New York Governor Kathy Hochul came to Hunter College October 30 to pledge $106 million in state funds to backstop federal cuts to food aid for strapped New Yorkers.
The Trump administration had announced that, owing to the federal government shutdown, funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — the main source of food aid for indigent families — would cease November 1. It was the first time during any shutdown that the government took such a measure, and it affected about 42 million Americans. Such aid for New Yorkers amounts to about $650 million a month for some 3 million people, the governor said.
“We don’t cave; we don’t stand down. When things get tough and our people are under attack, we stand up and we fight,” she said at Hunter’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. “And that’s what we’re doing right now with these assaults in Washington.”
The federal government’s plan to cease food aid reverberated across CUNY campuses, where more than half of students come from families with annual incomes of less than $30,000, and many use food aid.
Hunter College has made its own push to help hungry students, putting out an appeal for its Purple Apron Food Pantry.
“Federal cuts to food aid may be out of our hands, but our response is not,” the appeal says. “Students’ use of our Purple Apron food pantry has more than doubled from this time last year — and is set to double again. You can help. GIVE today!”
