Capital Region Congressman Paul Tonko is pushing back against federal cuts to food aid programs.
Speaking at the Regional Food Bank Friday alongside leaders of Capital Region social support organizations, Tonko, a Democrat from the 20th District, says the Trump administration's cuts to the USDA's Emergency Food Assistance Program will leave people hungry.
“On top of all of these cuts, we’re now impacted by tariffs that will be raising the price of food. And so, the ability to do good here gets challenged again, it gets weakened by raising the price tag,” Tonko said.
Tonko, a member of the House Budget Committee, says Republicans are seeking more than $200 billion in agriculture funding cuts over ten years. Most of it, he says, would come from hunger programs.
Amaury Tañón-Santos is Executive Director and CEO of the Schenectady-based Sycamore Collaborative, formerly Schenectady Inner City Ministries. He says the cuts being orchestrated by the Trump administration are senseless.
“I’m baffled by the thoughts that during the pandemic, when SNAP benefits were increased for children, half of children in poverty in the state of New York were lifted out of poverty. We found the solution, a significant solution, an important impact on all the children in poverty, and we cut it right back," Tañón-Santos said.
The Regional Food Bank, which receives federal aid, says the cuts could reduce the amount of food it distributes by more than half. The organization supports food pantries and non-profit organizations in 23 New York counties.
Food Bank Chief Program Officer Michael-Aaron Poindexter says the organization feeds 350,000 people every month.
“We distributed 54 million pounds of food last year, and these cuts would significantly impact that, to the tune of close to 200 truckloads, which equates to 8 million pounds of food,” Poindexter said.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany operates food pantries across the region. Non-profit CEO Sister Betsy Van Deusen says the state’s food system is on the brink.
“This is about taking away our ability for our farmers to farm, and once those opportunities are gone, for instance, a dairy herd, once a dairy bird has been dispersed, there's no ability for a family to get that herd back. And that is the end of a family farm,” Van Deusen said.
Krystle Nowhitney Hernandez, Executive Director of LifeWorks Community Action says the human services organization relies on federal funding to help support more than 2,000 people every month. LifeWorks operates a food pantry in Ballston Spa.
“I hope that our communities, much in the spirit as they did during the pandemic, rally around us and rally around our neighbors that are in need to provide those services,” Nowhitney Hernandez said.
Chris DiTeso, executive director of the Rotterdam Community Center, says childhood hunger can give rise to lifelong health challenges.
“You don’t have nutrition, you have more ramen. You’ve got more ramen, you've got more childhood obesity, you've got more you've got higher medical costs. You've got it's proven that a healthy child who is eating correctly, it has that that kind of nutrition in life, they learn better. They do better in school, they go farther. It's a snowball effect. It affects everything,” DiTeso said.
Several attempts to slash federal funding by the Trump administration have been challenged in court. Tonko also suggested anyone concerned about the legality of federal rollbacks to contact their inspectors general.
“Their role is to make certain that law and programs are implemented as legislatively intended, right? Our Constitution tells us Congress established programs, the House has the purse, the Senate confirms it, and the President implements the programs. Well, they're implementing their cuts through a ghost agency that was never authorized by Congress,” Tonko said.
