Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker • Hacker News Board

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#181

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

alexgodin wrote: post #118

jsonne wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of 2018 40 million Americans received more than 57 billion dollars in SNAP. It seems like largely the US has been and will continue to keep people fed. Note also that this is just 1 Federal program and doesn't mention the multitude of other state level and city level programs that exist as well as private charities, religious organizations, etc. Please note I am not saying the system is perfect, shouldn't be expan…

The average SNAP recipient receives about $4 a day and sees their balance run out after just 17 days. This is not enough.

I don't think SNAP is supposed to always cover 100% of food expenses. If you're near the cutoff point for benefits, you get some allowance, but you're expected to cover some of the food cost from your income. You would of course use your SNAP benefits first, since they are not fungible, so it is not surprising that you would run out before the end of the month. This does not mean that such households are unable to afford food for the remainder of the month, it just means that they have to pay for it themselves.

I just went and put some really sad numbers into a calculator and it told me I qualified for $500/mo in benefits for a family of three. This is definitely sufficient to provide three nutritious meals per day for three people anywhere in the country.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#182

Post by londons_explore » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

Free food for all sounds more communist than capitalist...

Not necessarily bad, but there are all kinds of flaws with planned economies, and if we slip into one without thinking what we're doing, we might repeat mistakes of history.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#183

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #155

alexgodin wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average SNAP recipient receives about $4 a day and sees their balance run out after just 17 days. This is not enough.

This is somewhat misleadingly worded: it makes it sound like what they receive each month is 17*4 = $68. The actual average per month is $127/recipient. Arguably this is still insufficient, though.

[deleted]

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#184

Post by thanatropism » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:35 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #140

oorza wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving people money won't solve this problem. The food desert phenomenon is very real and very unsolved.

Hot take: You need a food equivalent of Medicare, where you can walk into the equivalent of a public good supermarket (Aldi would be my example, perhaps adjacent to a library and community center, with a "dine in" meal area), and walk out only with healthy foods or a healthy meal. Regarding food deserts, you need to force the distribution chain where it isn't, even if it isn't profitable (we don't look at the profita…

The purpose of Coca-Cola is to sell fizzy sugar drinks. Why would it be to blame for food deserts or people not managing their purse strings?

I mean, if you want to ban Coca-Cola (like many want to ban marijuana), that's sort of a valid belief?

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#185

Post by NovemberWhiskey » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:35 PM UTC

anthonypasq wrote: post #128

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh no. One of the primary reasons why kosher is more expensive and logistically difficult than some other dietary requirements are the requirements for separation of kitchen space, rules around treatment of utensils and so on.

no one making vegetarian food is going to use utensils that have touched meat. So I dont see how vegetarian food could not be kosher. Am i missing something?

Are the pots and pans used for dairy, meat and vegetarian foods ever washed in the same commercial dishwasher? This is impermissible in many kosher traditions.

I invite anyone who thinks keeping a kosher kitchen is straightforward to do some quick web searches on the topic.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#186

Post by somacore » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:35 PM UTC

mysterydip wrote: post #168

pjc50 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 40 million Americans received more than 57 billion dollars in SNAP. 57bn / 40m = $1425 $1425 / 365 = $3.90 While that's doable, it's really not a lot.

What's enough? We have a grocery budget of $500 a month for a family of 5. That's $3.30 per person per day.

You're assuming a lot about people's ability to thoughtfully shop at a grocery store once per week. It isn't just about money per person.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#187

Post by jshevek » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

DiffEq wrote: post #80

tren-hard wrote: post #18

One of those things I wish could out last this virus. We'd be so much better off as a society if we could at least keep our people fed. The comments in here seem a little negative currently but this is great news. Think of all the people in NYC who didn't have access to clean and regular food before the virus.

With more people obese than not in this country, keeping people well fed is not a problem that we have.

I am a fan of fasting, keto, and IF. But a sudden loss of daily calories for the unprepared can be severely physiologically damaging for many, no matter how much you have stored.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#188

Post by Melting_Harps » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:37 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #165

Melting_Harps wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Feeding people will always be a matter of profit: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-dairy-... . I agree, sadly; I have actually been focused on mitigating the losses inherit in the Supply Chain itself, as on a solely Calorie basis we could easily feed the entire population, and is for the most part already at a post-scarcity level despite all the turmoil with Factory Farming and especially State…

>[...] Dairy Farmers being asked to dump milk to maintain prices via artificial scarcity That's not the impression I got from the article. They're dumping milk because the supply chain can't transport any more milk, not because of cartel-like behavior to jack up prices like you suggest. >the milk supply chain has seen a host of disruptions that are preventing dairy farmers from getting their products to market. [...]…

> That's not the impression I got from the article. They're dumping milk because the supply chain can't transport any more milk, not because of cartel-like behavior to jack up prices like you suggest.

I knew I should have made that point clearer before I hit submit but I had to get started on something else.

I was making an allegorical reference to how dumping milk can become commonplace, as was done in WWII all while food was being rationed and such. Things we still to this day find abhorant, but can easily be normalized.

I saw how farmers in the EU were paid not to harvest citrus in order maintain prices and supply in other member nations and bountiful fruit orchards were left neglected, I saw how massive amounts of cucumbers were destroyed (without being accurately tested) in Spain when an outbreak happened in the EU, only find out they came from Germany after the destruction. Same with Horse meat etc... my point being that that bureaucratic meddling distorts the ability for producers and consumers to be able to find the most efficient way to exchanged good and services, because of a series of obtuse and poorly formulated regulations and this more the norm than most people think.

The broken food supply chain is the best example of that, its seriously a miracle it has 'worked' at all thus far if I'm honest.

*Can provide links later

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#189

Post by ping_pong » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:38 PM UTC

b34r wrote: post #178

ping_pong wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Testing daily is science fiction right now. My assumption is that they check the temperature and that's about it.

It’s possible with the 5 minute Abbott machines that are starting to be distributed

Those are meant for doctor's offices because they only do the tests one at a time. They wouldn't be useful for testing an entire group of workers every day unless they have dozens of them. The problem is that the US is only getting 5500 of them.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#190

Post by kurthr » Fri, Apr 03, 2020, 3:39 PM UTC

mysterydip wrote: post #168

pjc50 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 40 million Americans received more than 57 billion dollars in SNAP. 57bn / 40m = $1425 $1425 / 365 = $3.90 While that's doable, it's really not a lot.

What's enough? We have a grocery budget of $500 a month for a family of 5. That's $3.30 per person per day.

We used to have a much lower grocery bill in a very expensive part of the country... for nice stuff! But now we eat out a lot less and our grocery bill has doubled cooking at home all the time (and no lunches for either of us at work).

I'd say it matters a lot where you live and how you live. It's easy to live on far less than 100$/person_week in NY (or Tokyo, or Paris) with a tiny fridge and single burner stove, when you eat out 15 meals a week, or when you work at Google, or when you live in a rural area where prices are lower. But if you're urban, without a car, buying from tiny expensive bodegas, with growing kids, and can't afford to eat out, your bills will be significantly higher... Dog forbid you're buying pre-packaged or snack foods 'cuz it's easier than listening to home-alone teenagers complain.