Bronx elected officials, advocates, and farmers gathered Tuesday at the Bronx Borough Hall Food Market to denounce the Trump administration’s proposed $300 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), calling it a direct threat to low-income families nationwide—especially in the Bronx.
The proposed cuts, included in the federal budget reconciliation bill backed by congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump, would mark the largest reduction to food assistance in U.S. history.
Officials warned that the impact would be especially severe in the Bronx, where nearly one-third of residents—approximately 500,000 people—depend on SNAP to afford basic groceries. Nationally, about 13% of the population relies on the program.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents New York’s 15th Congressional District—the poorest in the country—said the proposed cuts would be devastating for vulnerable families in his Bronx community.
Torres emphasized that food insecurity was not only a challenge faced by his constituents but also a hardship he had personally endured.
“I was born and bred in the Bronx,” Torres said. “I spent most of my life in poverty. I was raised by a single mother who had to raise three children on minimum wage… and I never would’ve made it were it not for programs like SNAP.”
Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson noted that partners like GrowNYC rely on SNAP to help connect Bronx residents with fresh, healthy food—resources that are often out of reach—while also providing critical support to small, local farmers.
“The sad reality is that many of our neighbors are left without access to healthy food choices in our borough, and they’re oversaturated with highly processed food,” Gibson said.” …As this federal administration continues to push to dismantle safety net programs like SNAP and so many other food assistance programs, millions of our low income and working-class families across the country are at risk.”
Assembly Member Landon Dais, who represents District 77 in the West Bronx, said the proposed cuts would also harm farmers and rural communities across New York State.
“ This will not just impact the borough—the Bronx, or New York City and black and brown families—but this will devastate the upstate counties where our agricultural economic economy is key to the state and our country,” Dais said.
He added that the agricultural and rural impacts would inevitably affect the city’s economy as well.
“ Now let’s look back down the state,” Dais said. “What will this do to the grocery stores? What will this do to the bodegas? This will have a negative economic effect that will resound across our city and state. We are continuing to see a Republican administration that does not understand basic economics.”
Joe Morgiewicz, a fifth-generation farmer from Orange County, NY, whose family grows produce for farmers markets and wholesale distribution across the boroughs, stressed how vital SNAP is to his business. His produce stocked the market at Bronx Borough Hall.
“ Seventy percent of payment is through food assistance,” Morgiewicz said, speaking about the farmers market at Bronx Borough Hall. “My customers are largely families with many children and seniors, and not to mention those who purchase for our disabled.”
Graciela Gutierrez, who grew up in the Bronx, recalled her mother relying on food assistance programs while pregnant with Gutierrez’s younger siblings. Now a student at Baruch College, she said she understands how crucial nutrition is to academic success.
“ Food is the fuel that keeps us living and coming from a student perspective it is what gets us through midterms, finals, or any other exams,” Gutierrez said. “If there are changes to these programs, I truly believe it hinders our academic performance. It leads to more stress and hardships on top of already trying to maintain an academic life.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research institute, estimates that more than 60,000 residents in Torres’s district could lose some level of access to SNAP benefits if the reconciliation bill is passed.
During a marathon voting session on Tuesday, the Senate approved the reconciliation bill with modifications. The House of Representatives is now set to vote on whether to adopt the Senate’s version before a self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Torres said the fight isn’t over.
“Food is not a privilege. It is a right. It is a human right. It’s the most human of human rights,” he said. “We will not stand by idly while Donald Trump starves the people of the Bronx to hand massive tax breaks to billionaires…We are going to resist and we are going to fight.”
