It’s just a handful of New York City neighborhoods—some 10 square miles in the northern part of Queens—but it serves the cuisines of the world. On Sunday morning in a Corona neighborhood plaza, an outdoor mass in Spanish draws churro carts and juice vendors offering their wares to parishioners passing by. In Jackson Heights—the most culturally diverse place in the world, where an estimated 167 languages are spoken—crowded thoroughfares are lined with eateries and grocery stores from around the globe: Colombian bakeries and Nepalese noodle shops, Bangladeshi bazaars and Afghan cafés.

Yet for many people who live here, food hardship—a lack of reliable access to enough affordable and nutritious food—is a chronic concern that’s only worsened during the pandemic.

In November 2019,