Res. No. 1627 Title Resolution urging the New York City Board of Education to implement a school lunch recovery program based on the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Recovery and Gleaning Program, where excess food would be donated to emergency food programs and soup kitchens. Body By Council Members Sabini, DiBrienza, Freed, Henry, Linares, Marshall, Miller, Provenzano, Reed, Warden, Perkins, Rodriguez, Fiala, Golden, Oddo, Stabile and Abel; also Council Members Eisland, Fisher, Leffler, Michels, Moskowitz, Nelson, O'Donovan, Robles, Cruz and Spigner. Whereas, The United States Department of Agriculture has estimated that over 30 million Americans are in danger of going hungry; and Whereas, According to a City Harvest Childhood Hunger Fact Sheet, the United States Department of Agriculture reports that there are nearly 400,000 people in New York City, approximately 118,000 of them children, that are suffering from "moderate to severe" hunger; and Whereas, A Hunger Fact Sheet released by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger on October 14, 1999, reported that requests for emergency food in New York City grew by 36% from January 1998 to January 1999; and Whereas, The Hunger Fact Sheet released by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger also indicated that 73,832 hungry people in New York City were turned away by 221 emergency food programs in January 1999 alone, the equivalent of 2,382 people per day; and Whereas, The United States Department of Agriculture has estimated that each year approximately 96 billions pounds of food are being wasted at the retail and food service levels throughout the country; and Whereas, In an effort to curb the amount of food being wasted, in 1996 the United States Department of Agriculture started a Food Recovery and Gleaning Initiative; and Whereas, As part of the Food Recovery and Gleaning Initiative, in July 1998 the United States Department of Agriculture established a Food Recovery and Gleaning Grants Project that awarded one-year grants of up to $10,000 to twelve school districts around the country so that they can help promote food recovery and gleaning efforts at the school level; and Whereas, Two of the schools chosen as part of the Food Recovery and Gleaning Grants Project -- the Hewlett-Woodmere Union Free School District and the Lawrence Union Free School District -- are located within New York State; and Whereas, As a result of the Food Recovery and Gleaning Grants Project, the United States Department of Agriculture was able to issue a report titled, "Best Practices for Food Recovery and Gleaning in the National School Lunch Program;" and Whereas, The Report contains descriptions of the school food recovery efforts at the twelve selected schools districts that can serve as models for other school districts in the country that want to get involved in donating excess food to the needy; and Whereas, The New York City Board of Education currently has one of the largest food preparation programs in the nation -- preparing approximately 810,000 meals on a daily basis; and Whereas, Due to numerous factors such as student absences and school field trips, the New York City Board of Education does not get to serve all of the meals allotted and almost always discards the majority that are left over; and Whereas, According to some food recovery and gleaning advocates if just 2 1/2 to 5% of the meals served in the New York City public school system could be recovered, between 20,000 and 40,000 additional meals could be served to the poor each day; now, therefore be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York urges the New York City Board of Education to implement a school lunch recovery program based on the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Recovery and Gleaning Program, where excess food would be donated to emergency food programs and soup kitchens. RA 11/3/2000 H:/word/resolutions/sabini/ls#3654 |1013| |1013|