Our leaders in Washington have not passed a COVID-19 relief legislation since the CARES Act on March 27. It is critical that Congress passes a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package immediately to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 public health crisis on the food insecurity public health crisis.

Please add your name to our urgent effort to secure passage of a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package to protect the growing number of New Yorkers who are facing food insecurity from the current economic free-fall and food budget cliff.

OUR MESSAGE TO CONGRESS

As a supporter of Feeding America, Feeding New York State and all of New York State’s food banks, I am grateful to Congress for supporting federal nutrition programs in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. But more is necessary to meet the staggering need for all New Yorkers. In fact, since the CARES Act passed in March, there has been a projected 44% increase in food insecurity for all New Yorkers and an over 57% increase for children. Over 4 million New Yorkers have filed initial unemployment claims. And nearly 3 million children had their access to universal free school meals interrupted and drastically adjusted.

We ask you to support the following provisions:  

• An equity lens applied to all COVID-19 relief provisions to ensure that there is fair access to COVID-19 relief for all New Yorkers.  

• A 15% increase to SNAP and increase in minimum benefits from $15 to $30 a month for the duration of economic recovery so that 3.1 million New Yorkers are provided more than the current $1.35 per meal to feed their families. 

• The immediate withdraw of harmful changes to SNAP program rules, including ABAWD, Public Charge, Categorical Eligibility, and SUA, to prevent hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers from losing SNAP benefits, and millions more immigrant New Yorkers from fearfully disenrolling from SNAP and other relief programs for fear of deportation.  

• Flexible state funding for NYS to allocate funds where most needed to support nonprofits, childcare, transportation, and other programs to mitigate major household expenses for families to afford food. 

• Extensions to the Farmers to Family Program and USDA commodity purchases beyond December 2020 for farmers to connect foods banks and families with fresh food.

• Extensions to Pandemic Unemployment Insurance for the duration of the public health crisis at the same $600/week rate. Currently, over 12 Million Americans may entirely lose their benefits on December 25.

• Extensions to Paycheck Protection Program loans with a focus on supporting food businesses and Minority and Woman owned Businesses and Enterprises (MWBE), which have disproportionately experienced layoffs and unemployment claims, while less than 20% of MWBE PPP applicants have been awarded loans. 

• More flexible funding for temporary rental assistance for the 1 in 4 New Yorkers being forced to choose between food and housing at some point during the pandemic.