Few cities boost a more thriving food vendor culture than New York City: On any given day at least pre-pandemic the city and its boroughs were brimming with pushcarts and food trucks serving everything from Tijuana-style birria beef tacos to bouncy chee cheong fun noodles.

But the pandemic has been rough on the citys food vendors, many of whom are immigrants. Much of the vendor community is ineligible for government support such as paid sick leave, unemployment insurance or even most loans and grants offered to small businesses.

This COVID-19 economic crisis has been particularly hard on Asian Americans in these informal service positions.

Across the country, Asian-owned small businesses have taken an outsized hit during the pandemic , grappling with record job and income loss and consumer prejudice toward Asians fueled by racist rhetoric about the origins of the coronavirus.

In March of last year, unemployment claims by Asian Americans in New York state spiked by 6,900% by far the largest percentage increase experienced by any one racial or ethnic group.

In this time of need, one group stepped in with a solution, at least for food vendors: Over the last year, the Urban Justice Centers Street Vendor Project through major funding from the Stavros Niarchos Foundations $100 million COVID-19 relief effort paid more than 90 vendors to get back in their trucks and cook free meals for food-insecure New Yorkers.

From August to May, roughly 18,780 meals were distributed at sites in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

This project has been able to one, support small businesses; and two, be able to provide hot and nutritious meals and culturally appropriate meals to a lot of the immigrant community, said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director at the Street Vendor Project.