Yesterday I tried to catch Christine Quinn’s press conference at Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church Food Pantry. Unfortunately I left the apartment late and made the mistake of taking a car service.

The driver took a very roundabout route and I got there very late. Once inside I asked a Food Pantry volunteer if there were any politicians around.

“Downstairs,” he said.

I went downstairs and asked if the press conference was still going on. There were some high school kids in yellow food pantry t-shirts volunteering there.

“Press conference? Hmmmm. Downstairs,” one of them said.

I went farther downstairs and didn’t see anything. Finally, I decided that I’d missed it. Plus there weren’t any official looking cars outside.

I’m guessing they all went over to IKEA for the big grand opening.

I’m sorry I missed the event. There are 200,000 households in Brooklyn who qualify for Food Stamps but are not enrolled. This is federal money that is going to waste. The City Council wants to remedy this problem and get the Food Stamps to people who really need them. In these tough economic times that sounds like a great idea.

At the press conference that I missed, they announced the the completion and the findings of the Brooklyn borough Medicaid Food Stamp data match, an initiative that identified 211,801 Brooklyn households currently enrolled in Medicaid who may be qualified for the food stamp program, but are not enrolled.

In these tough times, it sounded like a tiny ray of help and hope for people who are struggling to pay for groceries. I was curious how they’re going to contact these households. It could be a touchy thing. Some people are proud. Some people don’t want handouts, Some just don’t know and could use the help and would be glad to get it.

I’m curious how all this will be ironed out.