NEW YORK—On his final Thanksgiving before taking office as the next mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio said he will spend time at his cousin’s house in Connecticut. He will not, however, be doing any cooking.
“I can confirm I will not be doing the cooking,” de Blasio said with a grin. “It will endanger the Thanksgiving experience for my family members, and I will not do that.”
When asked what his favorite part of Thanksgiving meal is, de Blasio kept the light topic in political context.
“I would like to take a controversial stance, for all of you in the yam lobby or the pumpkin pie lobby,” de Blasio said. “I am supporting stuffing without any compunction.”
Before leaving the city, de Blasio spent roughly 40 minutes on Wednesday at a food pantry in Bedford-Stuyvesant with his wife Chirlane McCray. The duo put turkey, milk, yogurt, and other food items in the carts of those needing a hand for the holiday.
“It gives you a sense of how deep the need is in the city today,” de Blasio said. As of 2 p.m. the pantry served 500 people with dozens more lined up in the rain outside.
“It is quite evident today what that [poverty] means in human terms, how many families are struggling just to put the food for a Thanksgiving meal,” de Blasio said. “We have to be there to help them.”
Melony Samuels, executive director of Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger said she has seen an uptick of roughly 25 percent in people visiting the food pantry since SNAP benefits were cut by the federal government on Nov. 1.
“Families have been standing, waiting for hours in hope they will get some food,” Samuels said. “It does not help the cut was done in Nov., right in the midst of Thanksgiving when we already know that we will be impacted with such a great need.”
De Blasio urged New Yorkers to donate food or money to food pantries to help out during the holidays.
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