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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Joe Rosenberg, Executive Director of Catholic Community Relations Council
3:51:41
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140 sec
Joe Rosenberg, representing the Catholic Community Relations Council, testifies about the growing food insecurity crisis in New York City. He highlights the challenges faced by food pantries due to rising poverty rates, increased living costs, and federal funding cuts to essential programs like SNAP and the emergency food and shelter program.
- Rosenberg urges for $20 million in emergency funding for food pantries in the FY26 NYC budget.
- He supports baselining the Community Food Connection program at $100 million annually, noting that the mayor's proposed $36.1 million is insufficient.
- The testimony emphasizes the widespread impact of food insecurity, affecting over 1.3 million NYC residents, including a growing diverse clientele at food pantries.
Joe Rosenberg
3:51:41
Good afternoon chairs Ayala, Brannan, and Brewer.
3:51:44
I'm Joe Rosenberg, director of the Catholic Community Relations Council representing the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens.
3:51:50
Catholic charities of both diocese have been providing shelter food and other essential services to New Yorkers for more than one century.
3:51:56
Combined, we operate over 80 food pantries throughout the five boroughs and serve more than 18 meals annually.
3:52:03
We have faced many challenges assisting New Yorkers over the last one hundred years, but we are currently confronting a hunger and food insufficiency crisis.
3:52:10
This is due to the rising poverty rate of New Yorkers, the dramatic increase in rents and price of food, and even more significantly, the unprecedented federal attacks on programs that protect our clients.
3:52:21
Two of these are SNAP and the emergency food and shelter program.
3:52:24
SNAP provides essential funding to address food and security for vulnerable Americans.
3:52:28
The proposed congressional reduction of 230,000,000,000 from the program is particularly troubling and will have significant consequences by increasing the number of Americans who face hunger on a daily basis.
3:52:39
A similar situation exists with the emergency food and shelter program, a crucial federal resource for our food programs.
3:52:45
This was placed on hold by the federal government in March, and as a result, both Catholic charities have sustained a loss of over $800,000 each.
3:52:53
We have seen the number of people at pantries increase significantly.
3:52:56
We're not just feeding working families, seniors, and children.
3:52:59
Newer clients include college students, recent college grads who are either unemployed or underemployed, youth aging out of foster care and migrants, many with infants.
3:53:08
State controller, Dan Napoli's report last month on the cost of living reveals that one of nine households in New York are affected by food insecurity.
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That adds up to over 1,300,000 New York City residents going hungry.
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The plight of children is particularly heartbreaking with more than one in four in our city living in poverty.
3:53:26
Due to all these obstacles and with more New Yorkers going hungry every year, we urge $20,000,000 in emergency funding for food pantries being included in the f y 26 New York City budget for both Catholic charities, well as our partners, Met Council and the Hispanic Federation.
3:53:40
We also rely on the community food connection and we strongly support your effort to baseline it at 100,000,000 annually.
3:53:46
The mayor's budget has it at 36.1.
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That is not enough.
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So our city faces daunting challenges.
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But one of the most important priorities is that we cannot have our fellow New Yorkers go hungry.
3:53:56
We thank you for your long standing support of our mission in assisting our city's residents.