Meals For The Needy Found In A Hegewisch Dumpster
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Meals intended for the needy were discarded in a remote dumpster in the Hegewisch neighborhood.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot takes a look at how could that happen, in this Original Report.
A beef taco with green peas and broccoli cuts is among the five meals, complete with cookies, found inside a dumpster.
It's enough food to feed a person, for at least a week.
The meals were found around 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 2.
They were inside a box, marked "Chicago Department of Senior Services Home Delivered Meals." A division of that agency, the Department of Family and Support Services, provides the homebound and seniors with the home delivered meals, through Meals on Wheels.
Someone tipped CBS 2 off about the box of undelivered meals, found it inside the garbage can. The person sent CBS 2 photos showing the condition of the meals, right after they were discovered.
The Chicago Department of Family and Support Services issued a statement that says in part:
"Our Home Delivered Meals program fills a critical function for older residents who are homebound, providing more than 44,000 meals a week, and services more than 7,000 homebound seniors each year. We are looking into the claim of meals found in the garbage to ensure that each of our recipients is getting the meals and the care that they need."
The Home Delivered Meals program provides approximately 2.3 million home-delivered meals to more than 7,600 homebound older adults each year.