Opinion: Money for Neighborhoods, Not for War and Bailouts

Editor's Note: This Op-Ed originally ran in last month's issue of the Tremont Tribune. The author, Heidi Hynes, is executive director of the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona.

By HEIDI HYNES 

In September, the City of New York demanded that the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center start paying the Department of Education rent for use of our building on Mapes Avenue. It turns out that the city which is home to Wall Street and an Education Department with a budget larger than some towns, needs the children living in the poorest urban Congressional district in the country to forgo services so that we can pay the City $30,000 per year.

Since that time I have spoken to a priest about the cuts to senior programs at his parish. I’ve been contacted to join an emergency committee of after-school program providers to stop the proposed cut of 17,000 child care vouchers for families on public assistance. I was asked to travel to Albany to testify at a public hearing in opposition to proposed cuts to Medicaid. I was provided a list of elected officials to call in response to cuts proposed for the Health Department. A coworker approached me to find out how she could get involved in any effort to save Head Start. The director of a non-profit housing company predicted that the number of apartment buildings that will go into foreclosure is going to skyrocket. And, like every other public school parent, I’m just waiting to find out how a system that is already struggling is going to handle deep budget cuts.

With all this worry and organizing to stop the cuts, it is easy to think that we are in a budget crisis. There is not enough money to provide social services, we all need to tighten our belts, the trouble is grandma’s pension or public school teachers getting paid to sit in the “rubber room.” That is one load of manure.

School Lunch Bill Passed

The Child Nutrition Act, passed by the House of Representatives today, will mean more money for the city to spend on school lunches. (Photo by Jeanmarie Evelly)

Every five years, lawmakers in Washington have the opportunity to reauthorize a bill that funds and sets the guidelines for a number of child nutrition programs, including how much federal money gets put towards school lunches. Dubbed the Child Nutrition Act, the Senate passed the legislation this summer, and the House finally passed a version of it today, after much political pandering and delay.

The New York City public school system serves up a total of 860,000 cafeteria meals a day, and has about 90 cents to spend on each of them. This year, with a first lady in the White House who’s put nutrition at the top of her agenda, the Child Nutrition Act includes an additional $4.5 billion more than the one that was reauthorized five years ago.

“When they reauthorize, rarely do they include new funding, which is why this bill is being cited as historic,” said Kristen Mancinelli, from hunger advocacy group City Harvest and the NYC Alliance for Child Nutrition Reauthorization.

The extra funding means the city will be reimbursed an extra six cents per school lunch. More money will mean healthier, better quality food in the cafeteria, advocates say.

"Access to healthy foods is a big problem in the Bronx, and that puts extra pressure on the schools to have the resources provide a healthy meal," said Heidi Hynes, director at the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona. "The schools can do a better job if they have more money."

More Money Woes for the Mary Mitchell Center

The Mary Mitchell Center,
at 2007 Mapes Ave.
(Photo by James Fergusson)

Staff at the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona are facing another financial hurdle this month, as the Health Department is demanding upgrades be made to the center's kitchen to comply with licensing laws.

The center serves hot, healthy meals each afternoon for students in its popular after-school program. Now, the city says they have until February to purchase and install a new stove, with a fire suppression system that meets Health Department requirements, to avoid losing their childcare license.

"It's a big expense," said executive director Heidi Hynes. "It's just not something that we can do."

The Department of Education, which owns the building and runs a GED program there, told Hynes that it would buy and install the stove, but at the cost of approximately $35,000.

The center is already struggling to pay the city another $30,000 to cover maintenance fees on the building, which had been waived for over a decade in an agreement with the DOE since the Mary Mitchell Center officially opened in 1997. This summer, however, the city announced that it could no longer afford the fees.

"Given the current fiscal reality, we are asking community organizations who have not been paying for these services to begin covering these costs," a DOE spokeswoman said last month.

Hynes says she has already had to cut the center's operating hours to afford the monthly maintenance payments. To buy the new stove, they will have to redirect more money from the budget that was originally intended for after-school programming. The center still needs to raise an additional $15,000 over the next month to pay the costs in full.

"Basically, we have between Thanksgiving and Christmas," to come up with the money, Hynes said.

The Mary Mitchell Center's Future is Uncertain; Staff Are Meeting With the DOE Today

More than 100 people, mostly parents and children, attended a rally last week in the center's playground (Photos: J. Fergusson)

For Laquanda Walker, the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona has been a godsend. Her 8-year-old son, Isacc, is enrolled in its 'Enrichment Program,' giving him somewhere to be after school, and her peace of mind.

"This is the only safe place for him in the neighorhood," said Walker, a Parks Department employee. She added, "The food is wonderful, he does his homework, it's not just play, play, play. There are many opportunities for my son to grow here."

These opportunities could be cut short, however; the center and its many programs face an uncertain future.

In July, the city's Department of Education, which owns the building and provides maintenance, contacted staff, demanding that they now pay to use the space.

The Mary Mitchell Center

The DOE is requesting more than $70,000 a year, according to the center's executive director, Heidi Hynes. "We'd have to fire people that are working with children in order to pay this," she said.

Asked for comment, the DOE, which runs a GED program in the building, released a statement. It said: "There are real costs associated with the maintenance of any DOE building... Given the current fiscal reality, we are asking community organizations who have not been paying for these services to begin covering these costs."

The fees were waived during the summer months, after Councilman Joel Rivera and Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. reached out to the DOE. But on Sept. 21, with no payment forthcoming, the city locked Hynes, her staff, and the children they serve (some 300 a week) out of the center. (They were allowed back in two days later, when another temporary waiver was granted.)

Last Friday, Hynes organized a rally in the center's playground. The message to the DOE: it's our building, give it back.

Shooting Outside Community Center in Crotona Sparks Quest for Funding, New Policies

Sensei Will Lawton of the Mary Mitchell Center's after-school program with Shareyana, who lives in the building where a fatal shooting took place last week. (Photos by Rachel Waldholz)

At about 5 p.m. last Monday, Sensei Will Lawton was standing on the basketball court behind the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, where dozens of kids in the Center's after-school program were playing. Suddenly, he heard gunshots, and then saw, just outside the fence, three figures running up the street, one of them "just blazing away," said Lawton, who runs the Center's  martial arts program.

"[It was] like watching a western in your living room on a 50-inch television," he said.
The 5 p.m. shootout was followed within hours by another on the same block, this one fatal. Lawton and other staff had no sooner walked some of the kids home to their apartment building at 2000 Prospect Avenue, which neighbors the Mary Mitchell Center, when a gunman shot three people outside the building, killing Felix DelValle, 19 and wounding two others, including the apparent target, Angel Rivas, 42.