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One of those things I wish could out last this virus. We'd be so much better off as a society if we could at least keep our people fed. The comments in here s

• collyw 7y ago
  Do you get food banks in the US?
  • gwbas1c 7y ago
    Yes, but they usually rely on donations. Also, a lot of needy children get their primary meals at school.
    • throwaway55554 7y ago
      Indeed. Our local school system has implemented a drive by food pickup so that the children and their family can pick up food.
      • brewdad 7y ago
        Our district has been doing pick-up but mainly at the larger middle schools and high schools. Starting next week they will also be running a bus route through neighborhoods where kids can get lunch delivered between 10 and noon. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it at least shows an understanding that not all families can get to the handful of schools that are offering meals.
  • Frost1x 7y ago
    We have food banks in the US. Many are under heavy stress right now from what I understand. At least one food bank near me has already expressed needs for donations through local media sources.
    • 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago
      The sad reality is that the supply chain is all messed up and there’s weird expectations still with food banks. For example, I can’t take my 50 lb bag of rice and divide it up into 5 lb bags because of food safety issues and regulations. So rather than getting a huge shipment of some grain and doing that, they’re stuck scrounging for the small stuff. They’re also still tossing expired foods even though Best By dates are largely irrelevant.
      • Scoundreller 7y ago
        > I can’t take my 50 lb bag of rice and divide it up into 5 lb bags because of food safety issues and regulations. While the food bank can’t, you and your friends can split things up. Even if you can’t, if you’re getting 500calories a day from rice for 1 person, 50lbs will run out in 6 months.
  • Loughla 7y ago
    Yes we do, but they are charities, and generally related to religious organizations. My experience with homelessness and lgbt issues taught me that relying on the charity of others, and not a formal social safety net, will only drive marginalized people further to the margins. Relying on someone else wanting to feel good about themselves to get what you need to survive isn't a good model.
    • mox1 7y ago
      And food banks tend to provide groceries, which is good for people with fridges and pantries..not as helpful for homeless or people living in their cars, friends couches, etc.
    • 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago
      I’m sorry you feel this way. The food bank I’ve volunteered with “in order to feel good at myself” literally just puts a bag of groceries in your trunk, or as much as you can carry.
      • JoeAltmaier 7y ago
        Have to have a trunk...even carrying groceries works only if you have someplace to put them. Don't get me wrong - bless you for your good work! But there's a difference between helping folks with some problems, and helping the homeless.
      • Loughla 7y ago
        That statement isn't intended to be mean or hateful. It's a statement of fact. Our current foodbank system is reliant on people wanting to help. There is no obligation. Many do it because it makes them feel good inside, and that's fine. The rest of my argument is still valid. Relying on charity for human survival is not a good system.
    • JoeAltmaier 7y ago
      Our town went into lockdown. I talked with Craig, a homeless guy I see occasionally. He said first day, kind young people came by with gloves, vitamin C tablets, some kind of facemask. After that - nothing. Its been weeks now. Charitable organizations can run down once the volunteers have done enough to feel helpful. Not a good thing to rely upon, not in our modern society.
  • austincheney 7y ago
    Yes. https://ntfb.org/ https://ntfb.org/
  • Glide 7y ago
    Yes... https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank
  • TulliusCicero 7y ago
    Yes: https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank
  • solotronics 7y ago
    If you have a stable tech job and are in a good position right now please donate cash to your local food bank. Many people have lost their jobs and schools are closed, lots of kids in lower income areas get most of their food from school meals.
    • brewdad 7y ago
      But donate cash, or at least contact them to see what, specifically, they need. Donating that 3 year old can of creamed corn hiding in the back of your pantry is worse than doing nothing at all.
• greendave 7y ago
  Seems like an extremely obvious thing to do, and yet so few places are willing/able. The food kitchens in the bay area are being hammered right now and we're barely 3 weeks into the shutdown. This is not something that private charity can handle.
