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Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

schools.nyc.gov

201–210 of 494 posts

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#201
post #85

This is a great program, but also it is so so sad that this needs to be provided after 2 weeks of lock down. Really shows inequality in American society

"There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy"

- New Yorker and investigative journalist Alfred Henry Lewis, some time in 1906.

In 'related searches':

every society is three meals away from chaos

mi5 four meals from anarchy

every society is three meals away from chaos lenin

the veneer of civilization is only nine hot meals deep

there are only nine missed meals between mankind and anarchy

So yeah. Two weeks in.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#202

I wonder why this is done through the Department of Education and if they will continue such a program when schools are back in session. People normally don't like a bunch of random adults hanging around schools.

School have full service commercial kitchens that are going unused.

Schools don’t have any kids in them so who cares who’s hanging around.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#203

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.

Source?

Wow. I'm being downvoted because I want to learn more about facts presented?

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#204
post #37
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most vegetarian meals should be kosher, right? And I believe there are exceptions for unusual circumstances in the rules.

AFAIK yes, but then, they are just as equally Halal compliant and felt the need to specially cater for that group of dietary needs over another - would love to know the logic going on there upon this.

It's far, far easier to prepare halal food than kosher food, in that the halal rules are mostly just around ingredients. Kosher gets a _lot_ more complicated.

For instance, essentially all vegetarian food is halal, but it probably isn't kosher.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#205
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think obesity dis-proportionally affects impoverished African Americans vs. other impoverished races. At least based on one point of anecdata - my neighbors. I have lots of poor families in my neighborhood even though I am middle class myself thanks to HOC (a Maryland social program where middle class housing is subsidized for the poor). Long story short - my poor African American neighbors are extremely obese; and…

There is definitely a genetic component. A very clear example is the obesity rate of Pacific islanders after they were introduced to the western diet. They were genetically isolated while subsisting on a very specific diet for thousands of years. As a result, they no longer thrive on the same diet that Europeans do.

[deleted]

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#206

This is a lifeline for workers who have been laid-off with no prospects of getting back to work anytime soon. Unfortunately, this may be the new normal...

I would love if this were the new normal. Food for anyone, no questions asked? That's an America I'm proud of.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#207

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.

> We'd be so much better off as a society if we could at least keep our people fed.

We need to bring back town farms. There is more than enough land within NYC that's currently being used for literally nothing that could instead be growing free food for anyone who wants it.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#208
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is condemning the logistical choice while ignoring that there are many different kosher authorities and no one would satisfyingly serve the entire nyc religious Jewish community

It was a valid observation based on the data at hand, but let's leave it at that. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

The data at hand indicates that there would not be a way to serve kosher food given the broad number of kosher authorities, many of whom are in direct conflict over religious validity making trying to appease them impossible.

The nyc school system has lots of experience with these communities and knows what it is doing in terms of how to reach the most people.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#209
post #13

Wonder how they make the food? It’s a huge operation to undertake. A logistical nightmare. How can they estimate how many people will show up and how much to cook? Kudos to them to do this though.

It's literally doing what they (school cafeterias) already were doing. It would be harder logistically to have shut it down than doing what they're doing now, having to lay off workers and cancel food contracts.

The cafeterias have an existing capacity and are likely just producing the same amounts they usually do. They're able to give some away because it's not likely that every student shows up everyday (or at all), so there's plenty of excess.

It's a good use of existing resources, but nothing logistically impressive.

Re: Three free meals available daily for any New Yorker

#210

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.

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.

But then why criticize money if the issue is that people are not good enough with money to budget it? Either the suggestion will be that we provide people without enough money that even with poor budgeting and planning they will stay fed (and do we really cover everyone, the difference between 99% of people and 100% of people is like the difference in 99% server up time and 100% server up time). Or is the suggestion to remove the need plan by providing them food instead of money? You probably provide more food this way if optimized (economics of scale) and you would get more buy in from some people, but you would face heavy criticism and inertia from others who see this as looking down on others.

We could go for education, but many people do not take education even when offered for free.

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