amNY: Charities pushing NYC feeding programs to outdoors, homeless still priority

This article originally appeared on amNY and was authored by Todd Maisel.

Photo by Todd Maisel

As the coronavirus spreads rapidly through the city, the people on the lowest rungs of economic social society face difficulty in getting services and even a good healthy meal – no less get hand-outs from generous New Yorker’s who would give them loose change on the street.

Some of those organizations, including the Bowery Mission, City Harvest and Met Council for Jewish Poverty continue to do their jobs, though many report volunteers are running thin as many are staying home rather than risking getting coronavirus, or even unwittingly passing it on.

But as the financial situation in the city and the nation heads further into the red, these organizations will be lining up behind many others for a government bail-out.

Most concerning to leaders in these groups is that many people who require their services to survive may have to go without help, further endangering lives that are already on the brink of disaster and even some people who have the coronavirus and need assistance.

In addition, many food pantries are closing down, either unable to get food to resupply, unable to get volunteers or believe the risks are not worth it. And food organizations are faced with competing with larger food chains who are willing to pay much higher prices for resupply and are cutting off the pantries and charities.

In Brooklyn, David Greenfield, executive director of the Met Council on Jewish Poverty called the crisis “unprecedented” and said 20 percent of food pantries have already closed as a result. he said the food crisis is becoming more acute as many people are now unemployed, and they have had a large increase in the number of people requesting food.

He added that the situation is becoming critical as food prices are rising, supplies are low and volunteers at food pantries are not showing up, forcing closing of 20 percent of those pantries around the city.

In addition, many of the volunteers at Met Council are ages 60’s and 70’s, and many are afraid of getting coronavirus and so it has left a huge gap in their ability to distribute to the poor.

Workers put together food for the poor at the Met Council warehouse.

“We are receiving thousands of calls from people to help and our food pantries are running out of food – this is an emergency food crisis in New York City,” Greenfield said.”We are the largest kosher food distributor – millions of pounds a week to the poor, and we get a call from a distributor that 400,000 pounds will not be arriving because of logistical challenges and its the same thing with everything – tuna, chicken – a sugar delivery was canceled. Distributors are now selling for whatever they can get – and people like Walmart and Wholefoods are able to offer three times what we were paying.”

Meanwhile, their costs are rising as they need to hire more staff to replace volunteers, order more hand sanitizer, gloves, masks – “the costs are rising by 50 to 100 percent and it is simply not sustainable,” Greenfield said.

Met Council intends to continue distributing food to poor Jewish families, especially for the upcoming Passover celebrations – expected to be more insular as even orthodox Jews are intending smaller scale more intimate celebration of this holiday season. Greenfield said that already, demand for Passover meals has gone from 187,000 to more than 200,000 and is rising daily.

“We know there will be massive need and from my perspective, health care, then economic relates to food, what about being fed,” Greenfield sighed. “Seniors and the unemployed not getting food – the government must prop up the not for profit food networks. We are living month to month and I’m afraid the food system will collapse.”

Food distribution continues at a Met Council warehouse.

James Winan, executive director of the Bowery Mission in Manhattan said it is a very dangerous time for people who are homeless. He said many places that the homeless would use to congregate, use bathroom facilities and have places to clean up during the day are now closed. He said some people are forced to defecate on the streets because libraries, restaurants, and other bathroom facilities are now closed, making a new health risk for the public.

Despite it all, Winans said the Bowery Mission is continuing to feed the homeless, mostly now outdoors as of last week to control the spread of the virus to both volunteers and the homeless. Food distribution was erected this afternoon where members of the homeless community were given meals to take with them to where ever they sleep or live. The Mission is distributing so-called “meal to go,” where they had 200-300 people lined up outside the Lower East Side facility to pick up their meals.

Additionally, Winan said they are still accommodating 325 homeless people in five facilities around the city.

“One of the things that is forgotten in this situation is there are people without homes – a forgotten group,” Winans said.

The Bowery Missions suspended some programs including providing clothing, showers and shut down their medical clinic because of “constrained spaces.”

“Last week they closed restaurants, recreation centers, libraries and now, these people simply don’t even have a bathroom so public hygiene is degraded and this is the wrong time for that to happen,” said Winans who explained that they have erected a mobile hand cleaning station in addition to the meals program.

While the Mission has thousands of volunteers normally, “we are down to the faithful few – courageous volunteers, but far fewer than we’ve seen before.”

“The kitchen staff and everyone are pitching in to help maintain this essential service of sustaining life – they continue to show up,” he said. “And we continue to serve as many people on the overnights as we did before – of course we are taking all kinds of precautions including isolating anyone with symptoms – the but alternative of having people living on the streets is unacceptable.”

Members of the Bowery Mission prepare food, including special turkey dinners during Thanksgiving from City Harvest. They are (l-r) Volunteers Jennifer Libert, Natalie Nash, Cherie Tjhan, and Carlie Baker with Chief Development Officer James Winans. Photo by Todd Maisel.

Homeless men await food from Bowery Mission.

City Harvest is another program that has been adversely affected, with most of its operations now switching to outdoor services. City Harvest distributed tons of food at their Bed-Stuy Mobile Market in Brooklyn on March 18th and will continue to distribute in the Bronx at two locations including St. Mary’s Mobile Market – Tuesday, March 24th from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., 286 E 156th Street, Bronx, and Melrose Mobile Market – Wednesday, March 25th in the parking lot adjacent to 595 Trinity Ave., Bronx.

They have a total of nine mobile markets that officials say will remain open and continue to distribute free, fresh produce to communities across the city that may be affected by the economic impact of COVID-19.

With reports of soup kitchens and food pantries in the city closing due to health concerns, and supermarkets struggling to keep their shelves stocked during this challenging time, City Harvest officials say New Yorker’s need help putting food on their tables. City Harvest is prepared to step up to meet the need.

Currently, City Harvest provides more than 3 million pounds of fresh produce to nearly 10,000 households each year through these markets, bridging the gap for New Yorker’s experiencing food insecurity. City Harvest will help distribute 16,000 pounds of food, including cabbage, sweet potatoes, pears, and carrots, to more than 300 households at each of their upcoming Mobile Markets.

Despite the threats of the virus, City Harvest has managed to maintain a food transportation team and a fleet of 22 trucks. With over 45,000 square feet of storage and an enormous cooler and freezer, the Facility gives City Harvest space to receive bulk donations of food and temporarily store large amounts, and a great variety of, perishable and non-perishable food. It also houses a training room for classes in food safety and handling, and a volunteer room for groups to repackage bulk donations of food into smaller family-sized portions for City Harvest to deliver.

