By SIDDHARTHA HARMALKAR
JACKSON HEIGHTS — Over 250 residents from Jackson Heights and nearby neighborhoods came together last weekend around a dining table that was so long it had to be split in two to make way for an intersection.
Attendees rallied groups of their neighbors to join them on Saturday, June 6th to enjoy handmade kebabs, pastries, curries, salads, dips, and desserts spread out over dozens of picnic tables.
“It’s all about bringing your neighbors out to meet your neighbors, breaking bread, and sharing food. Food is the great equalizer,” said Dana Kuznetzkoff, an event manager at The Longest Table, a group that helps local hosts across the country put together similar events.
The first Longest Table was organized in Manhattan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago, said Kuznetzkoff. Since then, they’ve held the free event to bring people together for a shared meal and conversation in more than 30 cities across the country.
Saturday marked the first time a Longest Table event was organized in Jackson Heights.
Midori Yamamura, an Associate Professor of Art History at the City University of New York at Kingsborough Community College, had the idea to bring the Longest Table to Jackson Heights after seeing it online.
“It’s just a simple way to bring people together, because we don’t really know people. We see people passing by, but we don’t have much of a chance to get to know each other. There’s so many different people from all walks of life, and everybody’s welcome, as long as they have something to offer,” said Yuka Yamashita, who helped organize the event after Yamamura reached out to her.
Yamamura, Yamashita, and dozens of “table captains” who heard about the event through word of mouth or flyers found 10 neighbors each to bring to their section of the two block-long table.
Yamashita, who lives on 34th Avenue, said that local groups all over the neighborhood helped the event become reality, including Jackson Heights Beautification, Alliance for Paseo Parks, and 34th Avenue Open Streets Coalition. “Those organizations helped us tremendously,” she said, adding that community support from local businesses helped as well.
“It’s really nice to have this type of community gathering here, because food is one of the things that brings all of the diversity together,” said Paul Jochico, who was born and raised in Elmhurst and whose family is from Mindanao, the southernmost island in the Philippines.
Jochico’s table was covered in a woven rattan tablecloth adorned with patterns that he said highlighted the similarities between Indonesian and southern Filipino culture. The spread featured chicken longganisa, a sweet and savory Filipino sausage; laing, a Filipino dish composed of dried taro leaves; and pandesal, a classic Filipino bread roll that is typically eaten for breakfast.
Organizers said that the table’s location was an intentional choice to demonstrate the concept of Paseo Park, a vision to transform the 26-block open street along 34th Avenue from 69th Street to Junction Boulevard into a permanent public park.
Eduardo Llinás, a volunteer with the Alliance of Paseo Parks, said that the organization was formed after the success of the Open Street program, which emerged out of a collective need for safe gathering space and community connection when Jackson Heights became one of the epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Saturday, there was more than enough food to go around as attendees relaxed under the shade of the trees surrounding 34th Avenue, and volunteers from Brooklyn-based organization Big Reuse walked around collecting scraps to compost as the event wrapped up.
“We just wanted to support the community,” said Paz Tanjuaquio, co-founder of Topaz Arts, a nonprofit arts center in Woodside that donated butcher paper to cover the table and gathered volunteers to help set up the event, adding that they hope to create a similar event in Woodside.
Organizers expressed gratitude for City councilmember Shekhar Krishnan — who advocated for Paseo Parks while running for councilmember — for connecting them with the local groups that helped organize the event.
Krishnan, who advocated for Paseo Park while running for City Council, joined the tables as the event wound down to greet organizers and constituents. He said that his office partnered with The Longest Table because he considers the open street to be a beloved space.
“It brings us all together every season of the year. And what we’re showing is how it can be used for so many different things. For events like these that bring our community together, to exercise, to have a cup of chai with your neighbors,” Krishnan said.
“This is all us working together to re-envision this open space as a permanent linear park. And that’s what we’re working towards.”
