596 Acres on Pacific Street has been spearheading an effort to get relief to the devastated Rockaway Beach area of Brooklyn, where homes were literally destroyed.
Here’s a letter from 596:
Dear Friends, Colleagues, Collaborators,
It’s been a busy week, and we know you have received a lot of emails from us as we have figured this out, but this will be the last one solely about recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Our regular newsletter, News From the Acres, will return Thursday as usual.
The response to our previous Rockaway emails was great, but we didn’t have the infrastructure at the time to handle it all! If you emailed us and have not received a response yet, please know that we are trying and will get to it as soon as we can.
We have set up some tools over the past few days that will help people who want to take part in relief work self-organize. Here’s a summary (available online here):
1. What do I do with stuff I want to donate?
Please take them to Gowanus Studio Space (166 7th Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn). We are synthesizing up to date lists of what folks need now, every 6-12 hours. The current one is here. Â
2. What do I do with my car?
Enter your information into our ride share form. It will be visible here, and people who need rides will get in touch with you.
3. How can I join a cleanup crew or volunteer some other way?
Go to Surf Club in the Rockaways: 302 beach 87th st, Queens, NY. Someone can help you find a volunteer action and a location. Need a ride? Check our ride share spreadsheet.

4. How can I help with food?
Join the Rockaways Food Relief Group to coordinate with others who want to prepare and distribute food.Â
Please, if you want to work on any of the above things, use the forms and groups above.
Finally, If you are taking things down to the Rockaways, we will be regularly posting needs collected from the people who are on the ground working there. We are shooting to collect and post these every day at 6am and at noon. The first one, for 6am this (Tuesday) morning is here, and updates will be posted here. Please keep an eye on the updates if you are planning on taking resources down to the Rockaways to make sure what is needed gets to the right place.
Love,
596 Acres
