Healthy Food
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Pandemic Has More Families Finding Themselves In Need Of Food For The First Time

Bertie A. Kinser

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – As the economy continues to struggle, the hunger crisis grows for millions of families, with many finding themselves in need for the first time.

Plenty of organizations are stepping in to help.

As CBS2’s Dick Brennan reports, on the Lower East Side, the need for food has become urgent, and organizations are pooling their resources to distribute it as quickly as they can.

More: Food Banks In Growing Need Of Donations As New Families Experience Food Insecurity During Pandemic

“Volunteers, resources, food trucks, forklifts. Whatever is needed so we can get the job done,” one person said.

ARE YOU RUNNING OUT OF FOOD?

A study by Feeding America estimates that, nationwide, some 50 million Americans, including 17 million children, may experience food insecurity.

People who cam to Our Lady of Good Counsel Church on the East Side were given two boxes of food.

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Food & Cooking
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Dallas-area Chinese restaurants are surviving the pandemic with takeout, safety and loyal customers

Bertie A. Kinser

In October, New York-based cookbook author and self-described “stir-fry guru” Grace Young teamed up with the James Beard Foundation for an Instagram campaign to #SaveChineseRestaurants.

To explain the initiative, Young cites a Business Insider report that 233,000 Asian American businesses closed between February and April last year as the pandemic gripped the country. A report by NBC News found that before stay-at-home orders were implemented in March, businesses in historic Chinatowns like San Francisco and New York had already lost 70% of sales “due to anti-Asian bigotry, fears of the virus and a sharp drop in international tourism.”

“This is a crisis, and without steady patronage, these businesses will not survive,” Young wrote.

While the numbers on Chinese restaurants in other parts of the country are disheartening, to say the least, interviews with the owners of five popular Chinese restaurants in the Dallas area indicate they are bucking

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Japanese Food
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Only 21% cleaning hands appropriately in Japan amid pandemic: survey

Bertie A. Kinser

Students wash their hands at their elementary school in Shizuoka, central Japan, on March 16, 2020, amid the spread of the new coronavirus. (Kyodo)


TOKYO (Kyodo) — Just over 21 percent of people in Japan are washing or sanitizing their hands appropriately amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to an online survey by a team drawn from Tokyo Medical University and other institutions.


The survey was conducted in June, after a decline in the daily number of COVID-19 infections and the lifting of the first coronavirus state of emergency in late May. The research was published in the Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases in late December.


Masaki Machida, a research associate in Tokyo Medical University’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, who led the research, said people may have improved their hygiene because alcohol hand sanitizers had been placed at

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Japanese Food
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Pandemic cuisine: Odd pairings, old favorites on the menu

Bertie A. Kinser

NEW YORK — Whether it’s kimchi, beets or broccoli, the pandemic has had a strange impact on food cravings that goes beyond the joy of comfort eating.

Nearly a year into isolation, many people are embracing foods long forgotten or rejected for taste, texture or smell. Some have forced themselves to re-evaluate health-focused foods to help boost their immune systems. And with home cooking at a high, there’s a new adventurousness in the kitchen.

For Maeri Ferguson, 31, in Brooklyn, it’s all about pears.

After recovering from COVID-19, she spent months without normal taste and smell. So many foods she loved just didn’t satisfy. Now, Ferguson can again sense sweetness, saltiness and spiciness, but most foods lack nuance in flavor.

Not pears.

“My whole life I always passed on pears. Not because I didn’t like them. They just intimidated me,” Ferguson said. “I didn’t understand the differences between varietals, how

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