New York International FC Supports EV Loves NYC Bid To Tackle Food Insecurity

New York International Football Club (NYIFC) was established in 2019 when, in the midst of its first season, a global pandemic hit. Around the same time, Sasha Allenby and Mammad Mahmoodi founded the EV Loves NYC kitchen in East Village, Manhattan, to distribute meals around the city at a time of crisis and increased food insecurity.

Three years later, the two institutions have forged a close relationship built on common values and community work. NYIFC will wear a training shirt, released this month, bearing the EV Loves NYC logo.

Various activities throughout the city maintain links between the two organisations, not least football matches and volunteer work in the kitchen, but also other things such as fundraising efforts for related causes and small-sided soccer games between themselves and other like-minded groups.

“It keeps that connection and camaraderie going,” says Sasha. “It means we can bring our soup kitchen team to experience some football, and they bring the team to the kitchen to work with us.

“It’s just that connectivity that really just keeps sparking itself.

“A good chunk of each of the new shirts sold goes to the kitchen as well, so it’s just continuously perpetuating that cycle of support.”

Many issues that came to the fore during the pandemic were there prior, and have not gone away since. Indeed, Sasha and Mammad had already been volunteering at soup kitchens and delivering food to local shelters before 2020.

As it reaches its three-year anniversary, EV Loves NYC has made over 350,000 meals for those in need throughout the city, receiving help at its base at the Sixth Street Community Center from New York’s soccer-supporting community, including NYIFC.

It was perhaps no surprise that NYIFC and EV Loves NYC eventually crossed paths.

Such a sense of community and a volunteer ethos can come naturally to soccer clubs, especially to those in lower divisions in the professional leagues and at amateur and semi-pro levels.

There are two Major League Soccer clubs with New York in their name, the Red Bulls and City, but when people think of soccer in New York the first name that comes to mind will often be the New York Cosmos.

It was via the Cosmos Supporters Collective that NYIFC and EV Loves NYC were introduced.

The Cosmos has roots in the city having been formed in 1970 and becoming one of the most recognisable names in American soccer during the NASL era, thanks in no small part to the signing of Brazilian global star, Pelé.

The most recent incarnation of the Cosmos, formed in 2010, was playing in the National Independent Soccer Association as New York International FC was taking its first steps on the field.

But in January 2021 the Cosmos paused operations, citing the ongoing pandemic as the reason for their hiatus. The club is yet to press play and return to action, but Cosmos fans have remained active in the city with some helping out at EV Loves NYC and related organisations, as well as turning up to support NYIFC.

During a report on the local Spectrum News NY1 channel in June 2020 that focused on Sasha’s volunteer work at the Hungry Monks Rescue Truck in Ridgewood, Queens (the original inspiration for the EV Loves NYC run by Father Mike Lopez), a Mads Stokkelien Cosmos jersey could be seen in the background as volunteers helped prepare meals.

Groups of Cosmos fans were also part of the soccer community in New York that showed solidarity and support following the tragic death of Italian NYIFC player and founding member Davide Giri, who was fatally stabbed one night after training in December 2021.

The international soccer community in New York, of which Davide was a part, came together in his memory.

This included a 5k run/walk in support of the Davide Giri Prize Memorial Fund at the Computer Science Department at Columbia University, where he was a PhD candidate.

The shared values of various like-minded strands of the community Davide so loved now extended even further, as more Cosmos fans, including many involved with EV Loves NYC, were made aware of this new team.

“Davide was interested in multicultural cities and diversity and those types of places, which is why he loved New York,” NYIFC co-founder Gary Philpott told soccer reporter Michael Battista in December 2021.

“He studied in China, Chicago, Italy, and he always wanted to come back here because of that multicultural diversification that New York has.

“It was something that warmed his heart.”

This internationalism and cosmopolitan ethos applied within the New York area is reflected in the Cosmos, NYIFC, and EV Loves NYC—not only in the names of these institutions, but also through their actions. It was almost inevitable they all eventually came together.

When the Cosmos went on hiatus, many supporters wanted to continue to represent the club in the community even if their team was no longer playing soccer.

Volunteering in local soup kitchens to help tackle food insecurity was one of the ways they did so.

“For them, it was their social belonging,” says Mammad Mahmoodi, himself a soccer fan and Cosmos follower. “There was a social connection, there was this grassroots movement.

“So they were like, let’s keep this grassroots movement and move it to another organization that does meaningful work.

“It couldn’t have been a better time, because New York International was just formed. The name is perfect. I think over 90% of the players are first-generation immigrants themselves.

“All these values stacked up very well and that was why that connection and that transition was so seamless and so easy. That was why we then became such close partners in such a short space of time.

“It’s two organizations that are helping each other grow simultaneously.”

Those involved with NYIFC, including some players, began to volunteer at EV Loves NYC along with the Cosmos fans, joining the existing volunteer groups.

NYIFC has also raised money for the kitchen at their games and at a tournament organised at The Ground on Madison Street in New York’s Chinatown neighborhood.

“It was another great event,” says Mammad. “A lot of people that evening came again and became a part of our community as well.

“They become a part of the community and we all grow together.”

The efforts continue and the movement grows thanks to the work of its advocates and volunteers.

It further raises awareness of the issue of food insecurity, which can affect a wide range of a city or country’s population, even beyond the more visibly obvious areas of need.

Meanwhile, the bond between NYIFC and EV Loves NYC grows stronger, with New York Cosmos supporters among those playing their part, as local soccer once again shows it is well positioned, even beyond the sport itself, to assist the communities in which it resides.