• vsareto 7y ago
  Feeding people will always be a matter of profit: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-dairy-insight/u-s-dairy-farmers-dump-milk-as-pandemic-upends-food-markets-idUSKBN21L1DW https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-dairy-...
  • Melting_Harps 7y ago
    > Feeding people will always be a matter of profit: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-dairy-.. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-dairy-.... I agree, sadly; I have actually been focused on mitigating the losses inherit in the Supply Chain itself, as on a solely Calorie basis we could easily feed the entire population, and is for the most part already at a post-scarcity level despite all the turmoil with Factory Farming and especially State subsidies that distort the commercial aspects of Agriculture (see last paragraph). This underscores the 'what and why' better than anything I've seen so far and what can lead to Dairy Farmers being asked to dump milk to maintain prices via artificial scarcity: > The dairy industry’s woes signal broader problems in the global food supply chain, according to farmers, agricultural economists and food distributors. The dairy business got hit harder and earlier than other agricultural commodities because the products are highly perishable - milk can’t be frozen, like meat, or stuck in a silo, like grain. Other food sectors, however, are also seeing disruptions worldwide as travel restrictions are limiting the workforce needed to plant, harvest and distribute fruits and vegetables, and a shortage of refrigerated containers and truck drivers have slowed the shipment of staples such as meat and grains in some places. Leedle could likely sell his milk if he could get it to market. Dairy products in grocery stores have been in high demand as consumers stay home during the pandemic, though panic buying may be slowing. Earlier this week, a local market told Leedle’s wife she could buy only two dairy products total per shopping trip as retailers nationwide ration many high-demand products. Dairy cooperatives oversee milk marketing for all of their members and handle shipping logistics. Leedle said he will be paid for the milk he and other farmers are dumping, but the payments for all cooperative members will take a hit from the lost revenues.
    • pmoriarty 7y ago
      "milk can’t be frozen, like meat, or stuck in a silo, like grain" ...but it can be dried. I bought some powdered milk during my preparation and have been using it to cook with, for which it's been great. In a pinch you can drink it, or use it to extend fresh milk, if you have any. It can be stored for a long time, too. I know it's not ideal, but it's better than throwing milk away.
• DiffEq 7y ago
  With more people obese than not in this country, keeping people well fed is not a problem that we have.
  • toomuchtodo 7y ago
    https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/facts https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/facts > More than 38 million people are living in poverty in America. In 2019, most families living in poverty earn less than $25,750 per year. > More than 37 million people struggle with hunger in the United States, including more than 11 million children.
    • ensignavenger 7y ago
      Curious what their definition of "struggle with hunger" is? I couldn't find it on their site.
    • DiffEq 7y ago
      The people that run these organizations have an incentive to make this problem appear larger than it really is. I have never in my life seen in this country a starving person or a malnourished person for that matter and the government health statistics back me up. It is not a problem the U.S. has.
  • kingkawn 7y ago
    Tone deaf and self-righteous moralizing is absurd in this era
  • pmiller2 7y ago
    There's a big difference between "well fed" and "properly fed." "Well fed," to me, usually means "gets enough, or more than enough, to eat." "Properly fed" means "gets the right amount of food, and sufficient quantities of most nutrients." People don't often die of starvation in the United States. I don't have exact numbers, but if you exclude people who have eating disorders, I'm sure it's insignificant compared to almost every other cause of death. But, malnutrition is certainly a problem, and that problem gets worse when you have people who literally don't know where their next meal is coming from.
• jsonne 7y ago
  As of 2018 40 million Americans received more than 57 billion dollars in SNAP. It seems like largely the US has been and will continue to keep people fed. Note also that this is just 1 Federal program and doesn't mention the multitude of other state level and city level programs that exist as well as private charities, religious organizations, etc. Please note I am not saying the system is perfect, shouldn't be expanded, or is beyond criticism in some way. I just think that a more nuanced conversation is warranted if we're going to talk about these sorts of things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Nutrition_Assistance_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Nutrition_Assista...
  • Hello71 7y ago
    and yet according to the USDA, "11.1 percent of households were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 4.3 percent (5.6 million households) that had very low food security".
