NEW YORK — Raw, cold and expired. This is how the refugees living in the Row Hotel in Manhattan describe the food the city serves them.
Those staying at the Times Square hotel point to the pasta covered in dollops of fat and the meatballs frozen in the middle when served. They are also putting pressure on shelter staff who told the New York Post that they are wasting taxpayer money by refusing to eat the free meals.
“Sometimes the food smells bad. It’s rotten. And every time the kids eat, it’s like they have food poisoning,” said one mother, Diana, who is staying at the shelter with her two children.
But Mayor Eric Adams hinted Thursday that the food isn’t the problem, the migrants are just being picky.
“People may have a different cultural taste for certain foods; we can’t do that. We can only provide nutritious food for people,” he said.
Adams and the hospital chief who now runs the shelter at the Row Hotel, which has become home to hundreds of Latin American immigrants, insist there is nothing wrong with the food. But a letter sent last month from Harlem Hospital asks the Row Hotel to transfer a family due to parental concerns that “children lost weight due to limited food resources.”
One mother of three said, “It’s not about what my kids like or don’t like. If food was edible, I’d make them eat it.”
In recent months, the city has struggled to house thousands of migrants bused in from the border, using emergency hotels as refuge destinations, many without cooking facilities.
Another mother, Rosalina, said her 32nd Street shelter refused a written request from her son’s pediatrician after 4-year-old Anthuan suffered an acute illness. The doctor asked the shelter to provide soft food and housing with a kitchen.
In a statement, Anthuan pediatrician Dr. Kendall Rao said, “Among the pediatric asylum-seeking patients I have been seeing, there has been an increase in the number of children reporting gastrointestinal problems, such as poor appetite, nausea , vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. Many of these young children seem to be having a hard time adjusting to the food here. It seems to be causing a shock to their developing digestive systems.”
Anthuan says that he keeps telling his mom that he is hungry and asks her what they have to eat in their new temporary home. The clinic where Dr. Rao works has cared for more than 150 refugee children since the beginning of the migration crisis.
City Councilor Julie Won, who chairs the Contracts Committee, said the city is starving some of the hotels, paying only $3-$4 per person per day for food.
“Can you imagine what that means, if it’s $3.44 for three meals, what does that mean per plate? Is it $1 and some cents? Can you imagine what the edibles must be to create that meal? What are you eating? What Are you feeding people?” Won asked.
The councilwoman said she plans to hold a hearing on the matter.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Adams says all hotel guests are offered a selection of food that reflects their diets and is prepared the same day to ensure freshness. They say all guests were surveyed about their food preferences and the city will try to prevent waste in the future by ordering only the number of meals residents say they want.
