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On September 23, Grammy-winning and legendary hip-hop artist Nas returned to his hometown in Queens, New York to headline the Concert to Feed NYC at Forest Hills Stadium following the chart-topping release of King’s Disease II. Proceeds from the concert benefitted City Harvest, New York City’s first and largest food rescue organization, and will help the organization rescue and deliver nutritious food during a time of historic food insecurity across the city. Native New Yorker, world renowned mastro, record producer, and creator of the groundbreaking series, “Pass The Mic,” DJ Cassidy, kicked off the night with an electric hour long musical journey celebrating New York.

Celebrities in attendance included television personality and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel, model and City Harvest Champion Brooks Nader, and rapper and record-producer Slick Rick. The Concert to Feed NYC also featured VIP Speakeasy suites and mini-lounges with menus curated by City Harvest Food Council Members, including chef Angie Mar from her latest, Les Trois Chevaux, and exclusive culinary offerings from Matt Katakis’s Butcher Bar, Simon Kim and David Shim’s COTE Korean Steakhouse, Roni Mazumdar and Chintan Prandya’s Rahi, and Melba Wilson’s Melba’s.  They were joined by Nas’s favorite, Lauren Gustus’s Sweet Chick.

After the concert, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards honored Nas with an official Key to the Borough and proclamation. A longtime supporter of City Harvest, Nas received the key alongside 10 frontline City Harvest workers, who worked tirelessly during the height of the pandemic to rescue and deliver more than 200 million pounds of nutritious food to their neighbors across New York City—an unprecedented effort that was more than double the amount of food the organization rescued and delivered over the same time period pre-pandemic.

As New York City begins its long recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, countless New Yorkers will continue to feel the economic pain of the pandemic for  years to come. The Concert to Feed NYC helped support City Harvest’s efforts to ensure that no New Yorker will have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.

“We are grateful to our longtime friend Nas and to DJ Cassidy for partnering with City Harvest to raise enough funds to help us feed nearly 2.5M New Yorkers struggling to put meals on their tables due to the pandemic,” said Jilly Stephens, CEO of City Harvest. “At a moment when food insecurity rates continue to be at record highs throughout our city, we are proud to partner with them to bring fresh, nutritious food to thousands of families across the five boroughs.”

During the pandemic, the need for food surged across the city—soaring 41% among all New Yorkers and a shocking 53% among children. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, City Harvest has worked tirelessly to rescue and deliver millions of pounds of food for the growing number of New Yorkers who are struggling to put meals on their tables.

Samlyn Capital founder, Rob Pohly, who underwrote all venue-related expenses for the event, said, “I’m thrilled that the Concert to Feed NYC raised enough to help feed XX New Yorkers in need. It was inspiring to see City Harvest, Nas, DJ Cassidy, members of New York City’s restaurant community, and every day New Yorkers come together to help feed our neighbors in need during this critical time.”

Special thanks to Citi, Diageo, DKNY, Horizon Media, and The Mets for their dedicated support of the Concert To Feed NYC!

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On September 18th, 2021, the 7th Anniversary of the September 18th HWPL World Peace Summit was held online. This year’s event dealt with the progress of international efforts and the plans to promote the peace agenda in the ‘New Normal’ era shifting from the post-Covid to the with-Covid.

The organizer of the event, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), has been conducting citizen-centered peacebuilding activities to create “a culture of peace” advocated by the UN and international community to set up an environment of peaceful coexistence since the World Peace Summit in 2014. 

This event presented the concerted action for sustainable peace with cases from various sectors such as international law, religion, education, and the media. Also, it addressed international cooperation to overcome the current crisis that threatens the coexistence and harmony of mankind, which has come to the fore during the pandemic.

Peacebuilding efforts led by HWPL to establish legal foundations and international norms for peace through connecting global actors are embodied with its effort to advocate the international law for peace by drafting the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW).

“The DPCW Handbook enables us to systematically teach international law and the essence of peace to these students and others. It enables them to become lecturers in the following course,” said Dr. Mizanur Rahman, Chief Advisor of Asian Association of Law Professors (AALP) as well as Former Chair of National Human Rights Commission, Bangladesh (NHRC-BD), highlighting the need to encourage public discourse on peacebuilding by academia. 

In addition to the basic principles of peace assigned to nations to uphold, the DPCW has presented principles that should be dealt with in the present era, such as prohibiting the use of force, fostering religious freedom, and civic participation to spread a culture of peace. In particular, it states that efforts for peace come from all members of the global society by identifying not only nation-states but also international organizations and all citizens as the main actors of building peace.

“We know that it will be hard to achieve peace if we are not all working for it. This is why we need to encourage children, the youth, and adults to prevent verbal abuse and work towards reducing inequalities and eradicating disparities to achieve a more equitable, stable, and peaceful world,” said Former President of Ecuador, Dr. Rosalia Arteaga Serrano.

Hon. Octavia Alfred, Minister of Education, Human Resource Planning, Vocational Training, and National Excellence of Dominica, said that the students learn the necessity of mutual coexistence and cooperation through HWPL peace education and pass on to their friends, parents, and teachers what they have learned. She addressed it also deals with concepts that can develop psychosocial competency skills, such as respect for diversity, order, conflict resolution, and negotiation, so it is being used for teacher’s training.

“Our objective is to end wars in the global village and establish peace and make it a permanent legacy for future generations. Without peace, everything that we managed to build would be destroyed. … We should not let this happen. So, to achieve peace, shouldn’t we achieve our objective with the same spirit?” said Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL at the event.