    • 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago
      So where’s the disconnect here? SNAP is widely available, so we need to investigate the gap.
      • jsjddbbwj 7y ago
        The gap are people who are given food stamps and they use them to buy soda or to exchange them for other goods.
      • soperj 7y ago
        57 billion into 40 million people = $1425. That's without any overhead. Say there was no overhead, that's $3.90 a day.
        • AlgorithmicTime 7y ago
          Which is actually more per person/day than me and my wife spend on ourselves... and we eat perfectly well!
• impostergc 7y ago
  Feeding people was solved in the 20th century, perhaps almost too easily. See correlation between poverty and obesity in the 21st century, vs the 19th century.
  • Robotbeat 7y ago
    Right. Food insecurity need not be a problem for anyone in the 21st Century. It should be like running out of oxygen: nearly impossible because it's essentially free and widely available.
    • impostergc 7y ago
      By essentially free, you mean easily attainable, but not "free" in the economic sense of costing nothing?
      • Robotbeat 7y ago
        Even oxygen has a cost from the pedantic point of view.
        • umanwizard 7y ago
          I can't understand in what sense you mean. Oxygen is so widespread in the environment that nobody has to expend any energy or resources to produce it, it is just there. Unlike food. (This comment is not meant to argue for or against the position that food should be provided by the State. I'm just trying to understand what you mean.)
  • munk-a 7y ago
    Obesity is strongly tied in with the fact that the food we're consuming is unhealthy - rather than the fact that it's purely excessive. One of those unhealthy factors is an overabundance of sugar and salt both of which fight satiation fueling the brain to overeat. We have plenty of food, but we've turned a large portion of it into unhealthy crap.
• gshdg 7y ago
  This is a crucial move. A LOT of kids in particular relied on school breakfasts and lunches. This will make sure they stay fed. And with a lot of people out of work, unemployment offices backlogged, and a long turnaround time for SNAP eligibility (and many of the newly unemployed ineligible for it anyway), the alternatives would likely involve some combination of mass starvation and food riots that destroy grocery stores.
  • throwaway894345 7y ago
    In Chicago the schools are still handing out lunches to parents/kids to come and pick up.
  • dysfunction 7y ago
    It was already the case for several weeks in NY that school-age kids could pickup free packaged meals from any school, the change in this announcement is expanding that to include adults.
• wobbly_bush 7y ago
  After the lockdown is lifted, do you think the fast food chains will allow for this to continue? How much of this could potentially eat into their revenues?
  • numpad0 7y ago
    Ad freebies usually create net positive impacts
• johnchristopher 7y ago
  Maybe we can make it out of this mess better than how we were when we got in it.
• deleted 7y ago
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• Alex3917 7y ago
  > We'd be so much better off as a society if we could at least keep our people fed. We need to bring back town farms. There is more than enough land within NYC that's currently being used for literally nothing that could instead be growing free food for anyone who wants it.
• sadfev 7y ago
  Right that’s exactly an advanced, rich and righteous country like ours needs Breads and Circuses! The socialism seed is deep and wretched in Tech Community. Affordable Healthcare? Sure! Charity Food for the rich and poor alike? What are we 1980s India?
• econcon 7y ago
  I wonder if the food will be delivered home, or you'll have to go to some store. Going to some store and lining up is very demoralising thing. If food comes to your home from normal delivery with no different labeling then for paying customers, we could achieve new moral highs.
  • greenyoda 7y ago
    There's no delivery. You have to pick the food up. According to NYC: > Starting today, 3 free meals will be available for ALL New Yorkers in more than 400 Meal Hubs, Mon-Fri: http://schools.nyc.gov/freemeals http://schools.nyc.gov/freemeals. Since it's being run by the Department of Education, the pickup locations will probably be at public schools (the same as when the program used to be only for school children).
