Talk Bronx New York

Frozen Meals On Wheels Leave Some Salty 

A controversial proposal to dramatically change the City’s Meals-on-Wheels program is in poor taste, according to those fighting the plan.

In 2004 the City implemented a pilot program in The Bronx, called Senior Options, and drastically changed the face of Meals-on-Wheels across the borough. Before the change senior meals were prepared locally by a neighborhood non-profit, and were delivered hot and fresh the same day. Senior Options replaced those fresh meals with a standard issue food from a single provider and removed the local non-profits from the mix altogether, placing deliveries in the hands of larger, centralized organizations.

But the lasting effect of Senior Options has been the introduction of frozen meals to Bronx seniors. Before the changes seniors received a hot meal everyday. Now, they can opt for a hot meal each day or to receive the same meal as part of a frozen delivery twice a week. The Department for the Aging (DFTA), in an effort to modernize senior centers across the five boroughs, is proposing to mimic the Bronx pilot program across the City.

Bronx City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, a staunch opponent of Senior Options from its inception, is fighting DFTA’s expansion plan. Though concerns have been raised about the actual cost benefits of the frozen meal switch and the critical role that delivery persons play in checking the health and safety of citywide seniors, Koppell is urging his colleagues to reject the plan because the meals, simply put, suck.

In a letter to other City Council members Koppell cites complaints from his constituents regarding the “poor quality of the food” provided by the Long Island-based Whitsons Culinary Group, adding that they have “complained bitterly about the tasteless, salty and generally low quality frozen meals.”

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Our reader says:

“I am beginning to think that we were Bamboozled by the Bronx Borough President who gave our parkland to the Yankee Organization.”

  The new Yankee Stadium, with a 2009 target date, is being built near the old one in the Bronx.

Building Yankee Stadium But High & Dry On Funds 

Several years ago, as the Yankees negotiated to build a new stadium in the South Bronx, the neighborhood faced the realities of a massive construction project in its midst: parks would be closed and moved, traffic would be horrendous, life would be, for a while, a hassle.

So, as one way to make up for these inconveniences, the Yankees and elected officials signed a community benefits agreement. It required that the team would give roughly $1.2 million a year, starting when the work began, to various community groups through a special panel. The deal was similar to agreements in other major projects, like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem.

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