Uneaten and Trashed: The 5,000 Migrant Meals That New York Wasted in a Single Day

Uneaten and Trashed: The 5,000 Migrant Meals That New York Wasted in a Single Day.

Internal company records reveal that DocGo, which is eligible to receive up to $11 for each meal, discards thousands of uneaten meals every day.
In upstate and western New York, migrants have lodged complaints regarding their treatment at hotel shelters, citing the subpar food as one of their main grievances.
According to internal corporate data obtained by The New York Times, New York City is shelling out tens of thousands of dollars a month for meals that are meant to nourish migrants but are never consumed and are thrown away instead.

The food is supplied by DocGo, a medical services provider that, in spite of its lack of prior experience, was awarded a $432 million no-bid contract by the city to offer comprehensive migrant care.

DocGo provides three meals a day to each of the approximately 4,000 migrants under its care in exchange for up to $33 per day per migrant. The Times was able to get internal corporate data from DocGo that show that the company recorded over 70,000 meals as “wasted” between October 22 and November 10.

Considering that the contract allowed for a maximum charge of $11 per meal, the wasted food during that 20-day period would have cost taxpayers around $776,000, or roughly $39,000 each day. At that rate, the monthly cost of the discarded food would be more than $1 million, in addition to the billions of budget cuts Mayor Eric Adams is making to assist fund the city’s migrant care expenses.

The most recent problem pertaining to DocGo’s treatment of refugees is food waste. The company was accused of mistreating migrants, among other things, and this summer the state attorney general launched an investigation into the matter.
The company recently started ordering fewer meals to decrease waste, according to a spokesman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which is in charge of overseeing the $432 million DocGo contract. This move is part of the agency’s attempt to cut $66 million from the programme by the end of next year.

According to city officials, DocGo has reduced its average cost per lunch to $7.82. Based on the frequency of food waste documented in DocGo papers, that translates to around $28,000 of food wasted daily, or roughly $800,000 monthly.

Leading the Committee on Oversight and Investigations, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, called it disrespectful that migrant meals were being thrown in the trash at a time when budget cuts are planned for libraries, schools, and garbage collection services.

“We’re asking for cuts while we are wasting food,” Ms. Brewer stated, pointing out that it is highly costly for the public.

There is no evidence that DocGo is purposefully overcharging the city for meals that are left uneaten, and business representatives have not been accused of misconduct. According to its contract, meal expenses must be considered a “pass-through” charge to the city, meaning the business would not make any profit.

Food waste may occur occasionally. Since many migrants prepare for themselves in their hotel rooms, many are not present when meals are provided, particularly during the day when they may be working or looking for job.

However, the meal itself appears to be the fundamental issue. Some migrants claim they were ill after consuming the food, while others have complained about mould growth and other problems with the quality.

Officials at DocGo are aware of persistent problems with the food’s quality, but it doesn’t seem like their efforts have made much of a difference: Records indicate that on November 6, more than 5,000 dinners were thrown out.

Officials from the company have played down the concerns, claiming that the media had only highlighted a few disgruntled “guests,” as DocGo refers to the migrants under its care, and that they were neglecting the company’s usually excellent performance history as revealed by internal polls.

The veracity of the company’s internal documentation documenting the food waste revealed by The Times was not contested by local officials or DocGo. However, they claimed—without providing any supporting data—that 93% of the food the business feeds immigrants is eaten.

Rob Ford, a DocGo representative, stated in a statement that “The data presented by The New York Times is once again taken out of context and is not accurate.” “On behalf of N.Y.C., DocGo actively seeks to identify opportunities for savings by continuously monitoring food consumption.”

But inside its own database, DocGo detailed specific instances of thousands of uneaten meals being thrown away from its hotels located in and around New York City, the Hudson Valley, the state capital region, and Western New York.

One shift report from a hotel in Western New York from recently states, “24 Chicken Alfredo & 24 Spaghetti Chicken Dinner Wasted From Friday.” When 110 supper entrees at the Holiday Inn in downtown Albany on November 12 were destroyed, another report that The Times examined referred to the event as a “normal night” for the hotel, which is said to have 230 guests overall.

In an Oct. 31 shift report, a DocGo supervisor at the Brooklyn Vybe Hotel—which, according to statistics, accommodates roughly 200 migrants—wrote that 184 meals were lost during lunch alone.

When asked if the migrants enjoyed the food, the supervisor nevertheless checked the “Yes” box. This is a typical reaction from supervisors in spite of copious evidence to the contrary, including their own documented observations.

In her notes for the shift report on October 24, a DocGo supervisor at the Red Roof Plus in the Buffalo suburbs noted that the migrants “dislike the food strongly.”

Even as she marked the “Yes” box when asked if the migrants had appreciated the food, she wrote, “Clients angry and claim that the food has mould and is making them sick.” A supervisor at a Buffalo, New York, Quality Inn marked the box identically, noting that 74 meals—20 breakfast sandwiches, 26 beef enchiladas, and eight veggie trays—were thrown out.

The Ramada Plaza in Albany was visited by The Times this past summer, when residents who were immigrants voiced complaints about the food and service they received. A few of them followed up with more grievances and proof that food was being thrown away. The Times was reportedly informed by two former DocGo subcontractors that they frequently witnessed leftover food being thrown out of Albany hotels.

When a supervisor told DocGo on October 23 that the “hotel has a lot of issues, such as a lot of bedbugs, broken door locks,” a need “to be clean more often,” and a security camera that is “really spotty,” food waste was essentially a footnote at the dilapidated Super 8 in Schenectady County.

Although dozens of uneaten “Latina” meals increased the overall number of discarded lunches to 80 that day, the supervisor appeared to be celebrating the fact that just 10 out of 75 halal meals were thrown out.

Records and interviews show that the refugees are frequently figuring out how to prepare their own meals in their apartments.

In late October, the Red Roof Plus supervisor near Buffalo reported, “Almost every single resident has cooking appliances in their rooms.”

After the food caused a stir, DocGo representatives promised to improve. Anthony Capone, the company’s then-CEO, made a commitment in mid-August to bring new options, such as Halal food for Muslim immigrants and items that the community’s large Hispanic population would find appealing.

According to Mr. Capone, “the food vendors that they would like are the ones that they are going to get on a daily basis” in Albany, WNYT.

Soon, migrant-favorite food was being served by neighbourhood vendors. Empanada Llama, a Peruvian restaurant that offered Latino-focused fare in a buffet style, was one of the new suppliers.

“You bring homemade food,” they remarked. Maria Lloyd, a co-owner of the restaurant, recalls the refugees telling her, “This is so good.”

However, she went on to say that DocGo had instructed her to package the meals into individual containers and create labels with calorie and nutritional information. In a city where eateries are still struggling to recover from the coronavirus outbreak, the catering business was a blessing, but after only a few weeks, Ms. Lloyd departed because she felt it wasn’t worth the trouble.

About the same time, Mr. Capone suddenly announced his resignation after admitting on his resume that he had falsified a graduate degree in artificial intelligence.