There, City Harvest will prepare produce bags for its Mobile Markets and continue its efforts to feed 1 in 5 children in New York City who are facing food insecurity by helping pack grab-and-go bags of food for students who will not have access to school breakfasts and lunches amid school closings caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

To help, the following websites tell donors where to assist: Bowery Mission, https://www.bowery.org/donate/ City Harvest cityharvest.org Met Council for Jewish Poverty https://www.metcouncil.org/ Most organizations are asking for both financial and volunteer assistance.

Food is stacked at Met Council warehouse, but it won’t last officials say.

The Algemeiner: ‘We’re Here to Help’ — Coronavirus Won’t Stop Assistance to Victims of Domestic Abuse, Head of Jewish Social Service Program Pledges

This article originally appeared on The Algemeiner and was authored by Ben Cohen.

Staff members of the Metropolitan Council’s program assisting victims of domestic abuse are seen organizing a Passover food distribution in New York City. Photo: Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

“There is a small yet mighty domestic violence community in New York that is here to help clients navigate to safety during this crisis. If they need to leave, we will help them leave. If they need me to send an Uber to collect them, then that’s what I’ll do. Whatever we can do to ensure that people who are in abusive situations are physically safe — and also emotionally safe — we will do.”

Speaking to The Algemeiner on Tuesday, Nechama Bakst —  senior director of the Family Violence Awareness Program at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York, a body which provides a range of social services both within and outside the Jewish community — emphasized over and again that help was readily available for victims of domestic violence, many of whom were now living in a perilous quarantine with their abusers because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The global lockdown brought on by the disease has led to a dramatic spike in calls to domestic violence agencies from victims of abuse. Across the country, demand for places at domestic violence shelters is increasing daily. According to the National Council Against Domestic Violence, more than 10 million Americans annually are victims of partner violence or abuse, with one in four women and one in nine men reporting “severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder, use of victim services, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases.”

Baskt — a clinical social worker who has worked closely with domestic abuse victims for over a decade — heads a department that serves 800 clients in all five of New York City’s boroughs. Since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, “it’s been hectic,” she said. “Safety needs have increased in such an incredible way.”

Bakst explained that the Metropolitan Council’s policy is to assist victims irrespective of whether they continue living with their abusers.

“We help people whether or not they have left their abusers,” she said. “If someone has to stay with their abuser, we try to help them as best we can by developing a safety plan. Because people are in quarantine with their abusers, and everyone is home living at close quarters, we have seen an increase in level of safety risk and the need for support.”

As well as dealing with existing clients whose needs have changed dramatically with the onset of “social distancing” protocols, the Council’s domestic violence program has been dealing with new cases. Many abuse victims, said Bakst, were left feeling even more vulnerable by the sense that the world around them had shut down — a fact that was sometimes exploited by the abuser.

“Some abusers are telling their partners that they can’t call the police because we’re in quarantine,” said Bakst. “Obviously that’s not true, but if you keep hearing that, you can end up feeling even more alone and more isolated, so we’re proactively reaching out to our clients every hour.”

For many of clients, the calls have amounted to a lifeline. “My staff have been telling me when they are doing wellness checks,  some of our clients are saying, ‘Just hearing your voice and knowing that you’re there makes all the difference.'” Bakst said.

The contact is especially heartening for abused spouses whose plans to leave their partners were derailed by the onset of the coronavirus. Bakst described two such cases, one involving a woman who was stuck living with a physically-violent partner, the other involving a young mother of three children who managed to leave her partner, but was now struggling to feed her family after abruptly losing her job last week because of the virus.

“She was on the phone to us, crying,” Bakst recalled. “She was saying, ‘I don’t know if you know how needy I am, I hate to be the one who’s so needy,’ and we told her that we are here to support everyone and help them get through this in the best way they can.”

As well as providing therapy and counseling services, the Council also assists with more immediate matters like food and housing. On Sunday, the staff of the domestic violence program organized a distribution of food for the forthcoming Passover holiday, leaving packages just outside the recipient’s home for them to safely collect.

“Everyone coming through our program is traumatized, and so how we interact with each person is different,” Bakst observed. In its 14 years of existence, the program has become known for what she described as its “highly individualized approach” to those whom it serves. Preserving that approach will be a formidable challenge with an as-yet undefined period of isolation lying ahead, but Bakst expressed a calm confidence that her department can absorb what lies ahead.

“Right now, our number one priority is your safety,” Bakst said. “Whether you’ve been with us for two years or one month, there is nothing more important than keeping you safe.”

Politico: As food pantries shutter, city partners with out-of-work drivers for home-delivered meals

This article originally appeared on Politico and was authored by Sally Goldenberg.

A ride-hailing vehicle with stickers for Uber and Lyft | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The de Blasio administration is seeking help with meal deliveries from taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers whose wallets are shrinking as the coronavirus keeps on-the-go New Yorkers hunkered down.

The city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission is forging a partnership with licensed drivers, offering them hourly pay to deliver goods to homebound New Yorkers whose adherence to “social distancing” guidelines are preventing trips to food pantries and soup kitchens.

As POLITICO reported Saturday, more than 100 of these facilities have shuttered amid a shortage of volunteers and increased food costs.

David Greenfield, whose organization Met Council on Jewish Poverty normally supplies 40 pantries with kosher food, predicted a shortage as nonprofits struggle to compete with corporations willing to shell out jacked-up prices. He called it “nothing short of a crisis” on Friday, after learning a 400,000-pound produce delivery scheduled for Tuesday was canceled.

On Monday the TLC reached out to its licensees to seek help. The city is offering drivers an hourly wage of $15 and reimbursements for gas and tolls as it seeks to increase its home deliveries more than eight-fold — from 18,000 meals a day to about 150,000.

"New York City's for-hire vehicle drivers have seen their earnings plummet amid this pandemic. Drivers are ready to step up to help the city in this time of great need,” Brendan Sexton, executive director of the Independent Drivers Guild, said in a prepared statement.

Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk, the TLC commissioner, said drivers “are eager and ready to help, and a program potentially feeding over a hundred thousand people in need is a great way to start.”

Meanwhile a group of Albany lawmakers are pressing legislative leaders for increased funding for food pantries amid state budget negotiations.

Sixteen legislators wrote to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie asking for $5 million for Met Council as part of $25 million in emergency funding for food.

“Without this emergency funding to Met Council and similarly situated organizations, food pantries across the state will shutter, unable to meet challenges in food supply and delivery that will grow more dire with every passing week,” they wrote in the letter.

“I know right now the first priority is hospitals, and so the attention right now has been focused over there, but people are hungry,” Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte, who signed the letter, said in an interview.

Gotham Gazette: De Blasio Names 'Food Czar' to Combat Impending Hunger Crisis with 'Mobilization We've Never Seen Before'

This article originally appeared on the Gotham Gazette and was authored by Katie Kirker & Ben Max.

