Zhuang presses for specific plans for food pantries and caseworkers
Zhuang says McKenzie's answer is general and asks for a more detailed vision, such as more food pantries or caseworkers. McKenzie cites food pop-up produce events in August that distributed over 18,000 bags of fresh produce. She says NYC Aging plans to repeat this for the holiday period with 20 pop-up locations.
Do you have any particular case, say, next year we're going to do more food pantry or caseworker in those facilities?
I feel your answer is very general.
Can we?
have a better, like, detailed vision.
Well, I think I've been very clear about the vision for NYC Aging.
I know that many of you are aware of the food pop-up produce events that we held in August, which is in response, basically, to the fact that many of our older adults had issues with their SNAP benefits,
and also that we received less than half of the farmer's market vouchers that we normally receive.
So that's how we responded in August, and we were able to distribute over 18,000 bags of fresh produce.
We're planning again now to do this for the holiday period because we recognize that this is another time of strain for older adults when they may want to share in family meals and have others over.
So from mid-November through the first two weeks of December, we're going to do this again.
And during August, we had 10 pop-up locations.
This time we're going to go for 20 pop-up locations to make more locations available for older adults.
So, of course, making sure that we address those core elements in our revised mission, which is that we're combating food insecurity.
We're also providing access for affordable housing wherever we can, addressing health care and making sure that there's access to quality health care and ensuring that our older adults are safe.