State and federal officials are in New York City investigating the city’s apple crisis, while the city instructs vendors to continue accepting deliveries even as thousands of cases of fruit are being discarded.
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the State Department of General Services will visit city facilities on Aug. 15 and 16 to evaluate the quantity and quality of produce, following an exclusive report by The Washington Post that the city has ordered approximately 279,000 cases of apples for free from the USDA, an amount far exceeding what the city has available to the USDA.
City education department food service managers placed the order as part of a federal-state partnership to provide fresh fruit to schools.
Since then, schools and food vendors have been overwhelmed with a steady stream of apples, even through the summer – some of which have rotted, while others have been left to rot, uneaten.
The order was worth $5.5 million, and 45% of the apples delivered since March have been wasted, according to sources.
The visit was originally scheduled for this week but was postponed due to Tropical Storm Debby, officials informed DOE food distributors.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy’s Food and Nutrition Service continues to advise wholesalers to accept apples even if they are rotten or damaged, officials said.
Photos shared by the Post show crates of rotten and moldy fruit, as well as bins filled with apples.
One photo showed several garbage bags full of apples placed on a curb at a Queens school in June, with a caretaker telling parents that this happens “almost every day.”
The children did not eat the apples and the mother was told that due to “bureaucracy” the apples had not been donated.
Sources say the city won’t donate because it doesn’t want to admit it’s over-ordered, a move that many say is “absurd” given the homeless and hungry people in New York City.
OFNS has notified the state and Department of Agriculture of the poor quality and has defended itself by saying the apples were wasted because of their condition, not because the city ordered too many.
“Instead of addressing their flawed decision to accept 279,000 cases of substandard apples, they are trying to blame the manufacturers for the poor quality,” one insider said.
The city did not respond to The Washington Post’s inquiries.
