{"id":340997,"date":"2026-09-08T19:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340997\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T19:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:30:24","slug":"these-3-programs-help-new-yorkers-afford-food-not-many-people-know-they-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340997\/","title":{"rendered":"These 3 programs help New Yorkers afford food. Not many people know they exist."},"content":{"rendered":"

With rising numbers of New Yorkers struggling to afford food<\/a> and thousands losing their SNAP benefits<\/a> under new federal work rules, food advocates are highlighting three existing city-funded programs that help people afford healthy foods \u2014 that few know about.<\/p>\n

The programs help bring groceries to people\u2019s homes, afford local fruits and vegetables from the farmer\u2019s market and double up their stash of fresh produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re intended to be preventative of providing access to food before an emergency hits, before someone is resorting to the last possible effort to keep themselves fed,\u201d said Abby de Riel, communications and development manager for Equity Advocates<\/a>, a food policy organization.<\/p>\n

De Riel said the city should invest more in these programs<\/a> amid cuts to federal food assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs grocery prices increase and federal funding for food access is gutted, the importance of programs like these have grown in need. Fortunately, the Mamdani Administration is committed to supporting New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity with more than $850 million in the budget this year for free meals, food programs, and assistance to support low-income New Yorkers,\u201d said William Fowler, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.<\/p>\n

He said the city increased funding for food pantries in this year\u2019s budget and built in permanent funding for other healthy food programs.<\/p>\n

At least 22,000 New Yorkers<\/a> have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits since the Trump administration expanded work requirements for participants. Another 15,000 refugees, asylees or victims of human trafficking are also no longer eligible for SNAP under federal changes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, food pantries are reporting surging demand as the costs of housing, food and childcare remain high. The anti-poverty group Robin Hood found 40% of families with children in the city are short<\/a> on money every week to buy enough food.<\/p>\n

Run by the city\u2019s health department, Groceries to go, Health Bucks and Get the Good Stuff offer access to healthy foods. Some require recipients to have a medical condition to qualify or already be enrolled in SNAP.<\/p>\n

Health Bucks<\/p>\n

Health Bucks<\/a> are $2 coupons that can be used at farmer\u2019s markets by New Yorkers whether or not they are receiving SNAP.<\/p>\n

SNAP recipients who spend $2 at a farmer\u2019s market can get $2 in Health Bucks, up to $10 per day. Those who don\u2019t have SNAP can get Health Bucks from nonprofit groups or faith-based organizations to spend at a farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

There are more than 100 farm stands or farmer\u2019s markets<\/a> in the city that run through summer and fall. Residents can search the city\u2019s map<\/a> or text \u201cso good\u201d to 55676 or \u201cmuy rico\u201d for Spanish to find the nearest farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

Nonprofit groups that aren\u2019t currently receiving Health Bucks to distribute to their community can sign up for the program here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get the Good Stuff<\/p>\n

The matching program is for SNAP recipients and helps households increase what they\u2019re able to bring home from the store. For every SNAP dollar spent at participating grocery stores on fruits, vegetables or beans, recipients get another dollar to use next time, up to $10 a day.<\/p>\n

The $3 million program operates at about two dozen participating stores<\/a>, though none on Staten Island.<\/p>\n

Food advocates say the program can help SNAP households that have had their monthly benefits reduced due to not meeting the new work requirements.<\/p>\n

Groceries to go<\/p>\n

The $10 million program offers free grocery delivery, including tip and tax for New Yorkers who are experiencing food insecurity and are managing medical conditions such as diabetes or hypertension.<\/p>\n

To qualify, recipients need to be a member of the NYC Health + Hospital Care Program, which offers low cost or no cost care to New Yorkers who can\u2019t afford health insurance.<\/p>\n

The program gives monthly credits of $110 for 1-2 person households and $270 for households of 3 people or more. Recipients use their credits on an app to either pick up or get their groceries delivered.<\/p>\n

Groceries to go helped more than 3,000 residents last year.<\/p>\n

City officials said the program is temporarily paused due to an administrative contract delay.<\/p>\n

This story was updated with a quote from the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With rising numbers of New Yorkers struggling to afford food and thousands losing their SNAP benefits under new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-340997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340997","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=340997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}