'We Remember': A Moving Veterans Day 2019 Ceremony In Carroll Park

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Friend of Carroll Park's Bruce McDonald

Assemblywoman JoAnne Simon, Jerry Armer, Community Affairs, 76 Pct. Community Affairs, PO Joe Gonzalez, 76 Pct. Community Affairs Det. Vincent Marrone and Councilmember Brad Lander

Councilmember Brad Lander

Carol Rembert with a photo of her husband, who served in Vietnam

The Veterans Day Ceremony in Carroll Park yesterday was a wonderful way for the Carroll Gardens community to remember and honor those who have served in the military.  It was deeply moving and especially wonderful to see so many young children involved in the ceremony as they listened attentively to the speeches of some of our neighborhood veterans.

As in years past, the event was organized by the Court Street and Smith Street Business Associations and Friends of Carroll Park.

Bruce McDonald of Friends of Carroll Park served as master of ceremony. He included some sobering statistics about United States veterans in his speech.
- According to the nonprofit group Feed Our Vets, more than 130,000 Veterans are homeless and hungry on any given night in America. One in three homeless people in America is a U.S. Military Veteran. And nearly four million Veterans and their families don’t have enough to eat during the year. [https://feedourvets.org/about-fov]

- Nearly 1.5 million veterans live in households that completely rely on SNAP benefits, including 23,000 active duty service members. The current administration’s federal budget proposed cutting $200 billion from SNAP, which could affect benefits for 400,000 veterans. [https://www.moveforhunger.org/why-are-so-many-veterans-food-insecure/]

- More than half of children in Pentagon-run schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — indicating their families are struggling to provide food, according to the Department of Defense. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/09/why-so-many-veterans-go-hungry-and-the-vas-new-plan-to-fix-it/]

- The Federal Government attempted to cut food stamp programs three times in the past year [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/us/politics/trump-food-stamp-cuts.html]

- 1.2 million people in New York City face hunger every year, including one in five children [https://www.cityharvest.org/facts-about-hunger/]

We should all remember these statistics, especially going into the holiday season. Friends of Carroll Park will be collecting goods for its yearly City Harvest holiday food drive every Saturday in December at the Robert Acito park house. Please help generously by contributing canned goods.