by Caitlin Buckley

Rebecca is the mother of a newborn baby, and her husband is in graduate school — money is tight, so she applied for food stamps (also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) through the Food Bank For New York City. The extra money for groceries relieves her anxiety. “It helped our food budget,” she says.

The Food Bank provides and supports application assistance for many people like Rebecca — more than 26,000 households last year. We have increased the number of Food Bank–run community sites with electronic application submission and helped correct a statewide system error that limited eligibility for some families.

With approximately 1.4 million people relying on soup kitchens and food pantries in our city, access to the federal Food Stamp Program is essential to relieving the emergency food system and supporting low-income New Yorkers. Enrollment is on the rise: 1.7 million New York City residents participate, up 49 percent since the start of the recession in December 2007. Yet proposals have passed the Senate, and are now under review in the House of Representatives, to cut funds from the Food Stamp Program to help pay for other services — use our advocacy alert to tell your legislators to take food stamp cuts off the table today!

In addition to defeating this proposal, the Food Bank’s goal is to increase enrollment until all eligible New Yorkers are accessing the benefits they need. According to a Food Research and Action Center report, there are approximately 420,000 New York City residents who are eligible for SNAP but not enrolled — a loss of more than $270 million in unclaimed federal benefits.

The Food Bank works with its approximately 1,000 member programs to ensure access to this key resource. Our efforts include increasing awareness and fostering a positive perception of food stamps through media campaigns and outreach; one-on-one application assistance and advocacy services at more than 200 community sites and via our food stamp hotline; training for our members and other partners to engage their communities and boost participation; and working with city and state partners to make it easier for eligible New Yorkers to enroll.

Originally featured in Food For Thought Summer 2010, the Food Bank’s print newsletter.