Won questions Dalton and Russell on food quality and kitchen access

I just have one last question.

Could you help me understand about the lack of nutrients and food that is available?

And this is not an individual shelter problem for ICL at Borden Avenue, but I hear this also for other ICL shelters in my district in Long Island City.

What is happening?

Because I'm also hearing conflicting information from what Chair Hudson just testified or put on record about the use of kitchen because we have multiple veterans that complain to my office that they have no kitchen access whatsoever, that they're not allowed to bring outside food into the shelter.

And also hundreds of them will continue to say that they have malnutrition because they're not getting enough food.

So can you help us understand what's going on with the current kitchen usage as well as their diet, their food and nutrients?

And what is the per diem per meal per day so that we can get a very...

Clear understanding of what is the caloric nutrient requirement per meal for ICL at the shelter for a grown man.

Yes, thank you.

And thank you to Chair Hudson for doing important clarifications that I had not done.

And I will, before this question ends, I would like to turn it over to the Deputy Commissioner to add any detail.

And we may need to, we'll see, we may need to get back to you on exactly what

what those per diems are.

But I agree with Chair Hudson there.

This is a bit of a systemic issue, right?

The issue of food and the quality of food in our shelters is governed by a number of different rules, including the New York City health and safety standards and food standards that we must comply with.

And we do monitor too.

So that monitoring is happening.

The chair is correct that in no shelter across the Department of Homeless Services system are people permitted to cook their own food.

That said, I've not visited nearly as many shelters as I would like to, but in my time here, which has only been a couple of months, but I've visited a number of shelters, and there is variation here, right?

For example, Chair Hudson and I talked to somebody last night who had just been at a different shelter and was talking about the food quality differential.

I do think, as I've testified to and answered questions about, that we can do more to improve the food quality at Vorden in particular, and that there are other systemic issues that we do need to look at in terms of the food.

I will turn it over to the Deputy Commissioner to see if she has anything additional to add there.

Commissioner, it actually does seem like your mic is a bit low.

I'm not sure if that's a volume issue or if it's a facing the mic issue.

Thank you.

Yes.

So just to piggyback on what Commissioner Dalton indicated is that, yes, we are.

required not only at Borden, but across the entire shelter system to follow New York City, the food standards.

So that monitors the caloric intake, sodium, et cetera.

So I absolutely agree with Chair Hudson with respect to the

small juices that our veterans or our clients receive.

But we are having conversations internally, but also with ICL on how we can help that as well or augment that.

So at some of our shelters, we do have microwaves in the cafeteria, which would allow a client to come in and let's say if they want to heat some food up that they purchased from outside, they can do so.

With respect to cooking, you know, I definitely want to be clear that we don't allow cooking at our shelter residence for single men or women.

But again, if a client wants to bring in food and they want to eat it in the cafeteria, this would be permissible during the cafeteria hours.

And again, if they want to use microwaves, we can have conversations with Borden on how we can help make that possible.

Can you help me understand?

So to be clear, you're saying that they can bring outside food into the shelter and it won't be confiscated by the staff of ICL?

So, I mean, we have to, client have to bring in the food and the staff will have to escort them to the cafeteria to ensure that they're not eating in the dorms.

We don't want to create an issue of rodents.

So, yes, it's having conversations with ICL and with other providers if they are not allowing this to happen.

then these are conversations we can have with our providers.

I think that will be necessary because we get reports that their food is confiscated if they bring outside food because they're still hungry.

I thank you for bringing that to our attention, and that is a conversation that we will have with ICL leadership.