> “In some cases, the parents are not eating in order to ensure that whatever money there is for food is going to the children,” Mendoza said.

Needs quantification.

Why are we allowing families to go hungry when there is massive food waste occurring daily at NYC public schools and migrant hotels?

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Ah yes, pretending you support these food programs (when you don't) as a means to spread xenophobic views. Conservatives always play this game. But if not a single migrant was here you'd be replying with how we shouldn't have SNAP programs in the first place.

>Needs quantification.

Lol what? You can't believe this could possibly be true?

Of course it's true as stated. The question is what the frequency or rate is. Existence claims are worthless when it comes to policy.

Yea. This is an article that is pulling out examples of what is happening. It's not an internal study giving the stats on how often this select example is being played out. That's how reporting works.

We aren't. These sorts of articles are nothing but propaganda. Literally nobody starves to death in the US unless it's from mental illness or a hunger strike.

> families must scramble to borrow money or sell valuables to feed themselves.

This is a straight-up lie. There are soup kitchens and pantries and free meals in school, including during the summer.

From this comment it sounds like you're saying that unless someone dies from lack of food we shouldn't be concerned that they're struggling to buy themselves food? Those soup kitchens and pantries and free food programs require funding. They don't just magically appear. This post is about how funding is being cut for social services and public schools. You're actually making the point that funding being cut is detrimental to the way that people are currently surviving.

Again: Nobody needs to struggle to buy food, there is plenty of free food available.

I've volunteered for a number of food distribution charities, I know how they work.

Where do you think the food comes from? The food fairy? Someone pays for the food, pays for the services to run, pays taxes so that those organizations can be tax exempt. The fact that you're saying "it's available" without addressing where it comes from shows that you don't have any concept of what it means to be food insecure.

I've volunteered for a number of food distribution charities, I know how they work.

Did you even read the article? It says the idea is to cut vacant positions and in comes the hysteria that this is going to make things worse. How can they be worse than now? Nobody is doing those jobs now, continuing to have nobody doing them cannot be worse.

Great then explain it to me. Where does the food come from? Who pays for it? Who pays for the distribution? Who says for the administration?

This literally has nothing to do with the article. Neither the funding nor the food for charities is coming from HRA. Not to mention that "It’s unclear how many of those jobs are involved with the food stamp program."

Except that the HRA is responsible for funding over 500 soup kitchens and food pantries in NYC not to mention that the folks that provide administrative services and distribution for those very same soup kitchens and food pantries are employers of the HRA. Cutting funding for HIRING EMPLOYEES OF THE HRA is a huge problem for actually keeping those food pantries and kitchens operating.

The article is talking about the potential problem of processing SNAP applications, not soup kitchens. The article doesn't even touch on soup kitchens and doesn't give the slightest hint that soup kitchens may be in danger. You're literally inventing problems that don't exist even more than the people in the article are.

Lol go back in this thread and see who brought up soup kitchens and food pantries. Certainly wasn't me.

More fear mongering from the gothamist. It’s literally impossible to go hungry in this city.

Yes, let's go back and replay this convo again.

Article: They're cutting jobs! People are starving!

Me: Nobody is starving. Even if SNAP is unavailable, there are still soup kitchens and free meals in schools.

You: Oh yeah, they're cutting soup kitchens!

Me: What? No, they're not. They don't even know what they're cutting. They don't even know if it's related to SNAP.

You: Oh yeah, but you brought up soup kitchens FIRST.

Ok so it looks like you're confused. I didn't say "they are cutting soup kitchens". I said, it's disingenuous to suggest that folks who can't get SNAP can just get go to kitchens/pantries because it's just as possible that the administration of those kitchens/pantries will be negatively affected by these cuts.

>t's just as possible that the administration of those kitchens/pantries will be negatively affected by these cuts.

They're not. The article doesn't even hint at that possibility.

Again: it says they're trying to cut currently vacant positions.

And, surprise surprise, this article doesn't cover every single thing that could possibly be affected. It's absolutely possible that cutting funding for the agency responsible for assisting the food insecure will leave more people food insecure.

>Nobody is doing those jobs now, continuing to have nobody doing them cannot be worse.

Great logic!

Real New Yorkers know that food insecurity doesn’t exist in NYC!

Its not cutting "funding to the agency." It's cutting vacant positions and the funding for those positions. What those positions do, nobody knows. We are going in circles. I keep repeating what the article says and you keep saying YEAH BUT YEAH BUT YEAH BUT

Great, let's stop going in circles. If you think that it's "not true" that people will go without food after cutting funding for positions with the HRA then I wholeheartedly disagree with you. Do with that what you will and have a nice day.

Maybe all the free donuts have given you an inaccurate perspective.

Food insecurity is not the same as hunger. If I can say with reasonable certainty that I will get 3 meals in 24 hours but I cannot predict from where I will source those 3 meals, that's food insecurity but it's not hunger. It's kind of a "precision vs accuracy" thing.

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I need someone to explain this to me. If a job is already unfilled and you just cut the position how is that making things better or worse? Logically it would have no impact right?

Correct, it’s fear mongering from the gothamist.

Because that job goes from temporarily vacant to permanently removed. At least when it’s temporarily vacant there’s an opportunity to fill it and get that work done. If the position is fully cut that isn’t happening.

Mayor swagger at it again

Then they should get a job?

So you’re basing your entire takedown on a low-bar technicality.

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In much the same way, when a wound is bleeding out, you don't put a bandage on it. After all, you've done just fine so far without a bandage - clearly you don't need it.

While it is true that no one starves to death as most people won't get to that point (will go into debt, begging, crime, etc), if you study the issue its more about food insecurity and malnourishment. The US has plenty of food but like income inequality there is no guarantee it's distributed correctly or real food is being distributed. While there are food banks in NYC it's not like they're overflowing with groceries and handing people a shopping cart of food these days. NYC schools meals are only guaranteed not to run out for students and only certain locations allow non student walk ins during working hours. Going back to the article, if the city is minimally staffed any further cuts probably increase chaos in the overall system. For example those not receiving food stamps will put more pressure on food banks. The city is way behind on tech and process improvement, probably still relies on manual processes vs this age of AI

There is literally a food bank across the street from me and people line up with their shopping carts.

There are not going to be more cuts than there already are.

You people are inventing problems that do not exist.

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Not sure if you're being serious but I meant a typical American grocery store shopping cart load of food being handed out. Which is much bigger than the foldable laundry or grocery carts you're referring to. Of the food bank ive donated to and watched the food boxes packed for handouts and also observed the line during the initial stage of the pandemic, it would be more of a supplement to your existing groceries, you would have to return multiple times to live entirely on the food bank and the wait is quite long. Bottom line it may be free food but it's not something most people would really want to depend on if they had a choice.

SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

For the millionth time: They are cutting vacant positions and they do not know what those positions are. It literally says that in the article.

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Ah sorry making assumptions that people saw other news where city employees were quitting causing abnormal vacancies and Adams blocking agencies from filling vacant spots and now trying to make those blocks permanent. Though I am making the assumption that HRA is understaffed. If it is understaffed then I would see impact much like in corporations. But I admit I'm making assumption they are currently understaffed