Communication Issues Prevent Food Insecure NYC Families from Taking Advantage of Summer Meals Program
Without proper communication, many families don’t know about the program–and so meals that could feed thousands of food-insecure NYC kids go to waste.
Get kid-friendly activities sent to you!
Get the Best Kid-Friendly Activities
Sent to You Weekly!
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has created a task force aimed at improving the program and its communication. Searching for where to find meals yields weird results, as mentioned above, and an app developed for the same purpose glitches and is difficult to navigate. Other sites have the right information, but “when you’re a parent, you’re not going to go check the department of education site, then the parks department, then New York City Housing Authority,” Brewer said.
The DOE says it is aware of communication issues and is working to resolve them. Ida Ifill, who has been bringing her kids and other children in the neighborhood to get meals for seven years, says knowledge of the program occurs through word of mouth, it’s but not enough.
“We have to let people know about [the program] so people come, and they don’t shut it down,” she says.