{"id":324776,"date":"2026-08-19T09:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T09:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/324776\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T09:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T09:10:13","slug":"mamdanis-nyc-groceries-plan-expands-affordability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/324776\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani’s NYC Groceries plan expands affordability"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those with the means, there are many ways to grab a bite in New York City, from bodegas\u00a0and halal carts to Michelin-starred restaurants to farmers\u2019 markets. As soaring food prices make it harder to put food on the table, we need just as many ways to help New Yorkers afford a\u00a0nutritious meal.<\/p>\n

Grocery stores have been the primary place families went for food, while pantries, community\u00a0kitchens, and other emergency food providers served as temporary stopgaps.\u00a0The affordability crisis flipped that script.<\/p>\n

Food costs in the metropolitan area rose by 56% between 2013 and 2023, outpacing the national increase of 46%. While prices skyrocketed, wages failed to keep up, and new federal work requirements pushed 22,000 city residents off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)<\/a> meant to close the gap. Since 2019, visits to city food pantries have surged 82% as working families, older adults, immigrants, and others increasingly turned to emergency food providers for groceries.<\/p>\n

To face this crisis, NYC is rethinking how New Yorkers access affordable food. With a new\u00a0grocery store planned in each borough, NYC Groceries<\/a> will make healthy food more affordable.<\/p>\n

Staple foods will be discounted at 30% to ensure families can bring home essentials. The first\u00a0grocery store is expected to open in late 2027, with all five opening by the end of Mayor Mamdani\u2019s four-year term.<\/p>\n

NYC Groceries will be one component of the city\u2019s crisis response. The Roundtable\u2019s 10\u00a0members<\/a>, along with more than 700-plus emergency food organizations across the city, will continue to reach millions of New Yorkers struggling to afford healthy food.<\/p>\n

Emergency food organizations like ours have adapted to meet the scale of the crisis. Providers are modernizing operations and enabling online ordering, home delivery, and other innovative distribution models to reach people beyond the pantry line: homebound seniors, people managing chronic illnesses, people with disabilities, families without reliable transportation, some immigrant New Yorkers, and those with cultural and dietary restrictions.<\/p>\n

Our community expertise can support NYC Groceries in projects like nutrition education, helping customers sign up for benefits, and expanded food distribution options.<\/p>\n

The city supports the emergency food network through the Community Food Connection (CFC)\u00a0program<\/a>. CFC boosts organizations\u2019 funding and capacity, giving trusted providers the flexibility\u00a0to respond to needs they see on the ground. This year, the city tripled baseline CFC funding,\u00a0bringing the program to a historic $78.1 million.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re encouraged to see the city add NYC Groceries to this landscape of hunger relief. When\u00a0the city funds food affordability and access initiatives, it\u2019s investing in the well-being of New\u00a0Yorkers. NYC\u2019s commitment to CFC recognizes the value of a citywide frontline network with\u00a0deep community roots, broad reach, and firsthand knowledge of where the current system falls\u00a0short. CFC has helped the emergency food network modernize as New Yorkers\u2019 needs change.<\/p>\n

Building on existing public-private partnerships like Get the Good Stuff, which works with\u00a0supermarkets to enable New Yorkers using SNAP to buy more fruits and vegetables, NYC\u00a0Groceries is the newest piece of the food access network, changing the approach to affordable\u00a0food.<\/p>\n

Emergency food providers have supported our communities through thick and thin. We\u2019ve seen\u00a0how an all-of-the-above approach, with local government working with community and private\u00a0partners, can meet the many needs of the New Yorkers we care for. NYC Groceries is one next\u00a0step toward food security. When government invests in the solutions frontline organizations are\u00a0already building, innovation becomes infrastructure \u2014 and more New Yorkers get the food they\u00a0need.<\/p>\n

Silverman is the executive director of The Roundtable: Allies for Food Access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For those with the means, there are many ways to grab a bite in New York City, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,299],"class_list":["post-324776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}