Helping a vulnerable community in Reading (Pennsylvania) at risk of social exclusion and hunger motivated the entrepreneur Moises Abreu, a New Yorker of Dominican origin, to distribute free street food in the midst of the pandemic.

Since 2020, every Wednesday, about 60 people come to his business, where he sets up a table and hands out all kinds of food to anyone who needs it. This is Abreu’s way of contributing to a small city, with a mostly Hispanic population, which he deeply appreciates and which he seeks to repay for all the appreciation it has given him, over the years, as the owner of a small store.

“I have taken a lot of affection for the community that has brought that out of me, to share with them and that is why I have dedicated myself on Wednesdays at 12 o’clock to handing out food to whomever”, Abreu said. “I am giving my part, because without the people of this community I would not be here, so this is a sign of gratitude to them”, he added.

This testimony of solidarity reached the ears of Colombian journalist José Martínez, who without hesitation went to 6th Street to hear the story and tell it on WFMZ-TV 69 News Edición en Español, for which he works.

An Emmy-Worthy Report

“He (Abreu) started this project during the pandemic, and although at that time there was a lot of aid here, there was also fear within the undocumented communities to access those subsidies because they thought they could call Immigration, or that the police could ask for papers and deport them”, said the journalist in an interview with AL DÍA.

Abreu, said the journalist, “what he did was to create a safe space, where they don’t ask for anything at all, where you don’t have to fill out any paperwork, you just get in line, they give you your lunch and that’s it”.

Martinez’s story had such a media impact that it was nominated for a Mid Atlantic Regional Emmy Award in the ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion News’ category. At the awards gala, held in early October in Philadelphia, the young Colombian’s piece competed with five others and won.

“I didn't think it was going to have this impact, and what I liked the most is that it is a positive story within all the negative, because it inspires other people to support the society in which they live”, Martínez said.

Committed to Representation

Based in the United States since 2015, Martinez holds the banner of participation and inclusion in his daily journalistic work. “I believe in everything that has to do with representation and I do my job the best I can trying to make people feel identified with those stories; of course, when I have the opportunity to do more human stories, not like shootings and so on”, he said.

He also pointed out that “before I thought that these stories only mattered to that city, which is very small, but I realize that they are powerful stories because they cross seas and rivers, and people from other parts feel identified with this same situation”.

Aware of the responsibility and the unspoken commitment that a Latino journalist has with migrants, José Martínez does not believe that an Emmy award will change his life. On the contrary, he hopes to continue to be a trusted face for a community that expects its reality to be made visible with respect and dignity.