AGENCY TESTIMONY
Discussion of proposed legislation Intro 979 on shelter food consumption
0:20:35
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69 sec
Commissioner Park addresses the proposed legislation Intro 979, which would require annual reporting on shelter food consumption. She expresses concerns about the bill's implementation and suggests potential modifications.
- Intro 979 would require annual reports for 5 years on shelter food consumption, quality, and cost-effectiveness.
- DSS shares the goal of ensuring nutritious food that meets NYC food standards but questions if the proposed legislation is the most productive use of resources.
- The agency expresses concerns about operationalizing certain aspects of the bill, particularly calculating food consumed by shelter site.
- Park suggests further discussion on ongoing DSS efforts to upgrade food quality monitoring and how the legislation could complement these efforts.
- Technical modifications are needed, including provisions for NY state laws on privacy and protecting locations of domestic violence shelters.
Molly Wasow Park
0:20:35
The proposed study would include assessing the quality of food for each shelter, calculating the percent of food consumed relative to the amount of food served at each shelter and at shelters in the aggregate, providing recommendations for more cost effective food provision, and providing recommendations on improving quality of food at shelters.
0:20:52
We share the council's goal of ensuring clients are served nutritious, healthy food that meets New York City food standards but do not feel that the proposed legislation as drafted would be a productive use of city resources to assist in meeting our shared goal.
0:21:05
We would like to engage in a more in-depth discussion on the work underway at DSS to upgrade our monitoring of food quality and how this legislation could potentially complement those efforts.
0:21:16
Operationally, we want to ensure that we can deliver reliable data.
0:21:19
The parameters the legislation sets out around calculated food consumed by shelter site would be particularly challenging to operationalize.
0:21:27
There are also important technical modifications that would highlight that we would highlight in addition to making sure the metrics can be operationalized by providers.
0:21:35
We would seek to include appropriate provisions for New York state laws on privacy and avoiding identifying locations of residential programs for victims of domestic violence.
