NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Some New Yorkers receiving food deliveries through the city's COVID-19 assistance program have been getting too many packages at once, or packages containing unhealthy snacks like chips and cookies — issues Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday told 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa would be corrected after she brought it to his attention.
A listener from Astoria emailed 1010 WINS on Tuesday saying he and his mother, who is in her 80s, have been receiving kosher meals through the COVID-19 assistance program.
And while the food packages were fine for several weeks, the past two weeks' worth have been filled with potato chips, chocolate chip cookies and challah rolls with peanut butter and jelly, he said.
Another listener getting non-kosher meals in Manhattan received nine of the same chicken-based meals in a single delivery, Papa said during de Blasio's daily briefing Wednesday morning.
"While (the listeners are) very appreciative, they're wondering if there's any way to fix that," she said.
The mayor told Papa he would have the city's "food czar," Kathryn Garcia, and her team look into the problem.
"I don't know what's going on with the potato chips and the cookies and all that. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have some fun in life and some of that, but I'm hearing about too much of that, and so I want to make sure that our meals are nutritious, and are balanced, and… that people are getting quality food," he said. "That's certainly not the goal, to give people food that's not going to make them healthy."
"Now of course people should not be getting food delivered for days and days ahead," he added. "There's a certain number of days ahead that is normal — they do that with Meals on Wheels, for example — but there's a limit to that, so we have to figure out that and correct that."
"Folks who need kosher meals, folks who need halal meals, we have to get that right every time obviously," he went on to say.
De Blasio on Wednesday also said the city would do "whatever… it takes" to make sure religious schools adhere to COVID-19 shutdown orders. The city on Monday issued a cease and desist order to a yeshiva in Bedford-Stuyvesant that was conducting classes with "as many as 70 children."
During the mayor's briefing, Papa said she'd "been told of another yeshiva operating in Brooklyn, this one in Crown Heights."
The mayor responded, saying community leaders "have been outstanding in making clear that this is a pandemic and everybody has to act differently."
"For the very few who are not getting the message despite the fact that all their community leaders said it time and time again, the best way to solve the problem is to shut them down," he said.
"And if we need to use summonses, and if we need to do a cease and desist order from the Department of Health, we'll do that. If we need to close the building, we'll do that," he said. "Whatever the heck it takes, we will do it."
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