Good Monday morning.
We are entering into a season of abundance – food, drink, gifts, celebrations etc. But it’s also traditionally a time to remember that as we enjoy ourselves and perhaps even over-indulge, there are many people who aren’t able to do so.
Though the U.S. is the world’s most affluent country, it is also home to some 34 million food insecure people – including 9 million children. (That number was considerably higher during the pandemic, due to a combination of economic instability, shutdowns that made it difficult for people to access food pantries and other support services, and supply chain disruptions).
Mississippi has ranked No. 1 on the top 10 “hungriest states” list for close to a decade, with 19 percent of its residents facing food insecurity – including one in four children.
It may seem counterintuitive to learn that this country, which has the world’s 12th highest obesity rate, also has a hunger problem. Comparatively, however, the U.S. does not come anywhere close to the top 10 hungriest countries around the world. But given our socioeconomic status, the aforementioned statistics are really a travesty.
Perhaps we should have started here, but let’s take a pause to review some definitions.
Hunger and food insecurity are not the same thing, though the terms are often used interchangeably. Hunger is the feeling an individual experiences when their body needs fuel in the form of food. Food insecurity is defined by the USDA as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.”
There are degrees of food security from low (reduced quality, desirability, or variety of diet, but no indication of reduced food intake) to very low (multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns (skipped meals) and/or reduced intake of food due to a household’s inability to purchase it – whether because they can’t access it, can’t afford it, or both).
Food insecurity can be exacerbated by the lack of available, fresh, high-quality and nutrient-dense food for purchase – a phenomenon known as a “food desert”. New York has quite a lot of these deserts in both rural and urban areas across the state.
The state Ag and Markets Department last year issued a report of an advisory group convened to come up with recommendations for improving access to healthy, locally produced food, focusing largely on issues of procurement. If dry and statistics-heavy reports are your thing, feel free to click the link above and go to town. Otherwise, here’s a highly simplified encapsulation of the findings: Food deserts and food insecurity remain a problem in New York, and the state is working on addressing it – still.
Today is World Food Day, which was established to commemorate the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945. The focus of this year’s World Food Day is on the importance of clean water to produce the crops necessary to feed the population.
Water, as we’ve discussed here before, is a precious commodity that we too often take for granted. We simply cannot live without it and we need to do a better job protecting and managing what we’ve got before it’s gone and/or too polluted to be of use. Full stop.
We’re in for mostly cloudy skies with a chance of showers and temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s.
In the headlines…
Diplomats were locked in frantic talks yesterday to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as an Israeli ground invasion appeared imminent.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza will reopen to humanitarian aid for Palestinians currently under siege by Israeli forces. But the Israeli prime minister’s office denied this was the case.
Hamas had not yet received confirmation from Egypt about the possible opening of the Rafah border crossing, the Palestinian militant group said in a statement early this morning.
A week after Hamas militants launched their deadly attack on southern Israel, world leaders and their intelligence agencies are scrambling through regional backchannels to contend with a hostage crisis of seemingly unprecedented global dimensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his emergency war cabinet yesterday and vowed to “demolish Hamas’’ as the Jewish nation’s ground invasion to root out the militant group in Gaza loomed.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency sounded an alarm, saying its aid workers will no longer be able to continue humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip unless new supplies are allowed into the besieged enclave.
Hospitals in Gaza are likely to run out of fuel within 24 hours, putting the lives of thousands of patients at “immediate risk”, the UN warned as Israel lays siege to the enclave in response to a devastating attack on its territory by Hamas.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the U.S. should not accept refugees from Gaza as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee from the north to the south, following Israeli government warnings to evacuate before an anticipated ground invasion.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden condemned the killing of a six-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois, which the police have linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, calling it a “horrific act of hate”.
The killing in Illinois alarmed Muslim leaders, who called on American politicians and journalists to more fully reflect the humanity of Palestinian people as they address the conflict overseas.
Biden warned Israel against occupying Gaza in one of his most notable public calls for restraint as the Israelis respond to this month’s terror attacks by Hamas.
The president is considering a trip to Israel in the coming days but no travel has been finalized, a senior administration official said. It would be a powerful symbol of sympathy and support following the brutal attack by Hamas.
A majority of Americans stand strongly behind Israel over Palestinians in their bitter decades-long territorial conflict —while an even stronger 66% support a “complete eradication” of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a new Rasmussen poll finds.
The White House announced the appointment of David Satterfield, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, to serve as Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the bipartisan Senate delegation visiting Israel were forced to shelter yesterday as Hamas fired rockets over Tel Aviv.
Schumer, 72, tweeted a picture of himself hunkering down alongside Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and other members of the trip.
Biden’s re-election campaign announced it had raised a combined $71.3 million alongside the Democratic National Committee and a joint fund-raising committee during the three-month period that ended in September.
The campaign touted nearly $91 million cash on hand across its fundraising entities as it prepares for a massive re-election effort.