  • badfrog 7y ago
    > Going to some store and lining up is very demoralising thing. Perhaps, but also it might be just annoying enough so that everybody who really needs the food is able to get it, and people who can afford food don't take it. If that works effectively, we're saving a lot of administrative costs and reducing barriers to entry compared to food stamps where you have to convince the government that you need it.
  • jariel 7y ago
    Is this satire? Not only should people get 'free food' but someone else should have to deliver it to them as well so that they have 'equality'?
• 11235813213455 7y ago
  would be better if they could deliver staple food, like rice, fruits/vegetables, rather than transformed products
  • badfrog 7y ago
    A bag of uncooked rice doesn't help somebody who's homeless or has had their gas/electric shut off.
• RIMR 7y ago
  This crisis is revealing a lot of things we could be doing during normal times. Releasing unconvicted people from crowded jails while they await trial. Why were they locked up to begin with? Allowing restaurants to offer sealed alcoholic beverages as take-out or delivery. Why was this not allowed already? Offering all COVID-19 treatment and testing free of charge. Why not do this with EVERY health problem, like cancer or diabetes? Allowing large bottles of hand sanitizer in your carry-on when flying. Why were we banning liquids in the first place, if the exception to the rules is a flammable liquid!?
• ThomPete 7y ago
  This is actually the case for new york kids in school allways.
• ttul 7y ago
  A general leftward trend is inevitable after this crisis passes. Neoliberalism is facing its toughest challenge; the nordic socioeconomic model has never looked better.
  • jariel 7y ago
    Nordic countries are pragmatically ethnocentric, mandatory military service, have state Churches and official state religions, popular Monarchies (Sweden's royal family is more popular in Sweden than the UK Monarchs in the UK), and people, in general, are nice but the furthest thing from 'PC' as we understand it. They are economically left-wing, but the culture is very closed. The very consideration of the 'Nordic Model' is almost absurd because it ignores the other 80% of the situation which is the social fabric that's not part of the political system. New York has 23% of the population functionally illiterate and there's a perfect correlation between literacy and success and health in every domain. So that would be a really good place to start. And there are a zillion obviously unfair things in the US that could be fixed. So much low-hanging fruit before a comparative basis is even needed.
• kryogen1c 7y ago
  >We'd be so much better off as a society if we could at least keep our people fed. this is not a statement you can make without qualifying. it is either a useless tautology (society would be better if society were better), or an actual argument about policy and procedures (if wealthier people paid more taxes, we could feed poorer people and society would be better). of course, no one says the second thing when that's what they mean because it is not self-evidently true. the core issue is complex and then the second- and third- order consequences are even more complex. this is to say nothing about which morals you presuppose about what a "better" society would be. > I wish could out last this virus. I have been wishing the opposite. my greatest fear is that the virus and soon-to-be depression will be used to push through some extreme political policy that will reshape America in a near-uncontrolled way.
  • JSavageOne 7y ago
    If you're going to make a rebuttal, then make a rebuttal. So far you haven't really said anything to refute his statement that society would be better off if everyone was guaranteed 3 meals per day.
    • kryogen1c 7y ago
      I rebut that it is ok to offer "society would be better" as an argument. its an emotion, not a debatable proposition. here, let me take your side: "given that good nutrition and a lack of stress from worrying about food allows people to develop more intellectually, raising taxes to pay for food welfare will actually raise money by introducing more workforce" there are principles you can attack (good nutrition aids brain development, less stress aids brain development), an action to attack (raising taxes), and projected results to attack (better brain development yields higher workforce participation, higher workforce participation will raise more money). this is an argument, something to be debated. "we'd be better if less people were hungry" is a useless platitude.
      • JSavageOne 7y ago
        Sure if one is attempting to write an academic paper or PhD thesis, then "society would be better off" is indeed not rigorous enough, I'll give you that.
• golergka 7y ago
  It's good that society is able of achieving that. It's very, very bad that it's achieved through the mechanism of central government, which uses coercion and a giant monopolic beurocracy apparatus in order to implement that.
• deleted 7y ago
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• erentz 7y ago
  I agree. It’s not great news in that it shouldn’t have to be this way. We’ve