FOOD FOR NOUGHT
A controversial contractor being paid millions by the Big Apple to handle migrant services is tossing away tens of thousands of uneaten meals prepared for migrants — including 5,000 on a single day, company records show.
DocGo, which was awarded a $432 million no-bid contract by Mayor Adams’ administration to help relocate migrants upstate, receives up to $33 per day to provide three meals for each of the 4,000 asylum-seekers in its care, The New York Times reported.
A significant number of those meals, however, are being trashed — with more than 70,000 having been “wasted” between Oct. 22 and Nov. 22, internal records obtained by the newspaper show.
More than 5,000 meals for asylum-seekers were thrown out on Nov. 6 alone, the records show.
DocGo — the COVID testing-turned-migrant shelter firm — charges the city $11 per meal, which is the maximum allowed under its contract.
Based on that figure, the cost of the discarded food over that 20day stretch would have set taxpayers back roughly $776,000 — or $39,000 a day.
According to a recent log from a migrant hotel in Western New York, “24 Chicken Alfredo & 24 Spaghetti Chicken Dinner” were wasted one night. A report from Brooklyn Vybe Hotel showed 184 lunch meals were tossed Oct. 31.
And 110 dinners were thrown out Nov. 12 at the Holiday Inn in Albany, the records show.
A DocGo spokesperson said, without elaborating, that the data cited by the Times was “not accurate” and that 93% of the meals are consumed.
‘Waste is outrageous’
“DocGo has continued to deliver on its contractual obligations and has ordered no more than 3 meals daily for each asylum seeker,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “DocGo continually monitors food consumption and works to proactively identify opportunities for savings . . . The cost of all meals is passed through directly to the City without any markup.”
The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which oversees the DocGo contract, said the average meal price recently dropped to $7.82.
Details of the wasted food emerged at a time when Mayor Adams is making controversial widespread budget cuts to pay for the billion dollar migrant crisis.
“Something’s going on, and the waste is outrageous,” Gale Brewer, the chair of the City Council’s investigation committee, told The Post. “I’ve got all these nonprofits that do human services being cut in the budget — I don’t understand how we have a ledger like that.”
Some migrants at the Roosevelt Hotel intake center told The Post they often throw out their meals.
“The food is bad . . . it’s cold,” a 26-year-old from Venezuela said. “I prefer to buy my own food and prepare it myself.”
State Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Hochul’s offices have launched probes into DocGo over complaints that the company misled or mistreated migrants.