Have it your way, Christine Quinn– and thanks for nothing.
No sooner had Burger King announced that it would roll out food carts in 40 cities nationwide to dispense free samples of its latest menu items did City Council Speaker Quinn squash the idea.
“Doling out unhealthy food on city streets to drum up business will do more harm than good– and we won’t let it happen here,” harrumphed Quinn and three collegues in a letter to Burger King execs.
Not needing the headache, it looks like Burger King will pass up New York City for this rollout. And that’s a damn shame.
Quinn instead touts the city’s Green Cart initiative, which aims to bring fresh produce to inner city neighborhoods with a goal of 500 street cart vendors teaching the ignorant masses about healthier food alternatives. Amazing that Quinn isn’t the picture of fitness herself, considering her regular regimen of patting herself on the back.
Earth to Christine: Twenty percent of NYC is now officially living in poverty. “Increased poverty is a confirmation of what we see every day in ever-longer lines at food pantries and soup kitchens,” says Joel Berg, executive director of the NYC Coaltion Against Hunger.
In other words, more and more people simply can’t afford to buy food. Despite the lofty goals of the Green Carts, the foods they dispense still cost MONEY. Burger King is offering salads, smoothies and yes, chicken strips for FREE.
And yes Christine, we all know that obesity is epidemic. But so is poverty. And the fact is that if Burger King dispensed free food indigent parents would not only line up with their kids to get as much as they could, but get back on the end of the line for seconds.
And no Christine, these wouldn’t be unfit parents, these would be caring parents. Having smoothies and salads as a side dish to fried chicken strips might be the only way to get their kids to try this more nutritious fare, as opposed to carts laden with spinach and broccoli. And whatever the case, it puts food in the kids’ stomachs.
But now that probably won’t happen, because of smug elitists like Council Speaker Quinn.
“Such (free Burger King) food carts would undermine the important strides we have made to increase access to healthy food, particularly through the city’s Green Cart initiative which has brought hundreds of fruit and vegetable vendors to underserved communities,” continued Quinn’s righteous letter.
How dare Burger King interfere with one of her pet projects! The truth is these Green Carts have been dismal failures, with poor parents not wanting to pay the little money they have for food their kids won’t eat. Still, Quinn thinks she’s doing these neighborhoods a favor by banning the Burger King carts.
I guess she thinks no food is better than “bad” food. Easy for her to say.
So again, thanks for nothing, Christine. Because it appears that’s what thousands of poor city kids will be eating because of your misguided efforts. Nothing.
Well said! Now you can’t give away a perfectly legal product on the streets of NY without having some self-righteous, power hungry politician deciding for the rest of us exactly what is okay for us to consume. I eat healthy when I feel like it and fast food when I want to. Look it up, Christine, it’s called the Declaration of Independence and it guarantees us Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.