Mayor de Blasio serves food (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)

As the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has spread in New York, people have begun buying food off the shelves of local supermarkets to prepare for prolonged periods of isolation in the face of the virus. Public schools and senior centers are closing, many of which provide vulnerable New York City residents with food and meals, and tens of thousands of people appear to have already been laid off from their jobs, all leaving New Yorkers increasingly worried about food access.

While food is still coming into stores, some nonprofit emergency food providers report added premiums as demand has risen and struggles to afford the quantity of food they need during this crisis, leaving many poor New Yorkers increasingly vulnerable to food shortages. A huge surge in unemployment and lost work-hours could quickly push many New Yorkers to the brink of not knowing where their next meals will come from or how they’ll feed their children.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking a number of steps to ensure access to food for the city’s most vulnerable -- roughly 20% of New York City residents live in poverty, and just over 14% of New York City residents are food insecure, and rely on services such as food pantries and soup kitchens for meals, according to Food Bank For New York City, -- including meal handouts at shuttered schools and new measures announced this weekend.

As part of larger efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus and its impacts, de Blasio on Saturday announced a restructuring of some of his senior leadership, including naming Kathryn Garcia, currently the city’s sanitation commissioner, as “COVID-19 Food Czar,” responsible for creating, operationalizing, and overseeing “a structure for working New Yorkers to get the food they need during this pandemic. Garcia will also work with City and State agencies, including the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, as well as food distributors to take any action necessary to ensure the city’s food supply continues without disruption.”

Meanwhile, Food Bank and other nonprofit emergency food providers and their allies are also attempting to combat the impacts of the pandemic’s reach throughout society.

“1.5 million New Yorkers rely on the Food Bank For New York City every year,” the Food Bank posted on Instagram March 16. “As the #COVID19 health crisis continues to unfold, that number will grow. Our warehouse remains open and our trucks are on the road to ensure food is delivered to our network of over 1,000 soup kitchens and food pantries across the city."

On March 17, Food Bank For New York City issued a call to New Yorkers for help.

“Amid mounting concerns around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) public health crisis, Food Bank For New York City is calling on New Yorkers to support those struggling with food insecurity during this critical time. Food Bank anticipates an extreme rise in need for food and resources in the coming weeks, particularly among vulnerable New Yorkers such as seniors with chronic medical conditions, families with children who may lose up to two free school meals each day as NYC’s public schools remain closed for at least the next five weeks, and low-income and hourly workers,” it wrote in a press release.

“I'm desperately concerned that a lot of New Yorkers are running out of money and that's the money they use to buy food, among other crucial necessities,” de Blasio said at a Sunday press conference.”

Calling Garcia “one of our most extraordinary public servants,” de Blasio said that as Food Czar she will be working with many entities to “create a citywide network to ensure that food is available to those who cannot afford it.”

“It's going to take a mobilization such as we've never seen before,” de Blasio said, saying Garcia will “work with all of those agencies that currently do food relief, the Human Resources Administration, the Mayor's Office of Food Policy, obviously state agencies, Food Bank, soup kitchens, so many amazing nonprofit organizations. She'll work with all of them, but she's going to build something bigger and more comprehensive than we've ever seen in New York City.”

De Blasio said the work begins with “the assumption that food will become much more of an issue going forward and that many people will have a strain that they have not experienced previously because of huge disruptions in their own income.”

In a Sunday statement to Gotham Gazette, Garcia said:

“Ensuring that New Yorkers have a steady supply of food, whether that is a home-delivered meal or provisions from a grocery store, is a top priority. To ensure this, we have had to create brand new models to get food directly to those who need it. New York City is focused on ensuring that the COVID vulnerable population has food. That is the immediate need that we are solving for. We have the full food landscape on our radar, including the tremendous newly food insecure population as a result of job loss. Additionally, we have our eyes on the larger food supply so that we have constant awareness of any vulnerabilities and intervene. We are working with private food vendors, delivery services, and the robust emergency food feeding network to make all of this happen. We will have more to say about these efforts soon.”

The United Way of New York City has already developed a fund to help ensure all New Yorkers have access to food. “We have launched the UWNYC COVID-19 Community Fund to raise the critical funds needed for food and supplies,” Sheena Wright, president and CEO of United Way of New York City, said in an email to Gotham Gazette. “With support from New Yorkers across the City, this fund will allow us to assist in closing the gap. We want to help people who rely on pantries and kitchens to be well-resourced and prepared for this situation.”

David Greenfield, CEO of Met Council, said his organization has been preparing an emergency plan since the first case of coronavirus was identified in New York. Met Council provides food to 40 kosher food pantries in New York, serving, on average, 56,000 people per month, according to Greenfield.

“We’ve seen an explosion, really a shocking explosion and need and the people are coming to us from across the spectrum, from assessment, from anything, from housing, to social services, to seniors who are shuttered in their homes, to quite frankly, tens of thousands of people who have lost their jobs for the first time,” Greenfield said in an interview.

“I don’t think people appreciate the strain that not-for-profits are under,” Greenfield said. “Unlike government and private corporations that have deep benches of reserves, we don’t. We’re living generally month to month. And what's happened now is that because of this huge extra new need, we’re actually purchasing more food so that we can meet needs. For our organization alone, we have projected that this month, just in the next two weeks, we are spending an additional $1.1 million in our food department just on coronavirus response.”

Even before naming Garcia to the Food Czar role, Mayor de Blasio promised major pieces of a response to a potentially drastic deepening of the city’s food insecurity crisis.

New York City public schools were closed as of Monday, March 16. Given that many students rely on school for two free daily meals, officials are trying to ensure students still have access to food as the city shifts to remote learning for an indefinite period. During the first week of school closure, the city handed out meals outside of schools, from the morning through lunchtime, and, according to the mayor’s office, gave away roughly 560,000 meals.

Beginning Monday, March 23, de Blasio tweeted on Friday, “435 sites will be open for Grab-and-Go breakfast, lunch AND dinner for children. Any child under 18 is eligible. None will be turned away.”

The mayor followed that up by saying “We’re also partnering with @DoorDash to get food to the homes of medically fragile students. No child will go hungry. Not on our watch.”

According to a Friday evening press release from the mayor’s office, it’s actually going to be “439 hub sites citywide” where young people can get food, “100 of the sites were high participation sites in Summer, 2019, and the remaining sites are schools where more than 50 percent of the students are eligible for free and reduced meals.”

The release also mentioned the developing partnership with Door Dash to deliver meals “to students whose medical needs are so significant that they should not be leaving the home even to get meals.”

It continues to say that “food delivery will also be made available to children who reside in City shelters.” Families can “search “Free Meals” on schools.nyc.gov or call 311 to find a site near them. Starting Monday, families can also text FOOD or COMIDA to 877-877 to find a meal near them. A complete list of meal hubs is available here.”

