Brooklyn schools free grab n go lunch

nanny24/7

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 5:52 pm

NYC will begin later this week offering kosher meals at select public school locations throughout. In Williamsburg it starts tomorrow and the other locations it starts Thursday the 23rd.

Here below is the link and a list of locations that have the kosher option excerpted from that link.

I assume the pick up times are the same as all public schools, 7:30 am to 11:30 am for children and families and 11:30 am until 1:30 for adults only. If you go before 11:30 they ask each person how many people are in the family and give for everyone for the whole day 3 meals. No ID needed and no one would be turned away.
I presume after 11:30 they only give single portions/packages of 3 meals for the day for each adult person coming but I don't know.

I went to a public school right near me this morning which was not offering Kosher food but I figured maybe some stuff is anyways Kosher especially the packaged foods which was indeed the case. I said I don't want anything made from poultry and meat and the security guard said not to worry there isn't that anyway and there are just some cheese sandwhiches.
Turns out a bunch of the sandwiches are bologna salami slices and cheese together (well packaged and sealed individually) and I remembered there is halachic question of giving a non Jew food that is meat and dairy together so I just threw them out. Nevermind I had no one to give them to.
Now I see that the link says all public schools have vegetarian options available so I am curious what that would include if I asked for that.
The breakfasts they gave some had small sealed sunflower butter cups OU Parve from Sunbutter brand, some had General Mills fruity cheerios also OU Parve, and I think all the breakfasts had 1 apple juice little juice box with a Star K hechsher from Suncup brand. Some of the lunches had small whole fresh red delicious apples. Also lots of the meals if not maybe all had small individual cartons of milk. All were OU -D (chalav stam). Some of the milk was fat free and some low fat and I think some chocolate milk. Some of the breakfasts had OU-D cholov stam graham crackers small individual packages. Everything else was not kosher including frozen fruit cups, sandwhiches, and grape jelly.

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https://www.schools.nyc.gov/sc.....meals

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Kosher Meals
We now include sites that offer exclusively kosher certified meals.Three Kosher meals a day will be available to any New Yorker who wants one at ten sites in Brooklyn and Queens. The sites are listed below and can also be found in the Meal Hub look up tool.

Kosher meals follow the USDA meal nutrition guidelines and are produced in partnership with a certified kosher distributor. Our kosher meal sites are housed in DOE school buildings and staffed by DOE food service staff. Meals offered at our kosher meal sites are free and available to any New Yorker that requests them.

****Opening April 21, 2020*****
Williamsburg
PS 132 The Conselyea School – 320 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn 11211
PS 257 John F Hylan – 60 Cook Street, Brooklyn 11206

****Opening Thursday, April 23, 2020****
Far Rockaway
P.S. 197 The Ocean School - 825 Hicksville Road, Queens 11691
P.S. 253 - 1307 Central Avenue, Queens 11691
Flushing/Kew Gardens
P.S. 154 Queens - 75-02 162 Street, Queens 11366
P.S. 215 - 535 Briar Place, Queens 11691
Crown Heights
P.S. 289 George V. Brower - 900 St Marks Avenue, Brooklyn 11213
I.S. 2 - 655 Parkside Avenue, Brooklyn 11226
Boro Park
P.S. 192 - The Magnet School For Math And Science - 4715 18 Avenue, Brooklyn 11204
Midwood
P.S. 197 - The Kings Highway Academy - 1599 East 22 Street, Brooklyn 11210
***************

Edited to clarify that I was referring to the regular non Kosher meals available at any public school when I discussed what I received this morning.

amother

Scarlet

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:40 pm

Private Schools are making money of this. Should we rather go to our school and support them or public school???

groovy1224

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:44 pm

amother [ Scarlet ] wrote:

Private Schools are making money of this. Should we rather go to our school and support them or public school???

sorry, what?

cnc

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:46 pm

groovy1224 wrote:

sorry, what?

I’m not that another - but yes private schools are reimbursed through the lunch program.

groovy1224

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:47 pm

cnc wrote:

I’m not that another - but yes private schools are reimbursed through the lunch program.

Okay, but still- not clear on her point.

bobeli

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:47 pm

So how do they make money?

cnc

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:55 pm

bobeli wrote:

So how do they make money?

Schools are given x amount per meal that they serve. They need to include specific components in the meal . As with every business , if they shop wisely they make a profit - it’s as simple as that.

