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Council Member Julie Won opens joint hearing on food quality in NYC shelters
0:00:39
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3 min
Council Member Julie Won, chair of the committee on contracts, opens a joint hearing with the committee on economic development to examine food quality in New York City's shelters for homeless individuals and asylum seekers. She provides context for the hearing, including follow-up on issues raised in a December 2023 hearing about poor food quality and mislabeled halal food in emergency shelters.
- Won introduces her bill, Intro 905, which would require food service contractors to provide standardized feedback surveys to consumers quarterly.
- She highlights ongoing concerns about food quality, cultural appropriateness, and vendor accountability in NYC shelters.
- Won emphasizes the importance of providing safe, nutritious, and palatable food as a matter of dignity and public health.
Julie Won
0:00:39
This hearing is called to order.
0:00:41
Good morning.
0:00:42
I am council member Julie Wen, chair of the committee on contracts.
0:00:45
Thank you for joining us today for today's joint hearing with the committee on economic development to examine the quality of food in New York City's shelters for the homeless and recently arrived arrivals.
0:00:55
I'd like to thank representatives from the administration, members of the public, and my council colleagues who have joined us today including council member well, chair Farias as well as council member Kevin Riley.
0:01:08
Today's proceeding is a follow-up on a December 2023 hearing that sought to sought answers to persistent reports of poor food quality in many of the emergency shelters the city had established to house the post pandemic influx of asylum seekers.
0:01:26
At the hearing over a year ago, representatives of city agencies promised the council they were incorporating residents feedback and food and seeking culturally competent and religiously compliant menus such as halal meals.
0:01:39
However, since then, shelter residents and advocates continue to report the food quality as it remains poor, as well as troubling ongoing reports in the press that food vendors have served Muslim residents mislabeled halal food or halal food prepared with other items that do not conform to their religious standards, leaving Muslim residents with nothing suitable to eat.
0:02:03
Today, we seek to understand how food quality can be so poor and residents unable to get options that meet their religious, nutritional, and or dietary needs despite promises of the administration a year ago.
0:02:16
The committee also seeks to understand how the city has managed food shelter, food after moving beyond the initial emergency contracts set up to demand set up to meet the demand from post COVID asylum seekers.
0:02:29
Much of our last hearing focused on the vendor DOTGO whose contract expired in 2024.
0:02:35
Dot Go drew criticism for many aspects of its operation, but among the most frequent complaints was the quality of food that it served its residents, much of which ended thrown away uneaten.
0:02:48
How have the vendors who took over from Dako managed a food such as Gartner and have they improved where Dako failed?
0:02:55
Yet we see that the subcontractors for the food remain the same with Regina's Caterers, Riviera's Caterers, as well as Woodson's, where we have the top complaints for these subcontractors who continue to do business with the city despite their complaints and despite their food being disgusting and unable to be eaten.
0:03:14
How's the administration holding bad actors who continuously provide standard meals to shelter residents accountable?
0:03:21
We will also examine my bill, Intro nine zero five, which would require vendors with active food service contracts valued at a hundred thousand dollars or more, provide standardized feedback surveys to consumers on a quarterly basis.
0:03:34
The results will be compiled and shared with contracting agencies allowing for data driven decision making in future contracts and accountability, ensuring that food public funds are used responsibly to provide safe, nutritious and palatable food is not just a matter of policy.
0:03:48
It is a matter of dignity and public health.
0:03:51
By mandating continuous feedback, this bill establishes a lasting system of oversight that will improve food quality immediately and in the long term.
0:03:59
Before I conclude, I would like to thank the following council staff for their work on this hearing, contracts committee, policy analyst Alex Yablon, senior legislative counsel Chris Naatori, for my office staff Nick Gulotta and Neily Vera Martinez, and the members of City Hall security and technical staff working to make this hearing run smoothly.
0:04:17
I will now turn it over to chair Farias for the committee on economic development.