Connected Chef co-founded Kim Calichio speaks at Thursday’s press conference. Photo: Shane O’Brien
April 16, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
Connected Chef, a LIC-based nonprofit that provides fresh produce to families in Queens, held a press conference last week to announce that it is being “evicted” from its current location and seeks support from elected officials and the local community to find a new home.
The organization, founded by Kim Calichio and her husband Omar Bravo-Pavia at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, has operated a distribution center and pick-up point for its affordable groceries program, “Lifeline Groceries,” out of a lot at 49-09 5th St. in Long Island City. The site is owned by Plaxall, a family-run firm that owns multiple properties in the area.
The group is required to vacate the 5,000-square-foot lot this October following the expiry of its current agreement with Plaxall. Plaxall has provided Connected Chef with the site rent-free since 2020.
Plaxall granted Connected Chef permission to clean and renovate the vacant lot five years ago, and the group began using the space as a packing and distribution center for its operations, including its weekly food stand at Queensbridge Houses, connecting local residents with black and Latino farmers.
Connected Chef alleges that it is being “evicted” from the site to facilitate development at the location amid “zoning changes” at the lot. However, there have been no zoning changes listed on the city’s land use maps and no permits have been filed with the Department of Building for new development at the location. The site is also not included in the OneLIC neighborhood plan.
Furthermore, the non-profit has not been issued with an eviction notice, just an e-mail requesting the group to leave.
In an email sent last November, Plaxall informed Connected Chef that it would need to vacate the location by October 2025, stating the company was “moving forward with construction” at the site.
According to emails reviewed by the Queens Post, Plaxall initially believed the nonprofit would occupy the space for only “a few months” when it renovated the lot in 2020—not several years.
Connected Chef representatives said Thursday that they have since requested access to one of Plaxall’s other vacant lots in Long Island City but have yet to receive a response.
Despite not receiving a formal notice and the property being provided rent-free, the nonprofit’s leaders said they consider the situation an “eviction.”
A number of Connected Chef supporters held a rally at the Plaxall-owned lot on Thursday, April 10, calling for support in finding a new space in the community. Several advocates held signs bearing slogans such as “Food is a human right” during the event.
Advocates at Thursday’s rally. Photo: Shane O’Brien
Calichio said Connected Chef is now seeking assistance in securing a 500-square-foot warehouse in Long Island City to maintain a presence in the neighborhood. She noted that this is the minimum space required to continue operating the organization’s farm stand at Queensbridge Houses and serve local residents through its distribution center.
Ideally, the nonprofit hopes to find a space similar to its current site, though Calichio acknowledged that locating a sufficiently sized facility in LIC could be challenging.
In the meantime, Connected Chef is also exploring options for a larger indoor space outside the neighborhood to handle packaging and distribution for the rest of Queens.
The group is seeking around $450,000 in funding for a new indoor distribution space and packaging center. The organization has grown significantly since its founding, with public documents showing that it generated $1.14 million in revenue in grants in 2023 and had $719,000 in assets.
A visibly emotional Calichio said Connected Chef has brought thousands of people together since it was founded five years ago, providing almost five million pounds of food that has “directly impacted” the lives of over 48,000 people. She pointed to how the non-profit has worked as a “mutual aid” organization by working with other non-profits and BIPOC farmers to address food insecurity in Queens.
Connected Chef employs a sliding-scale payment system, allowing people to pay for groceries based on their household income. It also aims to provide dignified and culturally appropriate solutions for people facing food insecurity.
Calichio said she could have never imagined how much Connected Chef would have grown over the past five years, noting that the non-profit started with a delivery to 18 families during the pandemic and now serves 1,260 individuals every week.
“Lifeline Groceries started as a simple response to a global problem, and in only five years, with a team of seven people, we’ve brought food to over 48,000 Queens residents,” Calichio said Thursday.
She called on elected officials and members of the local community to help find a new space for Connected Chef in LIC so that the organization can continue to provide for local families.
Erycka Montoya, a candidate for Council District 21 and a board member at Connected Chef, recalled signing up for the organization’s program and praised Connected Chef for feeding thousands of people “with dignity” during the pandemic.
Montoya said it is pivotal that Connected Chef finds a new home at a time when the federal government is implementing funding cuts that highlight the importance of the non-profit’s work.
“Right now, our federal government is cutting funds and people are concerned about how they’re going to feed families if they’re not going to have a job,” Montoya said. “We must find ways to really make sure that we are serving people, we are hearing people on what they need, and that we are coming together once again.”
Evie Hantzopoulos, Chairperson for Community Board 1 and executive director of Queens Botanical Garden, MCed Thursday’s press conference and said it is a “slap in the face” that Connected Chef is being “kicked out.”
“It is a slap in the face to humanity that, at this moment, they are being kicked out with any kind of support or consideration for this critical work that they have done,” Hantzopoulos said Thursday.
Calichio said spaces like Connected Chef’s food distribution lot offer an important antithesis to continued development in Long Island City, allowing long-term residents to afford to live in their neighborhood.
“As high rises go up, communities and culture get erased,” Calichio said. “With gentrification comes whitewashing and some sanitation of a community.”
Memo Salazar, co-chair of the Western Queens Community Land Trust (WQCLT), a group advocating for affordable housing and buildings, blasted the policies of New York City that “favor the rich and affluent and too often ignore everyone else.”
Salazar, as co-chair of WQCLT, has led an ongoing push for the massive 561,000-square-foot Department of Education building at 44-36 Vernon Blvd. to be converted into the Queensboro People’s Space, a bid to create a permanently affordable hub for small businesses, artists, and vendors.
Memo Salazar speaks at Thursday’s rally. Photo: Shane O’Brien
Salazar said that organizations such as Connected Chef should be able to operate out of the space.
“We’ve been fighting for five years. If they had (agreed) five years ago, we would now be able to tell Kim and the group, come over, you have a home.”
Salazar said Connected Chef has helped provide for numerous working-class black and brown families over the past five years and said it would be “systemic racism” if the group was unable to continue serving those families.
Plaxall declined to comment on the issue.
Around 650 people have signed an online petition showcasing their support for Connected Chef’s distribution center.
