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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Andrew Santa Ana, Interim Co-Executive Director of Asian American Federation on Food Insecurity in Asian Communities
3:55:42
ยท
156 sec
Andrew Santa Ana, representing the Asian American Federation, testifies about the severe food insecurity crisis facing Asian communities in New York City. He highlights the combination of federal cuts, anti-immigrant policies, and economic factors that have created an untenable situation for many Asian New Yorkers.
- 1 in 3 Asian residents lives in low-income households, with 42% of Asian older adults being low-income
- Fear of ICE raids and public charge policies are causing people to avoid food pantries and disenroll from benefits
- Santa Ana calls for continued funding of culturally competent, in-language food services and alternative food benefits for immigrant communities and older adults
Andrew Santa Ana
3:55:42
Okay.
3:55:42
I'm gonna be in.
3:55:43
Hi.
3:55:44
Thank you, deputy speaker Ayala, for holding this important very timely hearing on food insecurity.
3:55:48
My name is Andrew Santa Anna, and I'm the interim co executive director at the Asian American Federation representing the collective voice of more than 70 member nonprofits serving 1,500,000 Asian New Yorkers.
3:55:59
Food insecurity in New York's Asian communities has reached a breaking point from a combination of federal cuts, escalating anti immigrant policies, fears of, folks jeopardizing their status because of public charge, and, of course, the wild shifts in the prices of food and the economy from tariffs have created an untenable situation.
3:56:16
And so despite the model minority stereotypes surrounding Asian Americans as wealthy and successful, our communities face significant hardship.
3:56:24
So while there has been population growth for our community, one in three Asian residents lives in low income households, and they're twice as likely to experience poverty relative to white New Yorkers.
3:56:34
And currently, 42% of Asian older adults are low income, making them amongst the poorest seniors.
3:56:39
And so what we hear from our communities about food insecurity is alarming.
3:56:43
Our member organizations rely on federal, state, and city sources to feed their communities, and the potential cuts are terrifying.
3:56:50
Food pantries that are funded under TFAP and EFSP and folks that seek assistance through SNAP, these cuts are going to be devastating to the Asian communities.
3:57:01
And so while we recognize that the city council is doing its best to show up for our communities and protect the line, I wanted to share how this is impacting our communities.
3:57:10
Because what we're hearing is that folks are fearing accessing food pantries because of ICE raids.
3:57:15
People are disenrolling from benefits.
3:57:17
And, of course, they're still subject to some of the perennial scams such as, like, their their benefits cards being skimmed and compromised.
3:57:24
And so when all of these things come together, we wanna make sure that our communities that are doing that work in community to make sure that people are fed is resourced.
3:57:32
So, again, we believe that it's important more important than ever that we continue to reinforce these supplemental supports for our communities, and that looks like a couple different things.
3:57:40
Of course, continuing to fund the groups that do linguistically and comp truly competent food services that provide alternative food benefits for immigrant, for the immigrant community, the Asian community, and particularly older adults.
3:57:52
And that, of course, includes continuing to fund that culturally competent in language nontraditional service models that are often that space that provides that access point for older adults and food insecure people when they're often afraid to access other programs.
3:58:06
Listen.
3:58:06
I know that there are not easy answers to these questions, and the challenges are complex.
3:58:11
And your leadership and ongoing leadership in this space has been very vital.
3:58:15
And I'm gonna submit more details online.
3:58:17
Thank you so much for your time.
Diana Ayala
3:58:18
Thank you.