The Food Education Fund, a nonprofit in the city, has created a webpage, the COVID-19 Food Hub NYC, to “share resources on available food sources for families and share general resources created by our partner organizations.” The website includes a map of food service providers donating to families of public school students in the city, how to volunteer, to donate, or to add resources to the website itself.

Senior centers in New York City were also closed as of March 16, suspending all activities but also still providing to-go meals to seniors who need access, and will make deliveries to those who cannot come to the centers themselves, according to de Blasio.  

As the city continues to see long lines at some grocers and runs on things like toilet paper, bread, and more, food continues to fly off the shelves and be replenished. De Blasio and others have stressed that the supply chains for food and basic household goods is sound. On March 16 he noted “a very intensive resupply in recent days,” but added that while this is good news, the bad news is everything is being snapped up quickly.

“But if there's someone in your life, someone older, someone with one of those preexisting conditions, someone who has a disability that keeps them from getting out and getting supplies they need, either help them by getting what they need for them or share your supply enough to help them out,” de Blasio said. But that was before much more restrictive orders were issued by Governor Andrew Cuomo, urged by de Blasio, to insist that people stay home as much as possible, forbid commuting for all those not deemed part of “essential services,” and stress the importance of not exposing the most vulnerable, especially older people, to infection with coronavirus.

These new restrictions, announced by Cuomo on Friday, make food access even more complicated for many. The governor did say that food delivery is an essential service.

And the supply chain remains a key aspect of the equation and nationally it is working well and increasing the amount of food distributed to meet demand, The New York Times reported on March 16. There will still be bare shelves at times as individuals nationwide continue to scoop up products and retailers figure out how to respond to demand quickly.

Greenfield argues that even though food supply is strong, it still disadvantages nonprofits. As grocery stores need more product to sell to meet need, they are willing to pay a higher premium, which forces nonprofit organizations, like food banks, to dish out more money to meet the demand they feel.

“We can’t compete with what they’re paying. They’ll pay anything. If you’re a grocery store, they will pay anything because their customers will pay anything. We budgeted a certain amount that we’ve always budgeted for the last 20 years,” Greenfield said. “We can’t afford to pay three times as much. We are, because we have no choice. What am I going to say, you can’t have eggs? So I’m buying it, but at the end of the day that’s costing me hundreds of thousands of dollars more.”

National advocates are pushing for food assistance as well. Hunger Free America wanted to see the federal government pass the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” a relief bill that would provide funds to make it easier for schools, senior programs, and food charities to provide alternative meals, and also create a “federally funded program to give extra food purchasing dollars to all families with children in closed schools,” according to a press release from Hunger Free. The bill was signed by President Donald Trump on March 18.

“This massive increase in the pre-existing hunger crisis demands a massive, highly-coordinated response by federal, state, and city government agencies, as well as corporations, nonprofit groups, and philanthropies,” Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, said in a statement. Once the Families First Coronavirus Response Act becomes law, he said, “one top priority for such joint efforts should be helping eligible families enroll in the new government food benefits available. The other key priority should be dramatically ramping-up the home delivery of meals to older Americans, children, and families who lost income.”

On a hyperlocal level, groups are taking action. The Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce is helping to lead the launch of an emergency food distribution center in Flushing. “The Flushing community is proactively organizing volunteers to contact local residents, including homebound individuals, who may need emergency food assistance ahead of a possible City lockdown this week,” a press release from the group said before Cuomo gave his orders that are not a “lockdown” per se, but amount to significant limits on what New Yorkers should be doing outside their homes and who they should be interacting with.

And some individual New Yorkers appear to be quickly responding on their own. A GoFundMe fundraiser page appeared late last week to raise money for the Food Bank For New York City. The page is called “Helping New York City During COVID-19” and was started by Frederick Joseph. It quickly surpassed its $20,000 goal, with the post noting that every $1 to the Food Bank provides five meals for those in need.

“Cancellations of large events, fewer people at restaurants, and school closings means that wage workers who live on hourly pay + tips are going to be having a harder time than usual making ends meet,” Joseph’s explanation of the fundraiser reads. “It also means that some adults and children who rely on meals from these places may struggle with hunger. We need to make sure that the non-profits who serve our communities have the resources both to keep their volunteers and staff healthy and to provide food to meet rising demand.”

As the situation develops, it is unclear how demand for food will change, especially since some are predicting this will be a six-to-nine month crisis, if not longer. “With schools closed and the overall uncertainty, we need a comprehensive approach to replacing these missing meals,” said Wright of United Way. “We will have to consider new food distribution strategies, maybe even going door to door to make sure people have the food they need. This is an unprecedented event, and I am not surprised that our food pantry and soup kitchen operators, who can, continue to serve their communities. I am so inspired by their dedication. They have modified their operations to adapt to this crisis, and we are so thankful for their fast response and commitment to meeting on-the-ground need right now.”

Politico: Coronavirus pushes New York City's food pantries to 'nothing short of a crisis'

This article originally appeared on Politico and was authored by Sally Goldenberg.

Don Pollard/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

NEW YORK — The fast-spreading coronavirus is squeezing the city’s food pantries and soup kitchens, with dozens closing across the five boroughs and crucial delivery volunteers staying inside as the number of homebound people in need of meals skyrockets.

The Food Bank For New York City, which supplies more than 1,000 pantries and soup kitchens, said 118 of those in its network suspended service as of Friday evening.

A food policy official with the de Blasio administration said at least 40 of the nearly 600 facilities the city funds have closed — some of which overlap with the Food Bank’s count.

The mayor’s team is finalizing a plan to deliver 150,000 meals daily, a more than eight-fold increase from its current tally, but as a nervous public stockpiles food, supplies are tightening and prices are surging.

Late Friday afternoon, a produce vendor canceled a delivery of 400,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables expected to arrive at the doors of the Met Council on Jewish Poverty, a prominent philanthropic organization that supplies 40 food pantries throughout the city.

“We are now scrambling to find a different vendor, but there’s no question that that’s going to cost us significantly more,” Met Council CEO David Greenfield told POLITICO, shortly after hearing the news.

The decades-old organization provides free kosher food to people of all faiths and was gearing up for a Passover distribution ahead of the April holiday when the virus took hold in the city. As of Friday evening, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office reported the coronavirus had infected 5,683 people and killed 43 in the city, and the count has been increasing by the hour.

Greenfield has been sounding the alarm this week about the one-two punch of rising food prices that puts his buyers in competition with behemoth corporations like Walmart and Costco, and a shortage of volunteers as people heed directives about leaving their homes. So far, Met Council has closed four of its 40 pantries and more of the seniors it serves are sheltering inside, he said.

“These low-income New Yorkers who are living hand to mouth, they’re not able to stock up their pantries like you and I are,” he said in an interview Thursday. “It’s nothing short of a crisis.”

Met Council is planning to package and deliver food from its Brooklyn warehouse on Sunday, since its regular pantries are too small for the “social distancing” guidelines in place to mitigate the spread of the virus.

