Bloomberg Bans Food Donations To NYC Homeless Shelters

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Because the homeless and starving are always worried about fiber and salt.

Bloomberg Bans Food Donations To NYC Homeless Shelters <-- click - original story has lots of links.

In a move that combines the mayor's affinity for overbearing health regulations with his controversial stance on homeless shelters already under fire from advocacy groups and City Council members, a new rule barring food donations to shelters is raising even more concern.

CBS reports on the bizarre rule that turns away food, perhaps the most needed item for any shelter, because according to health officials, it's impossible to gauge the items' salt, fiber, and other nutritional stats.

When asked about the contradictory stipulation, Bloomberg huffed, "For the things that we run because of all sorts of safety reasons, we just have a policy it is my understanding of not taking donations."

Unfortunately, news of the rule is just another day in Bloomberg's "nanny-state." The mayor has been repeatedly criticized for his health initiatives, with many believing his well-intentioned moves to improve New Yorkers' health ultimately infringe upon basic rights.

After instituting the city's restaurant grading system to keep the restaurant industry tidy under a strict inspection process, the mayor credited declining salmonella food poisonings and improving sanitary conditions to the success of the system.

New Yorkers may have conceded to his war on salt, obesity, and trans-fat, but when it came to limiting alcohol sales in January, a quick firestorm ultimately forced Bloomberg to go back to the drawing board and chuck the idea.

But in a more pressing and contested issue, the mayor is also fighting to maintain a new law that requires homeless individuals to prove their homelessness by providing evidence they have nowhere else to turn to.

City Council members subsequently filed a lawsuit against the city with homeless advocates expressing their anger over the "misguided" plan, "In the single adult system, you have a much higher rate of mental illness and other underlying issues. Many of these people have either come directly from the street or will be sent right back out to the street, so our big fear is that this could be a death sentence for many people."

In order to combat overcrowding in city shelters, which exceeded the 40,000 mark in November, Bloomberg also proposed a peculiar deal offering people to take in the homeless in exchange for furniture and possibly even food stamps.

[John L]

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Bloomberg has little to no common sense. Typical Ashkenazi. They have the highest IQ in the world, but one of the lowest coefficients of wisdom.

I'm using percentages here, because there are many with sense enough to know that any form of Collectivism is dangerous, not only to everyone, but particularly to them. All one has to do is look at National Socialism, and the history of Russian pograms to be able to add two and two together.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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I find it amazing he'd prefer restaurants waste perfectly good food at the end of the day instead of giving it away to those who really could use it.

[John L]

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I find it amazing he'd prefer restaurants waste perfectly good food at the end of the day instead of giving it away to those who really could use it.

This is why the original idea of Federalism has got to be preserved. That way idiots and dupes will not be able to use one state to pollute others.

Joan, right now you may well be approaching the Law of Diminishing Returns, concerning your love of New Yawk, the city, and New Yawk, the human jungle. Even when you reach that point where the negatives outweigh the positives, you will still stick around, and bitch more about all the stupidity, taxes, yadda, yadda. But sooner or later, the negatives may so outweigh the positives that you will be forced to get the hell out of Dodge.

I wouldn't be caught dead in that hovel.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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OK Please stop adding a W in New York. You make us sound like we talk like Elmer Fudd. We just don't. We drop our R's just like they do in Boston but with a different accent. It's a New England thing.

You can't move without money. Sorry. Bash me all you want for liking NYC and where I grew up but the fact remains that it takes money to move and a job to go to in the new place. Bloomberg will not be mayor forever. I live in NJ so your point to me really is moot.

[Rhubarb]

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Restaurants are banned from giving food to shelter here too.
The food has to come from a 'traceable source, in case of contamination and those whose serve it must have a certificate in food hygiene'.

Dee has a friend who volunteers at a shelter locally, she buys the food herself and cooks it at the kitchens in the shelter with 6 other people. She cannot use surplus food from another friends garden because it has not been authorized as edible! The health inspector visits even at the dead of night to make sure they are doing things correctly.

[John L]

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Alright Dear, I'll be nice.
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What mystifies me is that contamination worries make no logical sense, when compared to its long term benefits.

There was an article I posted about, over at Jane, where a nutrition expert had listed some things that people should do in order to be healthy. And one of them was for people to quit cleaning off everything from their veggies, and other things they eat. As he stated it, "We need to eat more dirt". His point is that if we don't expose ourselves to germs, and other little things in nature, we will be susceptible to illness when we are finally exposed to microscopic critters. In other words, we will not have a strong immune system.

I would think that homeless people would be eating just about anything, and everything they could scrounge. And it should take a lot of little critters to make them sick. I could be wrong, but what the writer said makes good sense to me. In fact I don't peel my potatoes, carrots, or other vegetables that I once strip down. I occasionally get a mild case of food poisoning(all those little 24 hour stomach flues are really food poisoning), but am over it in about 12 hours. I haven't had a cold since I "can't remember when"(at least two decades). I am not particularly anal about taking leftovers and sticking them in the fridge, because I'm not worried about contamination. Also, I don't throw bread away when it starts getting mold. I eat it too, as long as it is not highly developed. Bread mold doesn't taste very good.

I'm convinced all this, and a lot of garlic, help keep my immunity system in top condition.