“We will not let any New Yorker go hungry, Period!” : Mayor Bill de Blasio at the Kingsbridge Armory

Below, you’ll find one video of the Mayor speaking today and farther down on the page a candid video of the Mayor’s tour of the Armory

Today, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio would tour the Kingsbridge Armory. Located in the Bronx borough the armory is serving as one of a number of emergency food distribution sites in the city. Also present were numerous agency heads: Food Czar Kathryn Garcia, NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver, Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Commissioner Deanne Criswell and others.

The Mayor would recently state that at least ½ a million New Yorkers have lost their jobs due to the economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown of the city and state.

As part of a major program by NYC Government Agencies to ensure that no New Yorker goes hungry, millions upon millions of dollars would be poured into such projects, food pantries and other plans to distribute food to those who need it.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission would as well play a part in the delivery process. The following is an excerpt from their page where drivers can sign up and help out.

The City has created the GetFoodNYC Food Delivery Program to provide food for coronavirus (COVID-19)-vulnerable and food-insecure New Yorkers not currently served through existing food delivery programs.

We are asking TLC-licensed drivers to participate in this important work by assisting in delivering food to New Yorkers who must stay home.

Drivers will receive $15 per hour, plus reimbursement for mileage and tolls.

Below the following video is a partial related transcript of the Mayor’s speech as well as that of Commissioner Garcia.

Mayor de Blasio and other Agency Leaders speaking today

Mayor de Blasio:

“Everybody, I want you to understand the sheer magnitude of what is happening here, it’s unbelievable. I was just hearing, 14,000 meals arrived at the Armory here on Monday to help folks in the Bronx who needed food to eat. 20,000 meals will go out today. 30,000 meals will go out tomorrow. To everyone who is doing this work, you’re doing the lord’s work. It’s absolutely amazing!  (Applause) Thank you, God Bless You All.”

“There are so many people to thank here and appreciate but I just want to say, when I see all these men and women in public service in this city who’ve done so much to help their fellow New Yorkers it just really makes me feel proud – and I’m always, always appreciative when I see our men and women from the military here to help us – in this case, our National Guard stepping up for us. Let’s give them a round of applause to all of them, thank you.”

“Every single New Yorker’s feeling this crisis. Everybody who knows someone who has this disease, knows someone we’ve lost or is fighting this disease themselves, the family is – everyone’s feeling it. We all know a lot of people who’ve lost their jobs – a lot of people listening right now, watching right now have no employment – they had a job a month ago, they don’t have it anymore. So what we’re seeing all over this city is the deepest kind of need. It came on so suddenly like nothing we have ever seen in generations in this city. There are a lot of people right now who are hungry. There are a lot of people asking where will my next meal come from. It’s a shocking reality that a city, just a month or two ago – so many things were strong, so many people had jobs , so many things were working then out of nowhere this virus took away people’s livelihoods – and now there’s tremendous insecurity. In the face of that so many of the people you see here stepped up and they knew they had to do something quick. To make sure people could get food. There was talk about so many people who never had to ask for food before – talking about something where there was not a system to feed millions of people but it had to be created on the spot. Again, think about what it feels like to everyone who has to wonder where their next meal is coming from – how much fear, how much anxiety that creates.”

“So, my message today is simple. My message is back up by everyone of these good people. By all these boxes you see, by all these cars coming through. We will not let any New Yorker go hungry, Period. This is one of many operations around the city that proves the point. “

Commissioner Garcia:

“I want to thank the Mayor for coming up here. As you can see, you cannot be getting this done without all the different agencies coming together and bringing their talent – whether that was the Parks Department , OEM, the National Guard, TLC – this is really a collaborative effort. I just wanted to give you some idea of the numbers when we announced the food plans earlier this week – I think we were at about 4.5 million meals that we had either provided through DLE or provided through this program and as of yesterday night we were close to 6 million meals. So were ramping up to meet that need . This is one of nine distribution sites in the city. We anticipate that we will be expanding as the week goes on to really make sure that we are out there  and getting food to the people in need.”

Candid video capture of the Mayor and Agency leaders showing his will to strengthen and encourage our city’s troops…whether they be political, military or civilian