In the past two weeks the organization spent $1.1 million more than it normally would to accommodate a 32-percent increase in demand and higher food prices, such as a 50-percent markup for canned tuna, Greenfield said. And that was before the cancellation of the massive produce order.

“We have people calling us, begging us, desperate, saying ‘I just lost my job, please give me food.’ What am I going to say? No?” he said.

Food providers like Met Council are seeking additional funds from state officials as they finalize their budget and they’re likely to seek relief from City Hall next.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said finding a solution to the problem is a “top priority.”

“The situation is dire,” he said Friday evening. “Time is of the essence.”

Lisa Hines-Johnson, chief operating officer at the city Food Bank, said Congress “took a much-needed step by passing the Families First Act,” which requires paid sick leave for certain employees isolated because of coronavirus. “Now we need them to focus on providing a strong safety net for low-income Americans,” she said.

Kate MacKenzie, who oversees food policy for the de Blasio administration, said City Hall is in talks with transit and delivery companies, such as Uber, Lyft and FedEx, to potentially get more meals delivered to low-income, homebound New Yorkers.

She said facilities that shut were lacking volunteers, and stressed she has seen no evidence of a food supply shortage.

“It’s a very fragile network in the best of times, and certainly this is taxing it,” she said in an interview Friday.

The challenge, she said, is getting food to people who are holed up in their apartments to avoid crowds, in keeping with city and state guidelines that have intensified over the week. While food shopping is considered a permissible outing, seniors and those with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable to the illness, for which there is no vaccine.

Governments generally set up large food distribution points in times of disaster, but MacKenzie said that is “out of the question right now.”

“Every time we think we’re close to a solution there’s another wrinkle that we need to solve for,” she said. The city will have a plan finalized early next week for ramping up home deliveries, she vowed: “We are sleeves rolled up thinking creatively to get people fed in ways that just we have never had to imagine before.”

The Algemeiner: ‘Israeli Playbook’ Has Helped Us Deal With Coronavirus Crisis, Says Head of New York Jewish Council on Poverty

This article was originally posted on The Algemeiner and was authored by Ben Cohen.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York is boosting food distribution amid the coronavirus crisis. Photo: Met Council.

The head of the main Jewish welfare institution serving poor and low-income residents in the New York area said on Tuesday that his organization had so far managed to stay “ahead of the curve” of the novel coronavirus threat, though he warned that graver challenges lay ahead.

“We are in a reasonably good place, because we took this seriously as soon as the first coronavirus case was registered in New York,” David Greenfield — chief executive of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty — told The Algemeiner.

Founded in 1972 in response to growing poverty among Jews in the New York area, the Metropolitan Council describes itself as an “organization founded on Jewish values…serv[ing] everyone with dignity and empathy, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion.”

Dealing with an unprecedented public health threat like COVID-19 has fundamentally transformed the manner in which the Council serves the 225,000 clients who depend on its programs, Greenfield explained.

“Essentially, we’ve copied the Israeli playbook,” Greenfield said, as he praised what he called the Israeli government’s “aggressive” approach from the first hours of the crisis. “We’ve held an emergency meeting every single day, we’ve given free sick days to our staff to keep them healthy, we’ve quarantined people who’ve been traveling, and all that has helped us stay ahead of the curve.”

Services provided by the Council range from food provision to domestic violence counseling, with each of its nine departments facing a distinct set of challenges, Greenfield said.

“We operate the largest free kosher-for-Passover food distribution service,” Greenfield said, in a nod to the major Jewish holiday that begins three weeks from now. Already, he continued, there had been more than 100 distributions of Passover food to over 180,000 recipients.

Planning for the Passover holiday has coincided with increased day-to-day demand for food.

“We’ve increased our food ordering and warehouse capacity so that we can respond to short-term needs,” Greenfield said.

Currently, about 1,000 food packages are being distributed by the Council every week, with the individuals who deliver the food maintaining a safe distance from those receiving it.

Said Greenfield: “39 percent of our clients are seniors, and approximately another 10 percent  have an underlying medical condition, so we’re doing this for their own protection and that of our staff.”

Seniors needing repairs at their homes are also receiving assistance despite the coronavirus crisis, Greenfield said.

“We’re providing emergency repairs for seniors, and when we show up, we ask them to stay in a separate room for the duration of the work, so we’re adapting to the best of our abilities,” he explained.

The Council’s program for victims of domestic violence — with 800 clients, the largest program of its kind in the Jewish community — is continuing its work online, as battered spouses are compelled to spend even more time with their abusers because of the coronavirus restrictions.

“We are providing all these services online and by telephone now,” Greenfield said. “We’ve got licensed therapists and social workers dealing with these cases, and if they need food or other assistance, we’re providing that as well.”

JTA: Preparing for the ‘worst-case scenario’: Jewish aid groups scramble amid the coronavirus outbreak

This article originally appeared on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and was authored by Josefin Dolsten.

Masbia kosher supervisor Pesach Gittleson assembles boxes containing food for people who may be quarantined or unable to obtain food due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Alexander Rapaport)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The run-up to Passover is the busiest time of the year for Masbia, a nonprofit that operates three kosher soup kitchens in Brooklyn and Queens.

The organization has to order all kosher-for-Passover food and scrub one of its locations’ kitchens so it can prepare food without any trace of bread or other leavened products. Right before the holiday is also when most people show up to stock up on groceries — swelling from 2,000 families in a typical week to about 4,000.

“Before Passover, everybody comes,” Executive Director Alexander Rapaport said.

But that’s in a normal year, and this year is shaping up to be anything but normal.

With the coronavirus wreaking havoc on communities, Rapaport is scrambling to provide for the people who depend on his organization to feed their families — and whose need might deepen as quarantines, school closures and work cancellations become more widespread.

“Some of the people in the first rounds of quarantines in New York were people who were able to take the personal hit financially, meaning to say they were able to order food from ordering services or give their friends or family a credit card and things like that,” Rapaport said.

“If people who were hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck or the very poor who are already struggling with food will be hit with quarantines or with kids home from school, that will immediately affect their ability to feed themselves.”

Demand at the pantry has already soared as people stock up ahead of possible quarantines and food shortages, Rapaport said. Meanwhile, volunteers worried about the virus have been coming in less often.

“The whole food economy may collapse on different levels, so [I’m] kind of anticipating the worst-case scenario,” he said.

People wear face masks in Times Square in New York City after the city confirmed cases of the rapidly spreading coronavirus, March 3, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/VIEWpress via Getty Images)

Rapaport is far from the only Jewish social service provider grappling with the emerging consequences of the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization labeled a pandemic on Wednesday. The situation is posing unique challenges for those who rely on Jewish social services and the organizations that serve them.

