Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Joining me on the show today is a special guest, Simone Policano.

Simone is one of the co-founders of an organization called Invisible Hands.

There are a non-profit volunteer group that's been delivering groceries and other essential

items to the elderly, the disabled, and vulnerable population

since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic this spring. They've been profiled in a number of

local and national news outlets, and they were recently selected for one of the Manhattan

Institute's annual Civil Society Awards, a $25,000 prize given to them

and four other organizations, which you've heard us talk about on this show before. As America is

enduring a second wave of the virus, we thought that this would be a good time to get the perspective of someone who's been helping

organize relief efforts in our area, the type we've been seeing taking place across the country.

Simone, thanks very much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to talk to you guys.

Why don't you, for starters,

tell us how you got involved with this enterprise. And you've got two co-founders. Is that it?

Yes. Well, first of all, I'm very flattered to hear you call it an enterprise. I mean, I think unlike

most nonprofit organizations, invisible

hands started entirely by accident, which is, you know, I think not how it normally goes.

But, you know, the way it all started was I'm a native New Yorker, you know, born and raised,

been here for 26 years. And I was walking home. This was, you know,

March, God, I want to say 12th or something. So we were, New York were starting to feel a little

scary, but it wasn't, you know, we weren't in like full lockdown mode yet. And I was walking

...