New Yorkers risk losing access to their food assistance benefits as early as Monday, when the federal government is due to end a three-month grace period for complying with new work requirements set last year through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
In March, recipients of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) were required to prove that they were working, volunteering or training for work for at least 80 hours a month if they’re an Able-Bodied Adult Without Dependents (ABAWD). If ABAWDs can’t prove they meet the requirements and don’t qualify for an exemption after three months, they’ll lose benefits.
Nicole Hunt, director of public policy and advocacy at Food Bank for NYC, told amNewYork that the changes to the system would harm New Yorkers.
“ What we know is that work requirements are not effective in getting people to work,” Hunt said. “They are effective in standing in the way of people accessing the benefits that they are entitled to.”
Food assistance organizations like Food Bank for NYC, elected officials, and city agencies mobilized public outreach campaigns, organized volunteer opportunities, and targeted New Yorkers receiving benefits that may qualify for exemptions before the government begins expelling people from the program on June 1.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that young people, especially single men between the ages of 18 and 24, who do not have a medical exemption from work.
“Here is a moment when your SNAP benefits may be at risk, and we’re looking to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to ensure that you can keep living in this city,” Mamdani said during a live-streamed, public Q-&-A last week.
Impact of SNAP cuts on New York
In 2024, SNAP helped over 1.7 million New Yorkers purchase household foods, according to data from the Citizens Committee for Children of New York. The city identified over 126,000 New Yorkers who are ABAWD and may need to meet the new work requirements. On Thursday, Gothamist reported that of the people identified, over 40,000 people have not yet come into compliance.
City services, community organizations, and food banks mounted a citywide effort to help people keep their benefits. City workers knocked on doors to speak directly with recipients.
The Department of Social Services Commissioner Erin Dalton said that the impact of losing SNAP benefits would have a ripple effect.
People stand to lose $850 million, not just in the pockets of New Yorkers, but that goes out to businesses, it gets spent in communities,” Dalton said in a public awareness campaign. “It’s an incredible impact. No other money can replace SNAP benefits once they’re lost.”
Hunt said that in the wake of funding cuts and burdensome work requirements that could see New Yorkers losing benefits, state-level programs like Nourish New York (NNY) and the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP), and the city’s Community Food Connection need strong funding and additional resources.
In the adopted budget for 2027, New York State increased emergency food assistance funding by $25 million for a total of $138 million: $72.8 million for HPNAP and $55 million for NNY. It also allocated $7.9 million to the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program (NOEP), which helps New Yorkers navigate SNAP applications and benefits.
Still, the importance of a program like SNAP cannot be understated. For every one meal a food pantry provides SNAP provides nine, according to the nonprofit Feeding America.
“ SNAP is our strongest, like, weapon against hunger,” Hunt said. “But food banks, food pantries, the food assistance network, we step in where policy fails.”
Unfortunately, in recent years, food pantries have been stepping in more frequently at higher volumes. Hunt that the new requirements and federal funding cuts are part of a long line of consecutive crises that the food assistance network has been dealing with for years. It’s given her confidence that NYC food pantries can handle anything that comes their way.
“ This is what we do, and we are able to mobilize and show up, during COVID, during the shutdown, during Hurricane Sandy, whatever it was,” Hunt said. “That’s what we do.”
City officials said that there is still time for New Yorkers at risk of losing their benefits to get help and urged them to contact HRA or use the Access HRA portal for help.
