By Margarette Purvis, Food Bank For New York City President & CEO
Cutting the supply for our city’s food pantries and soup kitchens – which already routinely experience food shortages – will cause grave hardship for New Yorkers in need.
It is especially surprising and disappointing to see the Mayor’s Fiscal Year 2018 Preliminary Budget cuts $4.9 million from the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP) at a time when thousands of jobless New Yorkers are at risk of losing their food resources from SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) due to punitive federal policy.
EFAP provides a vital supply of nutritious food to food pantries and soup kitchens across the city. Our priority will be to work with the Administration and the City Council throughout the City’s budget process to restore and increase funding for emergency food to needed levels.