A price range is not only a stack of papers full of numbers. It decides who will get to eat., who has a spot to sleep, who can entry schooling, earn a dwelling, or care for his or her well being. That is what makes the New York Metropolis price range course of so consequential. It’s a public demonstration of our ethical compass. And there’s no hiding in a price range.
That’s why we’re calling on Mayor Adams to heed the decision of New York Metropolis communities and the Metropolis Council by absolutely funding and baselining $100 million for the Neighborhood Meals Connection program—proper now. Something much less dangers permitting the wealthiest metropolis within the nation to fall in need of one among its most simple obligations: supporting the emergency meals community and guaranteeing each New Yorker has entry to meals. Starvation in our metropolis is simply too pressing, too widespread, and too morally apparent to be debated… once more.
It’s the character of New Yorkers to look out for one another, and Neighborhood Meals Connection has been a lifeline that gives nutritious meals to emergency meals suppliers like soup kitchens and meals pantries. But this program has been on the chopping block 12 months after 12 months, at the same time as meals insecurity now impacts 1.4 million New Yorkers, together with almost one in 4 kids.
Emergency meals suppliers are seeing demand surge, with some neighborhood pantries pressured to show households away. What was as soon as a brief security web has develop into a everlasting fixture for working mother and father, older adults on mounted incomes, and neighbors juggling rising rents, stagnant wages, and the excessive value of dwelling. On the identical time, federal instability and the sunsetting of COVID-era helps have led to a 20% drop in meals quantity out there to suppliers.
Making issues worse, federal funding pauses earlier this 12 months left NYC-based suppliers owed greater than $1 million for providers already delivered. A whole bunch of anti-hunger organizations throughout town additionally misplaced assist from FEMA and the USDA—a transfer that denied suppliers the assets wanted to satisfy rising demand. Feeding America reviews that 17% of New York Metropolis residents skilled meals insecurity in 2023—the identical 12 months the COVID Public Well being Emergency, and plenty of helps that got here with it, expired.
All of this might pale compared to the harm if Congress enacts proposed cuts to the Supplemental Diet Help Program (SNAP; previously meals stamps). These cuts would stifle New York State’s capacity to assist emergency meals packages, whereas additionally driving much more New Yorkers into pantry traces on account of shrinking family budgets.
Our metropolis’s emergency meals suppliers are being requested to serve extra individuals with fewer assets. These pressures aren’t short-term—this might simply develop into a brand new, terrifying regular. New York Metropolis should meet the second.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about politics—it’s about priorities. Neighborhood Meals Connection is just not a nice-to-have; it’s a confirmed, environment friendly bridge between meals and the individuals who want it most—made potential by trusted organizations embedded in each neighborhood throughout the 5 boroughs.
These are the identical organizations that made certain nobody was forgotten throughout the pandemic, tailored to serve asylum seekers with grace and pace, and proceed to stretch each greenback into meals, dignity, and stability for working New Yorkers—individuals doing every little thing proper, but nonetheless squeezed by a value of dwelling that has outpaced wages for years. These community-based emergency meals suppliers are doing the arduous, unglamorous work of holding individuals nourished and dwelling with dignity.
Because the leaders of Metropolis Harvest, Meals Financial institution For New York Metropolis, and United Method of New York Metropolis—organizations that work with over 1,000 emergency meals suppliers citywide—we’re not asking for a favor. We’re calling for essentially the most fundamental operate of presidency: to guard and protect the well being and well-being of its individuals.
The New York Metropolis Council responded to anti-hunger advocates and known as for a $100 million funding in Neighborhood Meals Connection of their price range response. We urge the Mayor not solely to match it, however to decide to this funding, so we by no means once more discover ourselves on this precarious place.
The present allocation is $55.6 million—$44.4 million in need of what’s wanted. For context, that’s lower than 0.05% of the Mayor’s $115.1 billion government price range for 2026. With this restricted funding, extra New Yorkers received’t have entry to essentially the most important useful resource: meals.
A metropolis that fails to feed its individuals is not only in fiscal disaster—it’s in ethical jeopardy.
Let’s do higher. Let’s lead with values. Let’s fund Neighborhood Meals Connection—absolutely, now, and for good.
