XPost: alt.coronavirus, alt.journalism.newspapers, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: slime@nytimes.com   
      
   Piles of unopened boxes of emergency city coronavirus meals   
   meant for the poor were found dumped on the side of a Queens   
   underpass Monday.   
      
   The outrageous sign of waste — after Mayor Bill de Blasio   
   predicted up to 2 million New Yorkers would go hungry this   
   summer amid the pandemic — was enough to make passers-by sick.   
      
   “Why wouldn’t you go give it to people in the streets?” local   
   resident Juan Heno said of the 34 brown cardboard boxes of food   
   piled on top of each other along a concrete wall below the   
   Queens Midtown Expressway, around 57-45 74th St., in Middle   
   Village.   
      
   “The city has a lot of homeless right now,” Heno noted to The   
   Post.   
      
   The resident said he spotted the boxes — slapped with white   
   labels and black lettering reading, “GetFoodNYC, COVID-19   
   Emergency Food Distribution, Packed on July 24th, Delivery by   
   July 31st” — in the broiling heat around 9:30 a.m.   
      
   He said he called the city’s 311 hot line and was told someone   
   would pick them up — but they were still laying out in the sun   
   more than eight hours later.   
      
   Inside the boxes — part of the de Blasio administration’s much-   
   touted program to feed the hungry during the country’s economic   
   crisis — were plastic containers filled with food.   
      
   Some of the containers, marked “VEGETARIAN” and “CONTAINS NUTS,”   
   held a bag of multigrain pretzel Pepperidge Farm goldfish, what   
   appeared to be a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich and a small   
   plastic container with part of a granola bar.   
      
   Another meal package held dried fruit and nuts, a granola bar,   
   dried edamame and a bagel in plastic with a small cream-cheese   
   packet.   
      
   The office of local city Councilman Robert Holden told The Post   
   that a constituent texted photos of the wasted food to them and   
   that he was reaching out to the city to see what happened.   
      
   “This is absolutely inexcusable, no matter how this food got   
   there,” the councilman told The Post.   
      
   “So many New Yorkers have been desperate for a little extra food   
   to help them get by during this pandemic, so it’s unfathomable   
   to see perfectly good meals go to waste like this. This demands   
   a thorough investigation by City Hall immediately.”   
      
   Neighborhood resident Sue Purcarin was just as distressed.   
      
   “It’s supposed to go to people,” she said of the food, which she   
   saw by the side of the road in the afternoon. “This is horrible.   
      
   “Somebody didn’t want to do their job, and they decided, ‘OK,   
   let me just dump it here.’ ”   
      
   The city Sanitation Department, which transports the food, said   
   in a statement, “This is unacceptable, and no driver will be   
   paid for incomplete deliveries.   
      
   “We have distributed over 100 million free emergency meals, but   
   anyone who misses a delivery should let us know immediately at   
   nyc.gov/getfood or by calling 311 so we can get them the food   
   they need.”   
      
   https://nypost.com/2020/07/27/boxes-of-unopened-coronavirus-food-   
   for-poor-found-dumped-in-queens/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)