Food Bank for NYC, one of the city’s leading food distribution organizations, announced it will eliminate two of its nutrition education (SNAP-Ed) programs — both of which help Bronx children and families — due to federal cuts related to President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
The affected programs are CookShop, which educated more than 3,200 Bronx schoolchildren this year, and Just Say Yes! To Fruits and Veggies, aimed at adults and seniors in low-income communities. Both initiatives are meant to introduce residents to new ingredients and recipes and help them make healthier, more informed choices about what they eat and drink.
With the passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill” in July, the Trump administration fully eliminated funding for SNAP-Ed education programs nationwide, which received about $530 million per year. The work will sunset by late September.
Zac Hall, senior vice president of programs with Food Bank NYC, said the bill cuts the very programs that address the administration’s most major health concerns, including obesity and ultraprocessed foods.
Hall said the SNAP and SNAP-Ed cuts put Bronxites at risk of losing not only food itself but the know-how to prepare it in appealing ways and maintain healthy habits, and to share that information among generations.
Hall said programs like CookShop and Just Say Yes! To Fruits and Veggies were “by design” targeted at low-income, food-insecure households.
In the Bronx, nearly one in three kids experience food insecurity, and the citywide “meal gap” — the difference between how many healthy, nutritious meals families actually eat versus the three-per-day standard — is in the multimillions despite the efforts of nonprofits like Food Bank for NYC, said Hall.
“Cutting those [education] programs will mean that those communities get less training, knowledge, skills and confidence to eat healthy, be physically active, and therefore are likely to grow up sicker,” he said.
‘Need that’s not gonna be met’
The CookShop program has run for 30 years and reached approximately 14,000 New York City students annually using a nutrition education curriculum that fits within school subjects, Hall said.
For instance, kids used recipes to learn about fractions and ratios, studied how calories translate into energy for the body and learned biological processes by examining apple seeds, he said.
Just Say Yes! To Fruits and Veggies operates within pantries and community sites to teach adults new recipes and how food choices impact health.
Both programs emphasized personal choice and physical activity, and losing them will be hard on communities that are already struggling, said Hall.
“We will continue to work across the city, feeding people every day,” he said. “But we obviously see that there’s a need that’s gonna be not met because of some of these decisions at the federal level.”
The cuts also mean that seven staffers at the nonprofit are out of a job, multiplied by numerous other organizations throughout the state and across the country, said Hall.
However, he said Food Bank for NYC has served the city for 30 years through recession, natural disasters and the pandemic. While leaders are concerned and “monitoring” changes at the federal level, they’re also accustomed to the challenging nature of the work.
“We’ve weathered a lot of storms before,” Hall said.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
