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Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

schools.nyc.gov

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Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#261

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.

I wonder if the food will be delivered home, or you'll have to go to some store.

Going to some store and lining up is very demoralising thing.

If food comes to your home from normal delivery with no different labeling then for paying customers, we could achieve new moral highs.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#262

New York City, that is. Not New York State.

A homeless friend of mine is stuck in NYC and his family’s daily meals were (are) provided by this service - despite neither him nor his children being NYC residents. I am sure enough other adults (parents or otherwise) were receiving this food that making such disbursements allowed was mainly about legitimizing the good that was already occurring than accidentally admitting that significant amounts of people were pr…

I’m interested as to what is offensive about this reply.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#263
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point. It should. If we remove the fear of starvation (we can afford to feed everyone twice and barely put a dent in our military budget) a lot of people will have a HUGE improvement in their day-to-day happiness. This is one of those obvious huge moral positives we can do. The only "down side" is there will never be fear of starvation. Edit: The one progress I can see in a society is when we can basically…

> If we remove the fear of starvation (we can afford to feed everyone twice and barely put a dent in our military budget) 327,000,000 people * 365 days * $5/person/day = $596,775,000,000 yearly Or $596 billion $693 billion is the Wikipedia number for DoD budget, so that actually checks out. Of course, that's more than "put a dent in the budget," but I'm sure you meant those in need, and not every American (which is t…

$5/person/day is more than this should require.

Feeding America claims to deliver meals at $0.10 each by rescuing food that would've been wasted, and they claim even buying at wholesale would run about $2/meal ($1.67/lb * 1.2lb/meal).

https://www.feedingamerica.org/ways-to-give/faq/about-our-cl...

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#264
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and yet according to the USDA, "11.1 percent of households were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 4.3 percent (5.6 million households) that had very low food security".

The USDA definitions are extraordinarily misleading. “Food insecure” includes people who are at no risk of going hungry, but wish they had better food or a larger variety of food.

Wait, that's really the definition? There's no way that isn't a politically motivated definition.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incorrect, SNAP and other federal/state programs do not go far enough to feed a family. And the poorest families are constantly demonized as some sort of "Welfare Queen" living large on steaks and top shelf liquor.

>> living large on steaks and top shelf liquor More like frozen foods and sugary drinks

Which is just as pejorative. Please don't say that we're at the point where microwave meals and canned soda are too much a luxury for people who come home exhausted from work.

Are we really gonna ask someone who's already poor and tired to spend even more energy they don't have to make something from a few kinds of cheap dried grains.

Either give out enough money to buy food that actual humans want to eat or just cook and deliver it. A commercial kitchen and a few trucks would probably do wonders for an area that's underfed because individuals don't have enough time and money to make food cheap.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#266
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To think that American southern slave trade (e.g. plantations) is the only real form of slavery is extremely myopic.

What's a non-myopic view of slavery? If dependence on a government for basic necessities is slavery, isn't any form of dependence slavery? Are trust fund recipients slaves? Are workers who depend on an employer slaves? Are people in debt slaves to their creditors?

Workers depending on their employers are wage slaves. It is particularly bad when in countries like America, a worker's _health_ is dependent on their employer.

But in general being "dependent" on the government is 100x better than being dependent on individual employers. I'd be much happier making 30% of what I do now if I did not have to plan for existing 30 years down the line when I'm automated, found non-essential, a victim of ageism, or simply invested in the wrong skills.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#267
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we remove the fear of starvation (we can afford to feed everyone twice and barely put a dent in our military budget) 327,000,000 people * 365 days * $5/person/day = $596,775,000,000 yearly Or $596 billion $693 billion is the Wikipedia number for DoD budget, so that actually checks out. Of course, that's more than "put a dent in the budget," but I'm sure you meant those in need, and not every American (which is t…

$5/person/day is more than this should require. Feeding America claims to deliver meals at $0.10 each by rescuing food that would've been wasted, and they claim even buying at wholesale would run about $2/meal ($1.67/lb * 1.2lb/meal). https://www.feedingamerica.org/ways-to-give/faq/about-our-cl...

> $2/meal

So, $5/day ?

Rescuing wasted food doesn't work once you scale it to a hundred million people.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely in favor of a food/housing program that's available for everyone. I am also a communist though, so it's an easy sell for me.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#268
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So where’s the disconnect here? SNAP is widely available, so we need to investigate the gap.

57 billion into 40 million people = $1425. That's without any overhead. Say there was no overhead, that's $3.90 a day.

Which is actually more per person/day than me and my wife spend on ourselves... and we eat perfectly well!

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... $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. This is an unbelievable assertion. That’s $5.48 per meal for 3 people. Have you tried to feed 3 people a consistently nutritious meal on $5.48 per meal everywhere in the country ? What is your nutritious meal plan for 3 meals each day, 365 days per year, th…

I mean, I cook for my family so I have some idea what goes into each meal. Typical dinner will be rice, some protein, and some vegetables. By far the most expensive bit is the protein. Our staple is chicken thighs which can be had for $2-3/lb. We use maybe half a pound per person (generous estimate), so the protein cost is on the order $6/meal. The rice costs next to nothing, maybe 20c. And the vegetables might be a…

Same. Live in a medium COL area (Portland, OR) and we feed the entire family on about 300/month, and we eat generously, with pastries, sweets, and other 'luxury' items. If we went to a more modest diet, we could probably do it on 200/month.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#270
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.

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