Masbia is now preparing boxes with enough food to feed one person for two weeks, the length that people potentially exposed to the virus are being asked to quarantine, rather than just providing items to supplement recipients’ diet.

The Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse, which supports victims in the Washington, D.C.-area, announced that it is “safety planning with people who may be quarantined with their abuser.” The group urged those needing help to call its helpline.

And organizations that provide interest-free loans say they are making emergency aid available — but have concerns about when and whether people whose jobs are suspended will be able to make repayments.

On Sunday, Hebrew Free Loan of San Francisco — an organization that provides interest-free loans mostly to members of the Jewish community — announced that it is offering emergency loans of up to $20,000 to those suffering economically as a result of the coronavirus breakout. Three people have already applied and are in the process of being evaluated, the organization said.

“We’ve learned that the important thing is to get out right away to offer assistance,” Executive Director Cindy Rogoway said.

Rogoway anticipates that some people who already are receiving loans from the organization may not be able to pay back on schedule if they are unable to work due to the coronavirus. She said the organization “depend[s] very heavily on the repayments in recycling the loan flow.”

“I am concerned,” Rogoway acknowledged. “We will have enough for the immediate onslaught, but I think what we also have to look at is that people may need to ask for payment forgiveness or [to slow down] their monthly payment, and that could start to really hurt the cash flow.”

The New York-based Hebrew Free Loan Society, which serves Jewish and non-Jewish residents of New York City, Westchester County and Long Island, launched a similar program on Monday. It will provide interest-free loans of $2,000 to $5,000 to those in financial struggle because of the coronavirus.

“We are prepared for a whole raft of financial needs that people will be experiencing because of coronavirus outbreak,” said Rabbi David Rosenn, the group’s executive director.

The Hebrew Free Loan Society typically requires applicants to provide two guarantors who can assure that loans will be repaid, but in this case the organization is only requiring one.

It is raising money from private donors and working with the UJA-Federation of New York to cover the costs of the additional loans.

The federation is coordinating with a number of other Jewish organizations, including synagogues, nursing homes and educational institutions, to anticipate needs that may arise as the outbreak progresses. For Shabbat, UJA-Federation delivered 600 boxes of meals last week to congregants of Young Israel of New Rochelle, an Orthodox synagogue that was closed after a member tested positive for the virus and many members were quarantined.

“This is a preparation phase, and we feel like the best information we have and the best thing to do is to be prepared,” said UJA-Federation’s chief planning officer, Deborah Joselow.

The Met Council, a Jewish organization that provides annual aid to 225,000 New Yorkers of all backgrounds, is working to ensure that its programming — including providing food to low-income recipients and housing to seniors — will continue to run smoothly amid the outbreak. The organization is ordering food and other essentials while making arrangements for its non-essential programming to take place remotely.

“We are working on projections to determine what additional food and resources we would need if in fact folks would have limited access or lower-income folks wouldn’t have enough money to purchase that,” CEO David Greenfield said.

Meanwhile Rapaport, the director of the soup kitchen network, said he’s trying his best to prepare in a situation full of unknowns.

“There’s no protocol we can follow or something that was done at a different disaster,” he said. “Especially before Pesach, it is just unprecedented.”

The City: Mayor Takes Keep Calm and Carry On Approach to Coronavirus

This article originally appeared on The City and is authored by Yoav Gonen.

Mayor Bill de Blasio hands out flyers about coronavirus preparedness in Union Square. Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

Mayor Bill de Blasio visited Union Square Monday to hand out informational flyers on coronavirus and to bump elbows — the new handshake — with passersby.

Earlier that day, his wife Chirlane McCray attended a luncheon at Kong Sihk Tong restaurant — her response to xenophobia and a show of support for businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Tuesday postponed his planned State of the City speech, slated for Thursday, “out of an abundance of caution.”

That same day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state’s most drastic move to date against the spread of the COVID-19 virus: The two-week closure of schools and public event spaces in a one-mile containment area in hard-hit New Rochelle — enforced by the National Guard.

The range of responses by top city and state officials highlights the challenging balancing act they’re now forced to navigate daily — protecting public health without further disrupting the economy or causing undue hardship.

“Everything is a trade off between how much risk you’re mitigating and how much damage you’re doing by taking those measures,” said City Councilmember Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), chair of the health committee.

“Obviously, if we imposed a curfew and said everyone has to stay home, that’s a hell of a mitigation system — but it would be a shock to the economy,” he added. “It feels like they’re evaluating and reevaluating that cost-benefit analysis every day.”

Parade to March On

As of early Tuesday afternoon, there were 176 confirmed cases of the virus statewide — including 36 in New York City and 108 in New Rochelle.

The difficulties of responding to the spread of coronavirus have been exacerbated by a new disease that’s not well understood, and a shortage of testing capacity local officials blame on the federal government’s slow approval of private labs and automated tests.

For the most part, the de Blasio administration has been encouraging precautionary measures — particularly among people over 50 with certain pre-existing conditions — while trying to minimize disruptions. That includes a vow to close schools only as a last resort.

New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray has lunch with elected officials and community leaders at Kong Sihk Tong restaurant in Chinatown in Manhattan on Monday, March 9, 2020. Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

While Boston and Denver opted this week to scrap their St. Patrick’s Day parades, de Blasio said there aren’t plans to cancel any major events — including the March 17 march up Fifth Avenue.

“I’m always going to put health and safety first, but that does not negate the fact that people’s livelihoods also matter. I am very resistant to take actions that we’re not certain would be helpful, but that would cause people to lose their livelihoods,” the mayor said Monday.

“There’s a lot of parents that don’t have a place for their child if the schools are closed…. There’s a lot of businesses that might not survive if they didn’t still have customers for a period of time,” he added.

“So there’s a balance that has to be struck and, and you know, I’m watching how different places are handling it and I’m not sure the balance is always being struck everywhere.”

Guidance in Flux

The mayor has said he’s basing his decisions on the latest assessments by health professionals on how coronavirus spreads.

While public health officials initially believed the virus was transmitted largely through prolonged exposure, they recently determined it can also travel through coughs, sneezes and saliva in close proximity.

That’s altered their guidance — including advising the most vulnerable people to avoid unnecessary public activities.

But with event cancellations accumulating across the country, and in the face of stronger mitigation steps in countries such as Italy and Israel, some people are questioning whether the de Blasio administration’s precautions go far enough.

David Greenfield, a former City Council member who now serves as CEO of the Met Council, said his nonprofit is scaling back on all non-essential meetings and events — including socializing functions for senior citizens. He encouraged Cuomo and de Blasio to do the same.

“Based on the information I’m seeing…. I think unless it’s a vital event, it would seem prudent that we should consider cancelling all of these kinds of events,” said Greenfield.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer told THE CITY she’s postponing her State of the Borough speech, originally slated for late March, until the fall.

She said she’s heard from community board members who are trying to figure out how to delay public meetings while abiding by deadlines to provide advisory votes on land use items.

