Nanuet's Dragon’s Den Hosts Soup Kitchen

Dragon’s Den Mixed Martial Arts in Nanuet offered hot food to those most in need by hosting a soup kitchen event on Sunday afternoon. Owners Allan and Shari Bernstein were inspired to host the event after learning how much hardship there is in the area.

“We’ve just donated some extra food that we had over at one of the soup kitchens, and we found out in Rockland alone that one soup kitchen fed 18,000 families," said Bernstein. "We realized that there’s a huge need here so we figured we would try to do something involved in that area.”

Bernstein is no stranger to helping out and giving to those in need. The school participates in several charity events throughout the year, including an event in which they helped one of their own students.

“We do a lot of events, one big one was we had a student who’s house burned down in a fire and he had run back in and saved his father, so we’ve done a fund raiser for that and helped him get a new house,” said Bernstein. “So every year we try to do at least one or two big charity events where we get the school involved and teach the kids about the importance of volunteer work and being a part of the community.”

New student Randy Kay has been with the school only a short time, but also feels that the soup kitchen is an important way to contribute.

“Sensei said in class to come out and support and help out, and I feel pretty blessed so it was the least I could do on a Sunday,” said Kay, also noting that participating in the event was important on a personal level as well. “Sensei … got me really excited about class, and as a slightly older guy he brought out some things in me that I didn’t know were still there. Learning good life lessons, you can still learn, and martial arts is a way to do it.”

Any leftover food will be donated to the food kitchen at Christ Episcopal Church in Suffern and collected canned goods will go to People to People food pantry in Nanuet.