TESTIMONY
Rachel Bryant, Attorney at Met Council on the Community Food Connections Program and Emergency Food Accessibility
5:25:43
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125 sec
Rachel Bryant discusses the importance of providing kosher and halal emergency food in New York City.
- Met Council is a leading charity in the U.S. fighting poverty and is a significant provider of emergency food in New York City, serving over 320,000 clients annually.
- The organization offers exclusively kosher and halal emergency food, serving any New Yorker regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion.
- Jewish and Muslim communities face substantial barriers to food access, with over 80% of Muslim Americans unable to observe a halal diet due to food insufficiency.
- During the pandemic, over 20% of emergency meals provided through the city's Get Food NYC program were kosher or halal.
- Bryant emphasizes the ongoing need for emergency food to address poverty and recover post-pandemic, highlighting the limitation of kosher (kala) certified products offered by the program.
Rachel Bryant
5:25:43
Thank you so much.
5:25:44
My name is Rachel Bryant, and I'm an attorney at the Met Council.
5:25:47
1 the largest emergency food providers in the city, and I'm here today to talk about the community food connections program.
5:25:54
Mac Council is one of America's largest US charities dedicated to buying poverty.
5:25:58
We operate 10 departments ranging from 100 percent affordable housing to our award winning family violence program to comprehensive all cost survivor assistance.
5:26:06
Senior programming, etcetera.
5:26:08
In total, we provide a wide array of support to over 320,000 clients a year, mostly in New York City.
5:26:15
My counsel plays a unique role in the emergency food space by offering exclusively kosher and halal emergency food, but we are committed to serving any New Yorker in need regardless of race.
5:26:24
Ethnicity or religion.
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Jewish Muslim communities face significant barriers to food access.
5:26:30
A recent study found that over 80% of Muslim America can't observe a whole diet and that food insubiciency within these communities was more than double the rate of all other respondents.
5:26:39
New York is home to nearly 1 quarter of all American Muslims.
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Suggesting that Muslim New Yorkers struggle with food insufficiency, insufficiency, and similar and pronounced rate.
5:26:48
While the rate of kosher observance in Jewish communities as well the sheer size of the Jewish population makes the kosher observant population roughly the same size as the whole observant 1.
5:26:59
And poverty rates are significant in more observant communities.
5:27:02
During the height of the pandemic, over 20% of emergency meals, nearly 27,000,000 meals provided through the city's get food NYC program were either foreclosure or wall food.
5:27:12
Many New Yorkers are still struggling to get back on their feet post pandemic, Studies published last week by The New York Times, the Robin Hill Foundation And Columbia University reported that the poverty rate and life expectancies have not recovered in New York and that one in 4 children in New York city now lives in poverty.
5:27:27
We continue to serve more New Yorkers than at any point in the history of our organization.
5:27:32
And emergency food is one of the most powerful tools we have to address these issues.
5:27:37
Though we have immense gratitude for CFC, we must also know tooth loss.
5:27:41
First, though there are many coachless certified products available.
5:27:45
CFC offers a more limited number of Kala certified products.
