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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

#461

Post by TuringNYC »

adrr wrote: post #456
Loughla wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as a note on this - low income have higher obesity rates, because many of them live in food deserts, without access to quality produce, or other regular staples. Further, high-calorie, low nutrition foods are cheaper in the US, and therefore more accessible. Fat people =/= healthy distribution system of food.

Curious on this food desert thing. Is access to food less than it was 50 years ago? Access to fruits and vegetables during winter/fall months is a new thing since now we have better supply chains and international trade(winter crop is from Mexico). Its weird to me since i grew up in Saudi Arabia on a compound, a true food desert and lived off powdered milk, ramen, and other non perishable foods we could buy from the…

Everything is available, but not necessarily economically available to the poor. It has definitely changed in the past 50years — notably the buying power has gone down massively because wages have not kept up with rent/healthcare/education.

You need to save somewhere. If you don’t pay rent you become homeless so you focus on less acute cuts — like substituting bread and cereals for salad, etc.

Eating is easy in the US, eating nutritiously is harder if you are on a limited budget.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#462

Post by beerandt »

maccard wrote: post #323
beerandt wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if a family qualifies for snap, their kids almost always automatically qualify for free school meals already, in addition to snap.

which is great when schools are open. this also means that parents aren't going to go hungry, and that neither will go hungry over the summer/prolonged school closures right now.

These free meal programs are the schools providing meals to their students during school closings.

And the bigger point is that (during normal times) SNAP doesn't need to cover 100% of kids meals per month; most meals in a month are already provided for free through school.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#463

Post by dragonwriter »

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…

> all of them tested daily for COVID-19

That would be nice, but it's absolutely not happening. Even if Cuomo's“screw the rest of the country and give us all the supplies until our peak is past” had gotten a positive response, there wouldn't be sufficient test kits and other resources to collect and process those tests.

It's going to rely on servers not showing symptoms and using PPE and other safety procedures, not daily testing.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#464

Post by ars »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #164
adrianN wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently learned that insects are not kosher, so some Jews don't consider figs to be kosher because of the fig wasps. There are probably more examples.

I wonder about honey then? Its the product of non-Kosher insects

It is specifically mentioned as permitted because it is not made by the bees, but is rather collected by them (from flowers).

This is in contrast to Royal Jelly which is not kosher.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#465

Post by ars »

Zenst wrote: post #19
fraktl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were given food for free when I have no food, I'd eat anything. Not a New Yorker, was through war when I was a kid, speaking from experience.

Yet they singled out one religious dietary requirements whilst ignoring a whole demographic with a large populus and history of the area - colour me perplexed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_in_New_York_City Still, thank you for replying instead of blind downvote because antisemitisim has many forms it seems, even here :( [EDIT ADD] WOW this comment has gone up and down like crazy - was +4 few mins ago, now -2 (a…

There's really no way for them to do it anyway, the rules of kosher are far too complex for them to implement.

But do not worry, there are Jewish organizations helping those who need it.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#466

Post by ars »

mehrdadn wrote: post #278
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is being simplified. Simply washing a knife will not make it suitable for preparation of kosher food; but there are methods that will. Searching for "libun gamur" and "hagalah" will provide a starting point for the genuinely interested.

Oh wow I see, thanks, just Googled. For anyone else wondering, it depends, but you need to e.g. heat the utensil to get it red hot!

A brand new utensil is assumed to be kosher, since it's unlikely a factory is going to have food in it that would contact the utensils.

Also, a utensil is koshered by the same heat-level that made it non-kosher. So if used on a fire, it's koshered on a fire. If used only in hot water, then it's koshered in hot water.

It can get more complicated: Some things (like plastic, or wood) can never be koshered (except by removing a layer from the surface, for example by sanding) because they absorb too easily.

Red hot heat can kosher anything, but those substances can not withstand the necessary temperature.

Glass is interesting as it's considered impervious, and some hold that simply washing it is enough because nothing absorbs into glass.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#467

Post by ars »

err4nt wrote: post #364
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And by Jewish halacha (law) you also need a watchman in the kitchen (mashgiach) making sure the rules are followed.

There is no realistic way NY can do this, and Jews are not expecting it. But there are Jewish organizations who are helping those who need it.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#468

Post by epicureanideal »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #428
epicureanideal wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like a Job Guarantee program would be something that both Democrats and Republicans could support. I'm surprised it hasn't been done already (other than in the Great Depression). Questions... 1. How would that program handle people who were unwilling to work? Possible answer off the top of my head: maybe they get sent home or terminated from the program for a period of time, and the pay for the "Job Guarante…

Jobs guarantee could be popular like awful "workfare", but it's oftenstill stupidly resting on the assumption that full employment is good, and UBI without full employment is inherently inflationary.

I think a Jobs Guarantee would be a practical, possible-to-get-the-law-passed, interim solution until UBI.

The main benefit of a Jobs Guarantee is it would be palatable to the 50ish% of voters who are opposed to "handouts" without work. And in theory some of the people who work at these jobs might have more self respect, and might maintain good habits that would let them re-enter the regular workforce in time.

Now, if we did have a Jobs Guarantee and something like 25%+ of people were on it, and there are just no jobs for these people to do even for the general betterment of society at large without any profit motive, then that starts to make a good argument for UBI rather than having people do useless work. Start with letting people on the Jobs Guarantee or other jobs, "retire" at an earlier and earlier age, and/or insert 1-2 months of vacation per year, and/or reduce the number of days worked per week or the number of hours worked per day to receive the benefits.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#469

Post by stubish »

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…

You could skip the daily tests and stick to normal food preparation hygiene. If food is packaged in standard foil take away containers, it just needs to be heated well enough for long enough to kill the virus (70 deg C, not sure of time). Or cook the food in the container. No salad sorry.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#470

Post by organsnyder »

umvi wrote: post #457
organsnyder wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an untested assertion. It's possible that society actually would benefit from every person being freed up from the stress and distraction of worrying about how to pay for basic necessities. Imagine how much creativity is being squandered by people being forced to work whatever job they can find just to make ends meet.

It's being tested right now. How many people are using their newfound quarantine free time to do creative work vs. watching trendy documentaries on Netflix? I have friends collecting unemployment benefits complaining on facebook how bored they are and playing WoW all day.

This is hardly normal times. Everyone is stressed, unable to access many resources (regardless of whether they can afford them), and dealing with unfamiliar situations. My work situation hasn't changed at all—I always work from home, and have a really good setup for avoiding distraction—and I'm at 50% productivity at best.
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