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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jeanette Estima, Policy Director at Citymeals on Wheels, on meal programs for older adults
5:02:15
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108 sec
Jeanette Estima from Citymeals on Wheels testified about the importance of meal programs for older adults and the need for increased funding to address food insecurity among this population. She highlighted pilot programs and requested specific budget allocations to support and expand their services.
- Reported that 50-60% of meal program participants experience food insecurity
- Introduced new initiatives like the breakfast box program and mobile groceries program
- Requested $500,000 for emergency meals program and $200,000 for innovative pilot programs
- Urged passage of Intro 770 to require daily home-delivered meals and $21 million in funding
- Called for $57 million investment in the Congregate Meals Program
Jeanette Estima
5:02:15
Hi.
5:02:16
Thank you Chair Brennan and Chair Hudson for the opportunity to testify today.
5:02:20
My name is Jeanette Estima.
5:02:22
I'm the policy director at City Meals on Wheels.
5:02:26
Congregate and home delivered meals programs are a critical part of the city's anti hunger infrastructure.
5:02:32
And these programs must be shored up in the face of possible federal cuts.
5:02:37
But even still they are not going far enough to address the problem.
5:02:41
When we surveyed participants we found that fifty percent had experienced food insecurity And that went up to sixty percent when we looked only at home delivered meals participants.
5:02:51
Addressing this need will require expanding the programs and creating new ones that bring food directly to homebound older adults.
5:02:59
That's why we piloted several new programs this year that bring more food to older New Yorkers in new ways.
5:03:05
The breakfast box is essentially a second meal program, currently serving about 2,000 people, and we're hoping to double that next year.
5:03:13
And our mobile groceries program brings monthly bags of food directly to homebound older adults.
5:03:19
We're grateful for the council's $500,000 to support our emergency meals program, which provided 273,000 meals in FY24, and we ask for a renewal of that amount for FY26.
5:03:35
Additionally, we're asking for $200,000 to support our innovative pilot programs.
5:03:41
Finally, we urge the council to pass Intro seven seventy to require the home delivered meals program to provide one meal a day, three sixty five days a year, and to secure the $21,000,000 needed to do so.
5:03:55
We also ask for an investment of $57,000,000 in the Congregate Meals Program to address years of cost increases.
5:04:02
Thank you very much.