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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

#361

Post by greenyoda »

econcon wrote: post #261
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.

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.

There's no delivery. You have to pick the food up.

According to NYC:

> Starting today, 3 free meals will be available for ALL New Yorkers in more than 400 Meal Hubs, Mon-Fri: http://schools.nyc.gov/freemeals.

Since it's being run by the Department of Education, the pickup locations will probably be at public schools (the same as when the program used to be only for school children).

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#362

Post by gregsadetsky »

astroalex wrote: post #358

Someone has made a nicer map of where you can get meals: https://nycfreemeals.com/

Thanks, Alex. That site/map is by me.

It's a cached / high availability version of the "Meal Location Search" site. As that site was crumbling under traffic (response times > 10s) and did not have a map, I've decided to publish its data to GitHub and redo the site. Above the map, there's a link that opens the map in the Google Maps app on mobile.

The geocoded data is here: https://github.com/gregsadetsky/nyc-free-meals-covid

Ping me for any questions / comments -- gs@gregsadetsky.com

I would love to make this nationwide. Where do we start?

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#363

Post by illvm »

munk-a wrote: post #246
impostergc wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feeding people was solved in the 20th century, perhaps almost too easily. See correlation between poverty and obesity in the 21st century, vs the 19th century.

Obesity is strongly tied in with the fact that the food we're consuming is unhealthy - rather than the fact that it's purely excessive. One of those unhealthy factors is an overabundance of sugar and salt both of which fight satiation fueling the brain to overeat. We have plenty of food, but we've turned a large portion of it into unhealthy crap.

That's interesting-- I hadn't heard that sugar or salt might counter satiation. I have seen a bit of correlation between sugar intake combined with fat intake, though. Which makes sense some given fast food menu items (high fat food + a soda).

Do you have any links to papers about salt and fat counteracting satiation?

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#364

Post by err4nt »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #185
anthonypasq wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It can be straightforward if you maintain two entirely separate kitchens forever :D It seems like the complexity comes in trying to chart a path through the grey area between 100% separate and 100% integrated.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#365

Post by jcampbell1 »

fires10 wrote: post #326
thanksgiving wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I'm sure you meant those in need, and not every American I personally despise means testing. There has been so much hatred spewed over "welfare queen" that I am amazed we still do means testing and we have pulled it forward to things like the New York state Excelsior program (college education for first-time college students) and even for the $1,200 COVID-19 stimulus. It is very sad. We don't less means testing…

I despise means testing as well. I also believe the moral hazard argument is over blown most of the time. I would like to see a guaranteed employer of last resort that pays enough for someone to live. This employer (federal agency) could adapt the work that is done to a situation. Provide opportunities for retraining and so forth. This could also provide the psychological safety many are in need of and reduce despera…

I’d rather see a $15 minimum wage, and an EITC run in reverse, where anyone that hires someone who is struggling gets a $10 credit for every hour paid.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#366

Post by umvi »

blunte wrote: post #252

I find it fascinating that it seems so many people are against (sometimes vehemently) against others getting free food and shelter. There is no excuse for a modern civilization to not ensure that everyone has basic human needs met. Sure, we can argue some details like, "Is Netflix really a basic human need?"... joking aside, we as humans should endeavor to ensure that all people have their Maslow pyramid filled in.

If people are getting free food and shelter during a crisis, it's one thing. But if they are getting it 24/7/365 year after year, it's a red flag that they aren't self-reliant.

The solution is not to pour more money into ensuring their needs are met but to examine why they are not able to sustain themselves. Maybe they have no skills because they dropped out of high school. Maybe they are in and out of prison and can't find a job so they keep turning back to illegal activities to make money. Maybe they are truly have a physical disability and cannot help themselves.

But there are a LOT of people that would benefit from being paid to work and learn some new skills (even if it's janitorial work at government facilities or indexing/archiving work at museums, etc.) vs. a check in the mail. Of course, a check in the mail is much easier to implement than evaluating an individual's circumstances and helping build them up in a way that will make them more self-reliant in the future.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#367

Post by leetcrew »

harimau777 wrote: post #357
leetcrew wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you envisioning some mechanism to prevent people from having filet mignon and caviar every night for dinner? I'm not poor, but my grocery purchases would change a lot if I didn't have to pay for it myself.

Presumably we could come up with some sort of middle ground policy. For example, there could be certain foods that are excluded from the system or maybe only certain products are included. Or perhaps different products could use up more of a person's "food credits".

this seems needlessly complicated. it would be a neverending game of whack-a-mole to get the whitelists / credit multipliers adjusted for every food sku.

if we're already assuming people can budget reasonably well, why not go with a UBI-like food stipend and enroll every citizen? calibrate it so people with zero income get a reasonable (possible COL-adjusted) amount to afford a month's worth of healthy meals and phase it out smoothly respective to income. can't really be abused unless you hide your income and also avoids the fiscal cliff.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#368

Post by RIMR »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #27

The logistics behind this must be formidable. They would need hundreds of food preparers, all of them tested daily for COVID-19 and of course practicing strict hygiene in prep and packaging. Still it's probably easier to control than thousands of separate restaurants and food markets, which is undoubtedly their thinking: centralize food distribution to minimize risky contact. This is a sobering reminder of how depend…

I have no idea where you got this idea that being "tested daily for COVID-19" is some sort of requirement for preparing food right now.

Nobody is getting tested for COVID-19 unless they are symptomatic, or they are rich and get to bypass the normal testing process.

More importantly, testing asymptomatic people every day is just a gross waste of tests...

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#369

Post by maccard »

eleventyandone wrote: post #221
mysterydip wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How much is your restaurant and eating out budget? Or are you saying that your entire family gets 100% of it's dietary needs from your $500/month grocery budget? If so, that's impressive and you should share you shopping lists somewhere... I know I'd be interested in seeing that :)

I had a look on the whole foods website and found a store in NYC. you can buy 1lb mince, spaghetti, tinned tomatoes, carrot onion garlic, for less than $12. that's a meal for 4. you can get rolled oats for about $.75 a portion with real milk and a half a banana, and as a lunch you can get bread, pastrami, cheese for <$15, for about 8 sandwiches. that's $6/person/day from whole foods in NYC not buying in family quantities.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#370

Post by kyuudou »

kiba wrote: post #288
kyuudou wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to be like "omg everyone should have food, shelter and sanitation" and "omg climate change from overpopulation"... There's even a national security memorandum from back in the 1960s discussing various population restriction methods. Just throwing that out there.

Pollution and inefficient consumption of resources are much more important factors in climate change.

Are you suggesting that overpopulation has nothing do with this?

To be clear, I am against any attempt at population control. I want to keep awareness on the fact that many others do, though.

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