STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A Staten Island group organized to stop hunger heard a presentation Friday about what the road ahead will look like for New York organizations like theirs.
Susan Zimet, the New York food and hunger policy coordinator for the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, touted Gov. Kathy Hochul’s efforts to build funding reserves for food services as the state expects cuts in federal funding.
“This reserve is really important because as money keeps getting taken away by the federal government, and the state does not want to lose those services; we have to figure out together how we’re going to be able to afford these services,” she said. “Here we are again, fighting . . .”
How are we going to get people fed?, she asked, rhetorically. “You guys are the ones who are doing the fight every single solitary day.”
Most of the federal funding reduction is tied to an end of COVID-era funding surges and a reduction to Medicaid spending, but they’ve impacted organizations like those gathered Friday who have to adjust their budgets.
The Staten Island Hunger Task Force is not a food pantry. It is an organization that works to improve pantry services on Staten Island by connecting them with the community and to government programs that can offer better funding.