My friend Arcadio is HUNGRY.
I first met Arcadio 39 years ago in the emergency room at Bellevue Hospital. He was a 16 year old suffering from severe asthma and I was a pediatric resident. I have watched him work hard to overcome his illness and training to become a qualified mason, all the while struggling with homelessness and rising above the throes of the rampant drug abuse of his lower east side environment, including the loss of his beloved daughter. Unfortunately now, at age 55, his severe persistent asthma has once again overtaken his life, and he is unable to work and is on disability. Although the NYC HHC is continuing to provide medical care as it has since he was a child, thanks to our federal government's shutdown and abdication of its responsibility, his SNAP benefits have been suspended and he is literally unable to buy food; the refrigerator and pantry in his Section VIII apartment are bare. Meanwhile the East Wing Ballroom rises! Please help me provide the basic food for his ongoing survival. I will assure that it is above board and healthy. This man is a US citizen born here. Perhaps his parents, were not, but neither were our grandparents! PLEASE HELP!
