Debipriya Chatterjee
3:17:20
Thank you chairperson Ayallo.
3:17:22
And to everyone in the committee, my name is Debbie Priya Chatterjee and I'm a senior economist with the Community Service Society of New York, a long time nonprofit dedicated to improving lives of low income New Yorkers.
3:17:35
Today, I'm here to discuss the severity of the food insecurity landscape and suggest policy recommendations.
3:17:42
Per our annual survey of housing and economic security, what we find that almost a quarter, twenty four percent of New York City residents experience food insecurity, defined as skipping meals or enduring hunger due to lack of food or reaching out for free food at food pantries, meal programs, or soup kitchens.
3:18:02
For low income households with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line, the rate is higher at 38%.
3:18:10
And even for someone who is employed and working full time, one in five are struggling to put food on the table.
3:18:18
As you would expect, these differences are not uniform.
3:18:21
Black and Hispanic households are are much more likely to endure food insecurity than white than their white peers.
3:18:30
The National True Cost of Living campaign, which is a joint effort by CSS and FPWA, commissioned the Urban Institute to estimate how much a household really needs to get by, and they estimate that the annual food cost for a household with children and no seniors is around 14,600.
3:18:52
And based off of their numbers, almost sixty two percent, so that's two out of three New York City families, are struggling to make ends meet.
3:19:00
When you look at households with children, the rate is around seventy four percent.
3:19:04
When in our survey we asked folks, if you didn't have to pay so much for housing, what would you use the money for?
3:19:11
The overwhelming response was to spend it on food.
3:19:15
We would we would strongly urge the council to pass and make the benefit system more accessible by passing intros zero two four five, one zero two eight, and eleven forty eight.
3:19:30
Our survey shows that fifteen percent of all potential recipients lost benefits in the past year due to incomplete or incorrect paperwork and missed application deadlines.
3:19:41
In addition to reiterating all the asks from our collaborators, from whom you have been hearing throughout the day today, I would also like to mention that as proposed tariffs go into effect, typical New York households will lose up to 1,200 to $2,000 in purchasing power, and here we need the city and the city council to amp up its efforts to make sure the losses to our city is not as devastating.
3:20:07
You heard that we will lose around a billion dollar every year in SNAP benefits, So this is where where we would urge the council to recognize the moment for what it is and invest heavily to improve nutritional security.
3:20:19
Thank you so much.