The haul eclipses what Biden’s Republican rivals have amassed but falls short of where President Donald Trump was at this point four years ago.
Ethical concerns are casting a shadow over Biden as he seeks reelection amid investigations into his son Hunter and an impeachment inquiry, with a poll showing that 35% of U.S. adults believe the president himself has done something illegal.
As the former president dodges debates, it can seem as if he’s bypassing the primary. But he and his team have been working quietly to twist the delegate rules in their favor.
Trump’s former lawyer and self-described fixer Michael Cohen is delaying his testimony, which was scheduled to begin as early as tomorrow, in the former president’s ongoing civil fraud trial in a New York state court.
House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) said a vote to select a new Speaker of the House is expected tomorrow at noon.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) secured the Republican nomination for the seat on Friday after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who had won the Republican nomination for the role, dropped out of the race the day prior.
Allies of the Ohio Republican, who must persuade scores of his colleagues to support his bid for speaker, are threatening right-wing retribution to any G.O.P. lawmakers who dare oppose him.
Longtime state Assemblyman Michael Bragman, a former majority leader who infamously – and unsuccessfully – challenged the late Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, died on Friday at the age of 83. A cause of death was not immediately revealed.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a series of bills aimed at improving alcoholic beverage laws for consumers and small business owners.
The new laws allow for retail sale of beer, mead, braggot and cider on any day of the week, including Sundays, as well as expanded hours for liquor and wine stores. But counties can still set more restrictive hours.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams took aim at celebrities who “spew out” antisemitism during a speech at the city’s largest synagogue.
“Far too many sports figures and entertainers are using these new terminologies of credible messengers and influencers to spew out hateful thinking in general, but specifically antisemitism,” Adams said during his speech at the Temple Emanu-El.
Adams blamed “demonic energy” for Hamas terrorists’ bloody attacks on Israel while ripping non-believers who question his own faith in God.
Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov was arrested early Friday for openly carrying a handgun at a pro-Palestine protest, triggering calls for her ouster and the launch of an ethics investigation that could jeopardize her future as an elected official.
The Republican, who represents Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay and other nearby neighborhoods, was seen in photos and videos with the gun clipped to her waistband while at the Thursday demonstration at Brooklyn College’s Flatbush campus.
In a NY Post op-ed, Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres decried “a Democratic Socialist industrial complex that indoctrinates young Americans with an anti-Israel hatred so virulent that it renders them indifferent to the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
A group of Israeli-Americans has claimed responsibility for the unsolicited series of projections that appeared on the United Nations’ building in Manhattan last week showing children and elderly victims kidnapped by Hamas.
City emergency medical services workers continue to make measly pay – despite promises 25 years ago to provide them salaries comparable with firefighters and other uniformed officers, former Fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen said in a new interview.
A former Manhattan high school student claims in a new lawsuit that he was relentlessly bullied and severely beaten as a sophomore — but school administrators did nothing to stop it despite numerous complaints from him and his mom.
Two weeks after being inundated with more than seven inches of rain and runoff from Tropical Storm Ophelia, the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn remains temporarily closed for repairs with no reopening date scheduled, zoo officials said.
One of the Big Apple’s most iconic museums – the American Museum of Natural History – is ditching its collection of some 12,000 human remains — claiming the institution followed racist practices by robbing the graves of Indigenous and Black peoples.
Staten Island’s Freshkills was once the site of the world’s largest landfill — but it’s now home to what will become one of the biggest parks in the city.
Migrants, mostly from Mexico, are increasingly entering the U.S. across New York’s border with Canada. Authorities suspect smugglers and organized crime are driving the shift.
An insurance company will drop its coverage for the city of Saratoga Springs next year due to its “approach to risk and safety management,” an action that has triggered debate between two key city officials.
The parent company of the Menands-based manufacturing firm NSH USA is defending itself after a PBS “NewsHour” report that said it sold equipment to Russian factories that are producing weapons used in the invasion of Ukraine.
Two men from Saratoga County are dead and two injured after a remote hunting cabin in the Adirondacks caught on fire in the early morning hours Saturday.
Girls’ flag football, slated to be a new sport in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, is about to explode in the Capital Region.
An indoor pickleball facility featuring cabanas, refreshment service, a clubroom, and live match streaming from a court opens its doors Friday, Oct. 20.
Buffalo Bills running back Damien Harris suffered a neck injury and was taken off the field by ambulance against the New York Giants last night. He had movement in his arms and legs, the Bills said, and was taken to a local hospital for additional testing.
Suzanne Somers, who gained fame by playing a ditsy blonde on the sitcom “Three’s Company” and then by getting fired when she demanded equal pay with the series’ male star — died at her home in Palm Springs, Calif. She was one day away from turning 77.
Rite Aid, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the US, filed for bankruptcy, weighed down by billions of dollars in debt, declining sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits claiming it filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers.
