THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

You can expect to have poor people, after all, you work hard to make sure they don't get any of your money. But you should be able to feed them with your excess of leftovers.

The oranges were all gone. With a sigh, the woman held open her bag for the remaining ration at the mobile soup kitchen: a cup of warm turkey stew, a carton of low-fat milk, bagels and rolls.

The kitchen, parked on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan, dispensed 130 free meals in less than 15 minutes on Tuesday night, one-third more than it did on a similar night a year ago. It is part of a nightly food run by the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit group, that is drawing bigger crowds than ever before in some neighborhoods in Manhattan and the Bronx.

“It’s been steadily increasing,” said Juan De La Cruz, the food program director for the coalition. “There will be nights when we run short of food.”

The coalition is seeking to expand its feeding efforts amid growing concern among some government officials and advocates for the poor about what they see as a hunger crisis in a city known for its five-star dining and culinary excesses.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger has estimated that one in six city residents are “food insecure,” or living in homes where there is not enough money to put enough food on the table. In a 2013 survey, the group reported that 254 food pantries and soup kitchens had seen demand increase 10 percent, on average, over the previous year.

“The hunger crisis in New York is the worst that it’s been in decades,” said Joel Berg, the group’s executive director, adding that people had already been struggling in a tough economy before their food stamps were reduced last fall, when federal cuts were made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has characterized New York’s inequities as a “Tale of Two Cities,” and his administration have taken steps to get more food into the hands of the poor. The Human Resources Administration announced in May that it would seek to increase enrollment for food stamps — about 1.8 million residents currently receive them — by reaching out to older Medicare recipients and expanding online services, among other measures.

In a significant change, human resources officials also received a waiver last month of a federal work rule that cut off food stamps to thousands of New Yorkers a year. Under that rule, more than 46,000 so-called able-bodied adults — ages 18 to 49 with no dependents — had to work at least 20 hours a week or participate in job training to continue receiving an average of $35 a week in food stamps after three months, according to city officials.

“It made no sense to make New Yorkers go hungry as punishment for being underemployed — working less than 20 hours a week — or being unable to find employment in a continuing difficult economy,” said Steven Banks, commissioner of the agency.

No, it doesn't make sense, but it does give wood to a lot of mean spirited people. How dare these people try to survive!