“If you have a lot of older people coming, it certainly does give pause because I think they’re understandably frightened,” said Brewer. “If it’s something not necessary, it makes sense to cancel it.”

This week, the mayor did issue more guidance for how to protect transmission of the virus from public contact: It included recommendations for biking or walking to work when possible, avoiding packed subway cars and telecommuting, if that’s an option.

His administration also announced it was offering interest-free loans and grants to small businesses suffering from reduced foot traffic.

But he’s made it clear in daily briefings on the virus that one of his top priorities is to prevent major disruptions to the city’s life.

“There are places around the world and certainly even around this country where you see people radically changing their lives, where you see some panic starting to set in,” the mayor said this week. “You don’t see that in New York City.”

YWN: Free Kosher Lunches In Brooklyn Parks This Week From Met Council

This article originally appeared on The Yeshiva World:

This week Tuesday, August 27th through Thursday, August 29rd, Met Council will be giving away thousands of FREE kosher lunches in Boro Park and Williamsburg for kids. Grab a free box lunch for your kids aged 18 and under catered by Lou G. Siegel and under the hashgacha of the Tartikov Beis Din courtesy of Met Council.

“Met Council is proud to have the only free kosher summer lunch program for kids in New York,” said David G. Greenfield CEO of Met Council. “We give out free kosher lunches during the week between when camp ends and yeshiva begins to ensure that all children have access to nutritious meals. There’s no catch, just show up with your child and get a free kosher lunch for every kid that’s there!”

Lunches will be served from a mobile food truck in Boro Park on Tuesday, August 27th from 11:30 PM to 2:30 PM at Dome Playground located at Dahill Road and between 37th and 38th streets, and on Wednesday, August 28th from 11:30 PM to 2:30 PM at Gravesend Park located at 18th Avenue and 56th Street. In Williamsburg, the free lunches will be served on Thursday, August 29th from 11:30 AM- 2:30 PM at Middleton Playground on Middleton Street between Bedford and Lee Avenue.

In addition to the free food, on Wednesday, August 28th, Met Council will host a fun day of activities for kids at Gravesend Park featuring games, prizes, and other exciting activities starting at 1:00 PM.

Met Council is partnering with two of their sixteen affiliated Jewish Community Councils to ensure that the free lunch giveaway is a huge success. The UJO Williamsburg and Boro Park JCC worked with Met Council to advertise the program, recruit volunteers to allow the program to run smoothly and spread the word throughout the Williamsburg and Boro Park communities.

“Our community partners are invaluable to this effort,” Greenfield explained. “They have built a deep relationships with the local community and work tirelessly to make sure everyone in the community knows about this great program. We’re especially grateful for the Boro Park JCC, UJO of Williamsburg and Council Members Brad Lander, Stephen Levin, Kalman Yeger Assembly Members Robert Carroll and Simcha Eichenstein and Senators Simcha Felder and Brian Kavanagh for their support of this important program.”

The Met Council program mirrors the Citywide Summer Meals program while acknowledging the needs of kids who keep kosher. Met Council provides the additional funding necessary to pay for the higher cost of a kosher meal. Met Council on Jewish Poverty is New York’s largest tzedakah. Among its ten different services, Met Council runs America’s largest kosher food program which distributes food throughout the year to over 200,000 people in need.

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YWN: Met Council Fights For Low Income New Yorkers Losing Benefits [PHOTOS]

This article originally appeared on The Yeshiva World website:

Is it possible to be worse off because of an increase in the minimum wage? In some cases, the answer is yes. Shira* is a home health care aide. She’s a divorced mother with three children. Her wages went up from $13.65 an hour to $15 an hour this past January due to the increase in the minimum wage in New York City. That should have been good news. As a result of the minimum wage increase, she’s making $235 more per month. The problem is that while New York adjusted the minimum wage it did not adjust the maximum earnings. So Shira lost $505 in SNAP (food stamps) benefits – meaning that her overall income went down $270 per month. “The minimum wage was meant to help low-income New Yorkers. However, in some cases, it’s actually costing them money. That is the Benefits Cliff and Met Council, as the largest Jewish charity serving the poor, is committed to fighting on behalf of these low-income New Yorkers,” explained David G. Greenfield, CEO of Met Council on Jewish Poverty.

That’s exactly what David Greenfield and Met Council did. They organized, lobbied and spend the last six months fighting on behalf of low-income New Yorkers. This past Friday morning all of their efforts bore fruit when at 6:45 AM, in a historic move by the New York State Legislature, they passed a law to form a task force to find solutions to the Benefits Cliff. Many low-income New Yorkers who are at risk of losing their benefits will be greatly served by this legislation. When Met Council first learned of the Benefits Cliff problem from a number of their clients, they worked hand in hand with Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Joseph Lentol who introduced this Benefits Cliff bill in their respective houses. The bill will have a long-lasting impact on the lives of the hundreds of thousands of working poor in New York.

“This is something that only Met Council can do,” said David G. Greenfield, CEO, Met Council. “While serving over 225,000 New Yorkers in need each year we come across every conceivable issue. We literally help tens of thousands of people access benefits each year, that’s how we saw the Benefits Cliff first hand. It’s so demoralizing to learn that some New Yorkers are actually losing money because of the minimum wage. That’s why we set out to fix it.”

“I have heard anecdotal stories that the minimum wage has negatively impacted individuals ability to receive benefits. This is largely because their increased income may disqualify them from receiving their usual supplemental government benefits,” said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol. “This is an unintended consequence of the minimum wage increase. Make no mistake, these individuals still need help. It is our responsibility to ensure that the unintended consequences of legislation we pass are mitigated. I was happy to sponsor this bill to study how these impacts could happen and work to find a way to resolve this problem.”

“For many families, the abrupt drop-off in benefits as they reach a higher income bracket is both a trap and an obstacle to social mobility. As we work towards a fair system where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, we need to know how the benefits cliff affects New Yorkers’ ability to get out of poverty. Then we need to address the issue head-on. The passage of this legislation is an important step,” said Senator Andrew Gounardes.

Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein passed the first bill in New York that seeks to fix the Benefits Cliff on the issue of Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and championed the cause of low-income New Yorkers. In this case, tens of thousands of teenagers who were working in the summer through the SYEP program saw their families income go up and were inadvertently causing their families to lose benefits.

“The impact of the benefits cliff is real and affects thousands of low-income families,” said Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein. “My legislation that passed both houses of the New York State Legislature last week excludes the Summer Youth Employment Program earned income from the household annual income as it relates to public assistance. This legislation will ensure that more young people can participate in these enriching summer experiences helping them get a head start on acquiring work skills without fear of affecting their household’s public assistance.”

