Why New York’s New Hot Food Rules For EBT Cardholders Are A Big Deal
If you’ve been to a lot of bodegas in New York City, you’ve doubtlessly seen many variations on the sign shown below.
One in five New Yorkers receives funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — funds which are generally delivered through an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card.
But New York-based EBT cardholders have long faced a set of restrictions which limit the program’s usefulness for buying fresh, nutritious food.
Today, that’s changing — thanks to a new state law championed by Feed Forward and other local activists working with local elected officials to help bring this law to fruition.
Below, we’re taking a look at why New Yorkers in need have long been denied access to freshly-prepared food through their benefits programs — and how new, activist-supported policies enacted in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic are solving this problem.
SNAP Has Long Banned Hot And Fresh Foods — With Unhealthy Consequences
Since its inception as the Food Stamps Program in 1939, SNAP has always placed some type of restriction on the use of public funds to purchase hot, freshly-prepared or ready-to-eat foods.
The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 codified these restrictions into federal law, defining eligible foods as “any food or food product for home consumption.” (Emphasis added). That legislation also restricted states and municipalities from setting their own regulations on SNAP usage, meaning that “no benefits for hot or freshly-made food” became an ironclad rule nationwide.
These rules decrease the variety of foods available to SNAP recipients all over the country — but their effects are particularly harsh here in New York City.
According to the New York City Department of City Planning, “High need for fresh food purveyors affects approximately three million New Yorkers. Low-income neighborhoods have the highest need.” In other words, more than a third of New Yorkers live in a neighborhood where fresh produce vendors are few and far away.
As we wrote in our article on the problems with the term “food desert,” these neighborhoods are largely majority-Black or Hispanic — giving rise to a racialized divide in fresh food access which some activists have called “supermarket redlining” or “food apartheid.”
In the left-hand map below, areas with a shortage of fresh food vendors are marked in crimson — while on the right-hand map, areas are colored according to their demographic majority, with mostly-white areas in red, mostly-Black areas in blue, and mostly-Hispanic areas in gold.
These neighborhoods do generally contain bodegas — but many bodegas have an extremely limited produce selection, or none at all. They may sell sandwiches or salads containing fresh vegetables through their deli counters — but as prepared, ready-to-eat foods, these are generally off-limits to SNAP recipients.
It’s also worth mentioning that about 40% of adult New York renters share a kitchen with at least one nonfamily roommate, according to a 2017 study by StreetEasy. In a crowded apartment, regularly cooking at home — the behavior which SNAP restrictions ostensibly encourage — is often easier said than done.
How The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Forcing Changes To The SNAP Program
According to an estimate by Northwestern University researchers, the portion of households experiencing food insecurity more than doubled during the pandemic, rising from 10.5% in 2019 to as high as 23% during parts of 2020. The researchers estimated that food insecurity among households with children tripled.
This startling rise in hunger has forced officials at many levels of government to re-examine their restrictive SNAP usage policies in a critical light — with some silver linings. The federal government is increasing SNAP payouts, and some states are finding legally-innovative ways around usage restrictions for recipients.
In early August, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a 25% increase in SNAP benefits — the largest such increase in the program’s history. It’ll bring the average monthly payment to some 42 million Americans up from $121 to $157.
States have also started to take advantage of an obscure provision in the federal Food Stamp Act of 1964 — one which allows them to apply for USDA permission to run a Restaurant Meals Program (RMP) as part of their SNAP benefits. Before the pandemic, only Arizona, California and Rhode Island had a USDA-approved RMP — but today, that’s changing.
New York’s New Rules On Hot Food For EBT Cardholders
In early October, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed NY State Senate Bill S64, which directs the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to apply for USDA approval for a statewide RMP which would allow homeless, elderly and disabled SNAP recipients to buy hot food from participating restaurants and bodegas with their benefits.
At the same signing event, Governor Hochul also announced the launch of a $225 million Restaurant Resiliency Program to provide financial relief to the pandemic-hit restaurant industry.
“The vital actions we’re taking — establishing two restaurant programs to help the most vulnerable New Yorkers feed themselves and help restaurants recover from this terrible pandemic — will work in tandem to put food on the table in homes across the state,” she said.
Feed Forward has spent years working with local elected officials to push this legislation forward; the signing represents a significant victory for food insecurity-focused groups like ours.
Nonetheless, New York’s new RMP may take some time to get up and running — because it will require a network of restaurants to opt-in to accepting EBT payments for hot food. Fortunately, Feed Forward is already building such a network…
Feed Forward’s More Than A Meal Program
Our More Than A Meal Program, which we launched in 2020, is essentially a nongovernmental RMP. It allows New Yorkers in need to register on their phones and order free or reduced-cost meals for pickup or delivery from dozens of local restaurants.
Until the state RMP catches on, our program is one of the only ways food-insecure New Yorkers can get reliable access to fresh, healthy and hot food. But it can’t run without support from donors and volunteers — click here to see how you can help.
