See It: Mold Peppers NYC Coronavirus Relief Meal, Woman Claims

NEW YORK CITY — A healthy helping of mold peppered a meal served up through the city's COVID-19 Emergency Food Distribution program, one woman claimed in a Twitter post on Tuesday.

A photo shared by the woman, who uses the Twitter username @Rachellesingl12, depicts five packaged sandwiches or burgers, four of which appear to have visible mold on them. She apparently received the food through GetFoodNYC.

"This is so sad. This the food that is sent to families," the woman wrote. "It’s molded on arrival. So how many other things are spoiled that are so visible (sic)."

The woman could not be reached for comment. It's unclear when the photo was taken.

Joshua Goodman, Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs for the NYC Department of Sanitation, told Patch by email that "what is depicted in the photo is beyond unacceptable" but that he could not identify when or to whom the food was distributed.

"We have distributed 120 million meals since the start of the pandemic, and while this is emergency food, it must meet strict nutritional and freshness standards," Goodman said. "Because of the enormous scale of the program, we have about 50 vendors at any one time – caterers, restaurants, farm consortiums, etc. We have fired vendors for failing to meet our standards in the past, and take complaints extremely seriously."

NYC311 replied to the tweet asking her to file a report, but Goodman said nothing had been filed as of Wednesday afternoon.

The assistant commissioner urged any New Yorker who receives a problematic GetFoodNYC delivery to report it at nyc.gov/getfood or by calling 311.