Meng reintroduces legislation to combat anti-Asian hate crimes
CITY COUNCIL HOPEFULS TALK FOOD POLICY IN DISTRICT 31
BY SOPHIA LEBOWITZ
City Council candidate Selvena
Brooks-Powers was out in
her district when she walked
into a Key Foods across the
street from a NYCHA development.
It wasn’t her usual store,
but she stopped in to get a few
things. While walking through
the produce aisle, she couldn’t
find the organic fruit she usually
buys. When Brooks-Powers
asked a worker where she could
find it, the answer was eyeopening
to her.
“They told me they didn’t
stock any organic food in the
store,” said Brooks-Powers who
narrowly finished first in the
initial round of counting in last
month’s special election for City
Council District 31.
The experience made her
think about how food choice affects
health, she said.
“Our district has been hit
pretty hard by COVID. We are
learning that a lot of it has to do
with underlying health issues,”
Brooks-Powers said.
According to the CDC, foodrelated
illnesses like diabetes,
hypertension and heart disease
worsen symptoms of COVID-
19 and increase the chance of
death.
The District 31 special election
is the first in the city to
go into a ranked-choice voting
count, and whoever wins will
be in a position to change food
policy in the city. According to
election night results which tallied
voters’ first-ranked choices
on their ballots, Brooks-Powers
is narrowly winning with 38
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.10 COM | MARCH 19-MARCH 25, 2021
percent of the vote, while Pesach
Osina trails just behind
with 35 percent. Since no candidate
won more than 50 percent
of the vote, the New York City
Board of Elections (BOE) will
count voters’ second-, third- and
fourth-ranked choices starting
on March 16 to find the winner.
Whoever that might be, the
new council member will be facing
a crisis around food access
in the district. Dr. Nick Freudenberg,
director of CUNY’s Urban
Food Policy Institute, said that
people are more likely to make
unhealthy choices during times
of economic hardship.
“What we know, in the food
system in the United States and
in New York City is that unhealthy
food is cheaper and more
accessible,” said Freudenberg.
Brooks-Powers believes expanding
markets to year-round
would make a difference in
providing healthy options. She
proposed increasing funding
for the Health Bucks Program,
which offers incentives to SNAP
recipients by giving them a $2
coupon for every $10 they spend
at farmers markets.
“It’s not that folks in the district
don’t want to eat healthy;
it’s just that healthy eating is
more expensive,” said Brooks-
Powers.
Lifelong resident of District
31 and founder of the Laurelton
Farmers Market Dianna Rose
said she noticed a clear lack of
local, healthy and fresh produce
in her neighborhood from a
young age.
“It’s not just food access because
there’s food, right? I see
wasted food all the time. The
problem is we have a healthy
food access problem,” said Rose.
She started the Laurelton
Farmers Market during the
pandemic, the only of its kind in
mainland southeast Queens.
“I just knew how important
it was to have that access to
healthy and fresh produce in
our community at that time,”
said Rose.
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Congresswoman Grace Meng is reintroducing the
COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act as Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders (AAPI) experience a wave of physical,
verbal and online attacks in Queens and beyond.
The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act seeks to address
the ongoing hate and violence toward AAPIs by providing
greater assistance with law enforcement response
to COVID-19 hate crimes and creating a position
at the Department of Justice to facilitate review
of such cases.
Meng, who serves as first vice chair of the Congressional
Asian Pacific American Caucus, said she
is honored to introduce the COVID-19 Hate Crimes
Act with Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), executive
board member of CPAC.
“Before this pandemic started, I urged everyone
to — including elected officials — to not blame
Asian Americans for the virus. My words were not
heeded,” Meng said. “The former president and his
congressional Republican enablers trafficked racist,
bigoted terms to describe COVID-19. In doing so,
their language stoked people’s fears and created an
atmosphere of intolerance and violence, which persists
even today.”
According to Meng, since the beginning of the
pandemic, there have been nearly 3,000 reported incidents
of physical, verbal and online attacks against
Asian Americans, especially in her district, which
covers Auburndale, Bayside, Elmhurst, Flushing,
Forest Hills, Glendale, Kew Gardens, Maspeth, Middle
Village, Murray Hill and Rego Park.
Meng said they’re working to ensure the justice
system has the people and resources to effectively account
for and mitigate anti-Asian hate crimes.
Specifically, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act would
designate an officer or employee of the Justice Department
to facilitate expedited review of COVID-19
hate crimes reported to federal, state and/or local law
enforcement.
It would issue guidance for state and local law enforcement
agencies to establish online reporting of
hate crimes or incidents, and to have online reporting
available in multiple languages. Plus, it would
expand culturally competent and linguistically appropriate
public education campaigns, and collection
of data and public reporting of hate crimes.
Additionally, the bill will issue guidance on describing
best practices to mitigate racially discriminatory
language in describing the COVID-19 pandemic,
in coordination with the Secretary of Health and
Human Services and the COVID-19 Health Equity
Task Force and community-based organizations.
Hirono said they have seen the horrifying consequences
of racist language as AAPI communities
across the country experience hate crimes and violence
related to the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act addresses the
surge in violence against AAPI communities by
dedicating an official at the Department of Justice
to expeditiously review hate crimes reported to law
enforcement,” Hirono said. “The bill also provides resources
for communities to come together and fight
intolerance and hate. This is no less than victims deserve.”
John Yang, president and executive director of
Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), said
they’re grateful for the leadership of Hirono and
Meng in responding to the increased attacks on Asian
Americans during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
CONGRESSWOMAN GRACE MENG
The Laurelton Farmers Market Photo via witty.media