“We must ensure that we evaluate the effects of the increase in the minimum wage has on our working poor. Too many New Yorkers today are struggling with poverty or trying to make ends meet, with many earning the minimum wage. It is not only necessary but just that we ensure all services, programs, and subsidies that go through New York State do not contradict the living wage,” said Senator Roxanne J. Persaud, Chair of the Social Services Committee, who co-sponsored the SYEP legislation.

Greenfield also took the time to thank Assembly Member Helene Weinstein, Chair of Ways & Means, for her leadership in passing this legislation and Assembly Members Marcos Crespo and Andrew Hevesi for their support, as well. “We literally had the backing of dozens of elected officials. I’m especially grateful to them and to our JCC heads, Met Council staff and young leadership cabinet – all of whom came up to Albany to lobby on behalf of this bill. We could not have done this without their support.”

Met Council is the largest Jewish charity serving the poor in New York. They have ten different departments that work together to fight poverty including America’s largest free kosher food network, crisis intervention services, family violence prevention programs and the largest network of affordable housing in the Jewish community located in 20 building owned and operate by Met Council across the five boroughs of New York City.

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The City: Hike in Minimum Wage is Net Loss for Those Whose Public Benefits Collapse

This article originally appeared on The City website and is authored by Yoav Gonen:

Iris Dionicio with her 5-year-old son, Riley, in The Bronx. Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

After years of alternating between public assistance, night school and part-time work, Iris Dionicio got a full-time job in December as an executive assistant for a Bronx nonprofit.

The timing seemed perfect, coming just as the city’s minimum wage was set to increase from $13 to $15 an hour this year.

But her higher pay also triggered the loss of most of her public benefits — including a generous rent subsidy and monthly cash assistance payments that had been keeping her and her three kids stable.

“And this is where my worries started,” said the 28-year-old Bronx woman.

Dionicio is one of thousands of New Yorkers who could be impacted by unintended consequences of the city’s higher minimum wage, which is knocking some workers out of eligibility for benefits that are worth more than the pay hike.

Nonprofit officials have sounded the alarm in recent months about the phenomenon, known as a “benefits cliff” — which is expected to grow as more people renew throughout the year.

Albany Tries to Help

Last week, the state Senate and Assembly passed a bill at the end of a busy session that calls on the state Department of Labor to study the complex issue.

“The point of the bill is to take what we kind of understand as a conceptual matter and try to pin it down,” said State Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), sponsor of the Senate bill. “We really want to figure it out and see if there’s things we can do to help mitigate this cliff.”

Dionicio had been working part-time as a medical assistant from November 2016 to March 2018, clocking in about 25 hours a week at an hourly rate of $10.50.

The lower pay and fewer hours made her eligible for public assistance, including approximately $340 per month in SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, as well as $1,410 in rent payments under a program called CityFEPS, and Medicaid for her and her kids.

She stopped working in March 2018 when she was five months pregnant, and her benefits increased while she remained out of work.

On Jan. 19, 2019, just weeks after she landed a job at Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, she got a letter from the city Human Resources Administration saying she no longer qualified for the rent subsidy — this time under a state program — because her monthly earnings were now $211 over the federal income limit.

The letter also said her SNAP allowance — temporarily raised to $642 per month because of the loss of public assistance — would end on June 30.

Dionicio has since been forced to appear in Housing Court twice because of her struggles to meet the $1,532.24 monthly rent for her two-bedroom apartment in Kingsbridge.

She received a one-shot cash payment of $3,061.15 from the HRA on April 10 to avoid eviction, but has been told she needs to pay back $1,711.15 of it.

“I’m holding onto dear life by my teeth. It’s been a challenge,” Dionicio told THE CITY. “I have to hold on. I have three kids that depend on me so I have to make it work.”

In April 2019 about 1.5 million people in New York City received SNAP benefits and roughly 335,000 got cash assistance — but the impacted universe is expected to be a fraction of that.

City HRA officials said they’ve seen a small uptick in SNAP cases — which are determined by the federal government — closed because a recipient’s earnings went up. But they said only 1% of rental voucher recipients typically become ineligible as a result of higher earnings, and that people earning the new minimum wage shouldn’t be losing their vouchers.

“Because every case is unique, with many impacting factors, we cannot specifically determine if a household is no longer eligible for benefits due to one particular factor, like the minimum wage increase but, generally speaking, we have not seen notable changes in benefits utilization as a result of increased earnings,” said HRA spokesman Isaac McGinn

The state Department of Labor did not respond to requests for comment.

A Common Problem

Nonprofit leaders and elected officials say they’ve heard of dozens of cases of severe benefit losses under the new minimum wage, including of child care and housing vouchers.

Earlier this month, union officials at 32BJ sought a legislative remedy for airport workers who now find health insurance unaffordable in part because of wage increases.

Officials at the nonprofit Met Council on Jewish Poverty say they’ve been trying to help a green card-holding woman who is a home care worker, whose salary was recently raised from $13.65 to $15 an hour.

The single mom’s income gain of $235 per month was offset by a steeper loss of $505 in SNAP benefits, the group says.

“We’ve seen dozens of clients who are losing all sorts of benefits simply because they’re making a couple of dollars more an hour — and they’re losing more in benefits than they’re making in wages,” said David Greenfield, CEO of the Met Council. “We’re cautiously optimistic that this can be addressed strategically and quickly.”

Jennifer Jones Austin, president of the nonprofit Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, noted that a family with two people making $15 an hour — for a combined annual salary of roughly $62,000 — can still find it challenging to pay for a New York rent, child care and other necessities without some type of subsidy.

“We’ve seen instances where people have actually said, ‘Don’t give me that raise — I don’t want that increased wage, because it can cut off these income supports,’ ” she said.

The issue is hitting New York City before the rest of the state because the minimum wage has been raised sooner within the five boroughs.

It’s currently at $11.10 in most of the state, $12.00 in Long Island and Westchester and $13.50 for businesses in New York City with fewer than 11 employees.

The minimum wage is set to increase to $15 per hour for all New York City workers on December 31.

A Broader Issue

Heather Hill, an associate professor at the Evans School of Public Policy & Government at the University of Washington, has been studying the impact of the $15 minimum wage on workers in Seattle, which hit that rate in 2017.

She said that families or single parents with kids are among the most vulnerable to the benefits cliff.

“This is not at all specific to minimum wage increases,” said Hill. “It’s a broader issue of how we’ve set up programs that help low-income families.”

This year’s legislative session in Albany has already addressed one related quirk that arose from work development programs targeted at teenagers and young adults over the summer.

Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein (D-Brooklyn) found that a number of participants in the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program were inadvertently pushing their families over the benefits eligibility limits with their earnings of as much as $2,150.

So State Senate and Assembly passed legislation last week that would newly exclude that income from a family’s total when it comes to calculating public benefits eligibility.

“We do not want to discourage our young adults from participating in the Summer Youth Employment Program,” said Eichenstein.