Add Passion And Stir

How do you feed 1.5M of people every day? NYC Department of Sanitation commissioner and recently appointed food czar Kathryn Garcia talks to Billy Shore about leading the city’s massive and complicated hunger relief efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s really been the sheer scale and magnitude of how many people are in need. Not any one piece of it is necessarily difficult in and of itself, but the scale is really massive,” says Garcia. “We’re a city of incredible variation. We need to be able to deliver the right food at the right time… People want to eat the food that comes from their culture, and if it doesn’t, they may not eat what you deliver to them,” she notes. With more than 500 public schools distributing food every day, Garcia reflects on what she’s learned about school nutrition programs. “There are specific funding streams that drive the development of the programs, rather than being more kid focused. What works for [the kids] rather than what works for reimbursement?,” she asks.