As many as 40% of U.S. military veterans in New York City need help with food, according to the head of the city’s Food Bank service.
Monica Miller reports for New York’s WCBS 880 that Margarette Purvis, president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City, said during a speech in the Bronx yesterday, November 10, 2013, that veterans are returning to New York City from their service only to be faced with going hungry.
Purvis said: “On this Veterans Day, when we’re waving our flags — I need every New Yorker to know — 40 percent of New York City veterans are relying on soup kitchens and pantries. That is not a guesstimate; that is a fact.”
40% of NYC veterans amounts to 95,000 people.
Purvis added that matters will only get worse now that $5 billion has been cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
If what Purvis said is true, that’s a disgrace, and especially sad on Veterans’ Day.
~Eowyn
