Fort Greene
This food is cooked with love!
Visitors to the Brooklyn Navy Yard can grab tasty treats at its new food service kiosk, Local Bites — a business-development program partnering with the New York City Housing Authority.
Residents at public-housing complexes across the five boroughs who have graduated from the city’s Food Business Pathways, an entrepreneurial education program, kicked off running their own concession counters on the ground floor of the Fort Greene yard’s Building 77.
Operating a kiosk right in the heart of the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s food manufacturing hub is a dream come true that will help boost business, according to one local entrepreneurial chef, who owns a boutique dessert catering company in Kings County.
“It feels like such an accomplishment to have an opportunity to be the first business at Local Bites,” said Luquana McGriff of A Cake Baked in Brooklyn. “I grew up in Brooklyn, watching the Brooklyn Navy Yard from afar, and I am thrilled to have my first retail location be so close to my home, to my kitchen, to my community.”
The participants will rotate serving their small bites every two months, with each one offering a different taste.
The first month will feature McGriff’s creative cakes, and the next chef to take the helm is Queens resident Brandi Covington, who owns Cooking With Corey.
Borough wide
Let’s hear it for the board
Kudos to Brian Mooney and Kevin Shine on their election to the Board of Trustees at the Empire State’s largest mutual savings bank, the Ridgewood Savings Bank.
Mooney, who currently works as the Regional Sales Director at a private technology company that delivers data infrastructure business solutions, also serves on the Development Committee of St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation awarded Mooney the honor of Knight Commander for his devotion to financing research that discovers and develops cures for childhood cancers.
Shine, who is currently the Senior Vice President of a Fortune 500 technology and communications company’s Information Technology branch, also serves on the National Board of Directors of Swim Across America — a do-good group that funds cancer research, and the Board of Trustees of MercyFirst — an organization that helps families and children in crisis.
Both Shine and Mooney, who will assume their posts on Jan. 1, will be great additions to the financial institution that was founded in 1921 and currently has 35 branches, said its chairman, president, and chief executive officer.
“Their significant, yet diverse, experience in the areas of IT development, support and delivery, along with their Fortune 500 company experiences will provide invaluable governance and oversight to the Bank’s management,” said Leonard Stekol. “Their firm dedication to charitable service throughout the local communities should strengthen the bank’s ongoing mission to remain a premier, community-centered, mutual savings bank.”
And as Mooney and Shine step up, Mary Ledermann — who served on the bank’s board of trustees for 19 years — will retire at the end of the year, according to Stekol, who said she was invaluable to the bank.
“It has been a privilege to have Ms. Ledermann, with her continued connection to our local communities, offer management her personal and professional guidance.” — Julianne Cuba
Marine Park
She said yes!
Standing O congratulates Shira Toladano and Morris Torkieh for their Nov. 18 engagement, and the James Madison High School marching band for providing the soundtrack to a moment the couple will never forget!
The mother of the groom, Marlene Torkieh, said her future daughter-in-law was pleasantly surprised to find about 30 band members playing tunes in Marine Park — and then her future husband waiting with a proposal nearby.
“She loved it,” said Torkieh, who lives in Midwood. “She was shocked and surprised.”
Torkieh arranged for the surprise for her daughter-in-law, who she knew would be strolling with a friend in the park.
The band members played classic marching hits — including the “Rocky” theme song, “Crazy Train,” and “Seven Nation Army” — to lure the bride-to-be over to the area where her would-be fiancé was waiting to pop the question, according to the marching band director.
“We were supposed to provide noise to lure her over to our general area where he was waiting for her with a big bouquet of roses,” said Lauren Callahan.
The happy couple is set to wed Feb. 19, and Standing O wishes them a lifetime of love.— Julianne McShane
