• Date: June 30, 2020
  • Place: Newark, NJ
  • Interviewers:
    • Ezekiel Medina
  • Recommended Citation: Happuck Alves, Karenn. Oral History Interview, June 30, 2020, by Ezekiel Medina, Page #, Rutgers Oral History Archives. Online: Insert URL (Last Accessed: Insert Date).
  • Permission:

    Permission to quote from this transcript must be obtained from the Rutgers Oral History Archives. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Oral History Interview
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Interview Summary:

Karenn Happuck Alves, an undergraduate at Rutgers, co-founded an organization to distribute food to local families during the pandemic. She was born in New York and moved to Brazil at the age of fourteen. In the interview, she describes how living in Brazil helped her gain new life experiences and contrasts life in Brazil to life in New York. Following this period, she moved to Newark, New Jersey. After the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Alves and two other individuals helped launch Amigos Por Newark (Friends for Newark) to provide food for those in need. The group operates in partnership with Mantena Global Care. Throughout the pandemic, Amigos Por Newark has provided food to low-income families in Newark and surrounding communities. She discusses the hardships she has witnessed and experienced during the pandemic and the impact of the pandemic and recession on Latino/a and Brazilian communities. She also recounts how Covid-19 has affected her family, along with how the virus has been treated by the public.