Food Safety Brief

What is food borne illness?
-A food borne illness is a disease that is transmitted to humans by food.
-The U.S. Public Health Service classifies moist, high-protein, and/or low acid foods as potentially hazardous.

Who's at risk?
-Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly. Also, people who are chronically ill have a greater risk of developing a food borne illness because their immune system may not be able to fight off bacteria and viruses that cause the illness.

What is cross-contamination?
-The transportation of harmful substances to food by: hands that touch food that will not be cooked, such as fresh fruits and vegetables.
-Surfaces, like cutting boards or dish towels, that touch raw foods, are not clean and sanitized, then touch ready-to-eat food.
-Raw or contaminated foods that touch or drip juices on cooked or ready-to-eat foods.
-Food can become contaminated from chemical, physical, or biological sources.
-Chemical hazards = cleaning solutions and sanitizers
-Physical hazards = foreign particles, like glass or metal
-Biological hazards = mainly produced by microorganism including viruses, parasites and bacteria

Conditions that encourage bacteria to grow
-Bacteria can live in hotter and colder temperatures than humans, but they do best in a warm, moist, protein-rich environment that is pH neutral or low acid.
-There are some exceptions; some bacteria thrive in extreme heat or cold.
-Some bacteria grow fastest in the temperature range between 41F (5C) and 140F (60C), which is known as the Temperature Danger Zone “TDZ”.

Handling food safely
-Food handling practices are risky when they allow harmful bacteria to contaminate and grow in food
-Your hands can be the most potentially dangerous serving equipment you use.
-Scratching you scalp, running your fingers through your hair, or touching a pimple can cause the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms that may cause disease
-If you touch a food during preparation, you may transfer several thousand bacteria to its surface
-A cough or sneeze can transmit thousands of microorganisms that may cause disease.
-The most important tool you have to prevent food borne illness is good personal hygiene.
-Personal hygiene is the way a person maintains their health, appearance and cleanliness.

Closing of Peter's Place - Sample letter sent to all Members of NYC Council

February 3, 2009

Hon. Bill de Blasio
Member of the NYC Council
250 Broadway, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10007

Re: Closing of Peter’s Place


I’m writing to let you know that, with great sadness, the Partnership for the Homeless will be closing Peter’s Place – our city’s only drop-in center specializing in the needs of older homeless adults – on June 30, 2009. While it has been a critical safe harbor for homeless seniors since 1993, the Department of Homeless Services, through its new RFP, has decided to reduce the total number of Drop-in Centers city-wide from nine to five, and completely eliminate funding for specialized centers like Peter’s Place.

As a result, New York City seniors, who’ve fallen prey to homelessness, will now be relegated to one of five overburdened centers, forcing them to navigate a confusing and often unsafe network of homeless services designed for a more physically able population. Without Peter’s Place, seniors will clearly face special challenges within the city’s shelter or drop-in center environments, putting them at-risk for victimization, with a staff not always well-prepared to effectively meet their geriatric needs.

And though the needs of seniors are obviously significantly different from their younger counterparts, the Department of Homeless Services is making no distinction between the two. Rather, the Department of Homeless Services, in a stunningly simplistic approach, is only concerned with broad social categories in which older homeless adults are subsumed without special notice (e.g., “chronically homeless”, disabled persons, veterans).

Having developed real expertise in helping homeless seniors over the past 15 years, we’re especially concerned about how this very vulnerable and unique group of New Yorkers will be served moving forward. Requiring these individuals to enter the drop-in system with a general population may likely result in these individuals opting out of the system and remaining exposed to the risks of life on the street. By ignoring their distinct concerns, we are putting hundreds of homeless older New Yorkers at risk.

Please know though that the Partnership is absolutely committed to continuing to serve homeless and at-risk seniors throughout our city. In fact, we’re currently working with experts and academics in the field to develop a homeless prevention program for seniors, modeled after a NORC, without Department of Homeless Services’ funding. Nonetheless, we believe that the loss of Peter’s Place will leave a substantial gap in services for homeless seniors, many of whom
have become homeless, for the first time, in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.

The Partnership certainly had hoped that, alongside a newly developed prevention program, we could continue to serve homeless seniors through either the Department of Homeless Services’ Safe Haven or Drop-in Center programs. While we have a new site and community board approval for a safe haven, the Department of Homeless Services informed us that there were no longer any funds available.

We, of course, know that these are terrible economic times, but believe, precisely because of these times, there’s a special need to continue our work with homeless seniors. Today, more and more New York City seniors are finding it difficult to hold on to their homes and, consequently, are increasingly at-risk for homelessness, with many falling over the precipice. In fact, nearly one-quarter of all senior-headed households in New York City now earn an annual income below $10,000.

We thus hope that the Council will intervene to restore these critical services. Specifically, we request that you use your budget oversight authority to require the city, and its Department of Homeless Services, to:

Provide capital funding to the Partnership to open a Safe Haven for seniors at our new proposed site, and
Provide a minimum of 24 months of operating expenses for the new Safe Haven.

With a new site, the Partnership will work tirelessly to transition our seniors from Peter’s Place in Chelsea to our new location, and reach out to vulnerable older adults in our new neighborhood. As always, we will work diligently to find permanent housing for seniors, as well as provide them with the support services they need to thrive in their new homes.

We hope you will join with us in our efforts to effectively serve homeless seniors during these very difficult times, and are available to meet with you to discuss restoration of this critical city service. Please feel free to contact me at 212.645.3444.


Sincerely,


Arnold S. Cohen
President & CEO