,\u201d says Nicole Yeo-Solano, co-founder of Choy Commons, \u201cespecially because so many of us were raised by our grandparents, and we know that many of their journeys have not been easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heart of Dinner also works with Asian-owned restaurants and bakeries across New York City like Saigon Social<\/a> and Partybus Bakeshop<\/a> on the Lower East Side, which provide hearty soups and scallion buns, respectively, for their weekly deliveries. They also purchase freshly made soy milk from Fong On<\/a>, New York City\u2019s oldest tofu shop, which opened in Chinatown in 1933.<\/p>\n

Pei Wei, the co-owner of Zaab Zaab<\/a>, a Thai restaurant in Williamsburg, has supported Heart of Dinner since the pandemic, and her kitchen staff continues to supply over 100 hot meals every week for the Brooklyn delivery site.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell the chef to cook the vegetables a little longer so it\u2019s softer for people who have sensitive teeth,\u201d Wei says, \u201cor to chop the meat into smaller pieces so it\u2019s easier to digest.\u201d Her restaurant also frequently hosts bag decorating sessions, where young children like Wei\u2019s 10-year-old daughter are invited to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very proud that every single meal we serve with our partners is paid for by Heart of Dinner, at least what the restaurant would be charging,\u201d Tsai says. \u201cSo, they\u2019re able to partake in community giving while also doing something that helps sustain their business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding Connection Through Community<\/h4>\n<\/div>

For many volunteers, working with Heart of Dinner has helped foster a deeper connection to the Asian community and their own Asian identities. Professional illustrator Nancy Pappas began volunteering and helping decorate bags and notecards in 2020, after feeling horrified by violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in New York City during the pandemic. <\/p><\/div>

\n<\/div>
\"Brightly<\/a>

Brightly decorated Heart of Dinner bags are filled with fresh produce and prepared meals. (Photo courtesy of Heart of Dinner)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n

Pappas is an adoptee who was born in Korea and raised by a white family in Kansas City, Missouri. Having struggled with her own Asian identity growing up, she credits Heart of Dinner with helping further her journey of self-discovery. Her experiences with the nonprofit even encouraged her to seek out her Korean birth mother, whom she met in person in 2019, and spend extended time living in Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to give back to the community\u2014even though as an adoptee I don\u2019t always feel like I belong at times\u2014gives me a place and a purpose,\u201d Pappas says. She attends at least three bag decorating sessions per month at Heart of Dinner\u2019s Lower East Side volunteer site.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong native Zoe Lau, who works part-time with Heart of Dinner as a volunteer communications coordinator, speaks fluent Cantonese and Mandarin and spends several hours every week calling elder beneficiaries to confirm their weekly deliveries in their native languages. She began attending weekly bag decorating sessions in New York City during the pandemic to feel closer to her grandmother in Hong Kong, who she was unable to visit due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I couldn’t fly back to see her, I went in every Wednesday as much as I could, keeping in mind that if my grandma didn’t have anyone around to look after her, I would be very upset,\u201d Lau says. \u201cI hoped we could be those other grandchildren for\u00a0these seniors.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see Heart of Dinner in action, check out this video<\/a> on their Instagram.<\/p>\n\n

With Wildfires Raging in LA, Heart of Dinner Answers the Call<\/div>

\"Founders
\nFounders Moonlynn Tsai (left) and Yin Chang (bottom right) with volunteers in Los Angeles, where Heart of Dinner has delivered more than 300 care packages to Asian elders after the devastating wildfires. (Photo courtesy of Heart of Dinner)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In January, Chang and Tsai were on their way to the San Diego airport to return to New York City after visiting family for the holidays. Then the news spread about the catastrophic wildfires unfolding across Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like this d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu moment,\u201d Chang says. \u201cIt brought us right back to [the pandemic in] 2020. We had the same thought: \u2018Who is taking care of folks like our grandparents and aging parents who can\u2019t always speak the language to ask for help or to get the resources they need?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They canceled their flights and drove two hours north to L.A., taking up temporary residence to mobilize recovery efforts. Without knowing who the recipients would be, they began decorating as many gift bags as possible, even pulling all-nighters to make sure they had sufficient supply.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As they did during the pandemic, Chang and Tsai canvassed local shelters and senior centers and scoured social media to find elderly Asian victims in need. Through a GoFund Me<\/a> page, they learned of an elderly couple whose house burned down in the Altadena fires and contacted Allyson Eng, their granddaughter, who organized the fundraiser. After\u2019s Eng\u2019s grandparents lost their two-story, three-bedroom home near Eaton Canyon, where they lived since the 1980s, she raised almost $15,000 to help them rebuild.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Without a place to live, the grandparents were forced to crowd into Eng\u2019s parents\u2019 modest bungalow in nearby Duarte, along with her uncle and his family, who also lost their apartment in the wildfires. \u201cOur house gets pretty crowded when there\u2019s six or seven of us staying there at one time,\u201d Eng says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Allyson<\/p>\n

Allyson Eng with her grandmother Joan after she received a Heart of Dinner delivery in L.A. this month. (Photo courtesy of Heart of Dinner)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her 82-year-old grandmother Joan used to spend most of her time in the kitchen of the home she lost in the fire, warming its white-tiled walls with the steam of her cooking. When the Heart of Dinner deliveries began arriving, she was delighted to find her bags filled with so many familiar Asian ingredients like bok choy and Chinese noodles, which she used to make chow mein with shrimp, eggs, and scallions for the grandchildren. Even Eng\u2019s 88-year-old grandfather Joseph, who rarely cooks anymore, used the ingredients to prepare fried rice with greens, topped with ha mai (dried shrimp) and lap cheong (Chinese sausage).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Long after the wildfires were contained, Chang and Tsai continued to gather local friends to decorate bags and load produce and dry goods from Asian grocery stores like H Mart and Mitsuwa into the trunk of their hatchback. Leaning on their years of New York City experience, they phoned elderly recipients to coordinate delivery routes, sometimes as often as three times a week, eventually staging their operations at a friend\u2019s art studio in the heart of the city. They sourced culturally appropriate prepared meals such as Cantonese-style roast duck and jajangmyeon, Korean noodles with fermented black bean sauce, from purveyors in the Los Angeles area like 99 Ranch Market <\/a>and Paik\u2019s Noodle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Within months, the small team of 10 friends and volunteers delivered<\/a> over 350 personalized gift bags to displaced elders from the South Bay to San Gabriel Valley.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the work is far from finished. The couple has returned to California<\/a> this month to resume deliveries, with the goal of reaching 1,000 total care packages for displaced seniors by the summer\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019re talking to more elders, they need long-term support, so it\u2019s important for us to remain committed,\u201d Tsai says. \u201cFor elders who have lost everything and are completely displaced, we want to make sure to provide them hope so they don\u2019t feel alone or like they\u2019ve lost community or love around them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tsai, who grew up in a restaurant family and is herself a restaurateur and entrepreneur, handled most of the kitchen duties, while Chang, an actor best known for her portrayal of Nelly Yuki on the hit show Gossip Girl, would entertain guests in the dining room. As a young couple, the two found comfort in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1369,"featured_media":65040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[485,43604],"tags":[],"coauthors":[43564],"class_list":["post-65047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-access","category-food-mutual-aid"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHeart of Dinner Brings Hope to Asian Elders, Supports Businesses | Civil Eats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A nonprofit delivers food to Asian seniors, sourcing from Asian-owned restaurants, grocery stores, and farms.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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