Why else do you think schools are doing you this favor and providing meals now? It’s labor intensive and they need to have staff to service ..... obviously it’s worthwhile for them .

groovy1224

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:58 pm

cnc wrote:

But these new schools that are beginning to provide kosher meals in queens, far rockaway, brooklyn, etc. are all public schools. Only private schools are being reimbursed for the meals?

amother

Oak

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 8:02 pm

Which boro park school gave good stuff?

ra_mom

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 8:04 pm

groovy1224 wrote:

But these new schools that are beginning to provide kosher meals in queens, far rockaway, brooklyn, etc. are all public schools. Only private schools are being reimbursed for the meals?

Public schools are directly funded by the DOE. Public schools receive reimbursements.

cnc

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 8:04 pm

groovy1224 wrote:

But these new schools that are beginning to provide kosher meals in queens, far rockaway, brooklyn, etc. are all public schools. Only private schools are being reimbursed for the meals?

Public schools don’t need to “be reimbursed from the government “ . Everything “they” spend is essentially government funding .

The public schools are simply pickup locations. I’m assuming that the city contracted with a kosher vendor for the Kosher grab n go meals ....

If you look at the DOE website- every single public school is providing the same (non kosher ) daily food menu. The school itself simply serves as a pickup location.

groovy1224

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 8:13 pm

cnc wrote:

Makes sense, but my original question was directed at the amother who seemed to be asking why people are 'supporting' public schools vs their own schools. Seems to me like A) it's a non question, as by picking up meals at a public school, you're not really 'supporting' them, and B)it's not like people have a choice as to where to pick up their meals, it's just whatever location is near you.

nanny24/7

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 8:53 pm

Here is a link to the Kosher Certification for the Kosher meals at specific public schools later this week (see my post above).

https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.....2cd_2

The hechsher is the Volova hechsher which is actually the same as Rabbi Nachum Ephraim Teitelbaum (it's written his name as part of the Volova Kashrus symbol.)
I am pretty sure it also has OU supervision since it says so on Borenstein Caterers website which is the company providing the meals.

goforit

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:05 pm

https://I.imgur.com/6VjT78U.jpg

amother

Blush

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:08 pm

nanny24/7 wrote:

How long did you have to wait? Too crowded?

amother

Natural

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:26 pm

I'm confused about the details. If the public schools are giving 3 meals to all people, why are the private schools limited to one meal (lunch) to just children? Why can't private schools give 3 meals to everyone likewise?

Will the new DOE locations give 3 meals including to adults? If so, that's a major draw.

(If anyone goes to the new DOE locations, please update with details!)

nanny24/7

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:45 pm

To answer questions from both posters above I went to the public school about 9:00 am and there were only 5 or less people ahead of me. The people packing everything up and giving it out were very efficient and I waited less than 5 minutes. I passed by later that day around 11:30 am the same school and saw a line of about 20 people waiting.
I am not in a "prime" neighborhood so I have no idea what the lines might be in each public school.
As far as 3 meals versus only lunch, IMHO the one meal of lunch you might get at a frum school is way more worthwhile or at least just as worthwhile than what you get from the public school. Did you get a chance to read the full "menu" of what the public school gave?
There was no dinner, only lunch or breakfast, and now that I think of it I didn't actually count how many portions there were and I think there was actually only breakfast and lunch for each person and no third meal.
The most "lavish" and filling meal was just a cheese sandwhich. The breakfast meals were very small. I am having a hard time imagining anyone over the age of 6 that would actually be full from that but I don't know, maybe my kids just eat a lot. They did not give larger portions for older kids or adults.
The menus are listed on the NYC website , the same website from the link I posted above. Supposedly each lunch includes 1 fruit and 1 vegetable but I only got 2 very small apples and no vegetables at all.
Compare that from some other menus I am hearing about from frum schools like a full family size box of cereal, half gallon bottles of milk, sometimes 2 of each item for larger families or perhaps open request, full loaves of sliced bread, frozen pizza bagels, frozen knishes, full packages of grape tomatoes, etc... I don't think you have what to complain about against the frum schools. Besides that Kosher food is always more expensive plus the DOE funding the public schools have such a mass scale of food supply that I am sure they can negotiate very low prices on everything they provide with their suppliers.

Ema of 5

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:46 pm

amother [ Scarlet ] wrote:

Private Schools are making money of this. Should we rather go to our school and support them or public school???

How are private schools making money? If they are giving out meals from the state, they are free, and private schools should not be charging for them. I see no reason why people should be paying for something that should be free.

cnc

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:48 pm

Ema of 4 wrote:

They’re making money because they’re reimbursed for meals that they distribute.

Ema of 5

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:48 pm

cnc wrote:

These schools in Brooklyn are charging for meals? I throughly they were free? These meals are being provided by the city, there should be no charge.