Since March, the couple behind destitute philanthropic Backpacks for the Street has given out 10,000 knapsacks — containing in excess of 180 gallons of sanitizer, more than 16,000 veils and upward of 2,000 suppers — to the most in-need New Yorkers. Jeffrey Newman and Jayson Conner’s liberality even stretches out to dislodged pets, which they’ll help when they can.
“We’ve been on the cutting edges of COVID now since the second it hit, working 15-hour days, seven days per week to support the destitute,” Newman, 52, told The newsnetwork of his and 42-year-old life partner Conner’s effort gathering. They began Backpacks in 2018 however genuinely expanded commitment after the Covid pandemic started in March.
“With the increase of COVID and winter, we are not easing back down either,” Newman added.
The pair work out of a U-Haul storeroom on Houston Street and scatter their conceivably life-sparing contributions by van.
They realize firsthand how hard it is correct now for those without cover: When the two met 17 years prior, Conner was destitute himself.
“I realize the shame they’re experiencing . . . it harms,” Conner told media as the Covid began closing down the city over the mid year. “I know the agony that they’re experiencing.”