Barrels of food intended for welfare recipients in New York City is instead being turned into profit on the Dominican Republic’s black market, The New York Post reported Sunday.
The revelation comes on the heels of a separate report from The Post that found New Yorkers who are on welfare use their benefit cards to send their food to family members in the Caribbean.
“It’s a really easy way to make money, and it doesn’t cost me anything,” one seller named Maria-Teresa said in The Post. The woman, 47, is a Bronx native who sells the barrels of food on the streets of Santiago.
She said she gets the barrels every few weeks from her sister, who serves as the middle-man — she buys them from a shop near East 165th Street in New York City and transports them through a shipping company, The Post reported.
“I don’t know how much of a business it is, but I know a lot of people are doing it,” Maria-Teresa said, The Post reported.
A 19-ounce box of Frosted Flakes normally sells for $6.50 at stores in the Dominican Republic, The Post said. But Maria-Teresa sells hers for $4.50 — a sizeable profit from what her sister pays for it, at $2.99.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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