Women’s Homeless Shelter Residents Testify to Rotten Food at City Council Hearing

Residents of women’s homeless shelters in New York City testified at a City Council hearing that food served in several facilities was spoiled, unappetizing or unsafe. Six residents described rancid milk, moldy bread, rotten fruit and eggs that were green. Their testimony came during a Department of Homeless Services oversight hearing held on a Thursday.

A resident identified as Phroska M. told council members that the food’s “texture is bad, the taste is bad, the appearance is bad.” She said the food at the 200-bed Bushwick Homeless Shelter in Brooklyn was so poor that her doctor ordered her to take an array of supplements. “She told me I was suffering from malnutrition,” she recalled.

Phroska and another resident, Leslie, a domestic violence survivor who lives in a Project Renewal shelter in Manhattan, both testified that apples and oranges were often rotten. Janet Perry, 61, said she was served “green eggs” from a supplier called Comfort Foods at the Franklin Women’s shelter in the Bronx.

Cece Brown, who has stayed in numerous shelters, said “the milk is going bad or is sour” and that the bread was moldy. She also said “mice are seen in the kitchen area running around.” Women who rely on shelters for daily meals are owed safe and dignified care, and the testimony raised questions about whether that standard is being met (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Councilman Barry Grodenchik (D-Queens) called the testimony “very disturbing.”

Dr. Fabienne Laraque, medical director for the Department of Homeless Services, said the agency serves only healthy and nutritious foods. She also addressed chicken that was allegedly responsible for sickening residents of the Auburn shelter in Brooklyn, saying it tested “negative for bacterial pathogens.”

Source: Read the original report