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COURIER L 14 IFE, AUG. 23-29, 2019
‘Public charge rule’
to hit Brooklyn hard
New Trump policy expected to cripple
borough’s food pantries, experts claim
LOW FUNDS: Despite a generous contribution to Bensonhurst food pantry Reaching-Out
Community Services by Councilman Justin Brannan, founder Tom Neve worries that the
pantry does not have the funds to sustain an infl ux customers, which Trump’s recent cuts
to SNAP may bring. Photo by Caroline Ourso
BY ROSE ADAMS
Kings County food pantries are
bracing for the crippling flood of
new clients expected as a result of a
new Trump Administration policy
preventing those receiving federal
assistance from becoming citizens,
experts report.
The new federal initiative known
informally as the “public charge
rule” will allow Uncle Sam to reject
visa and green card applications
from immigrants signed up for federal
welfare programs, like Medicaid
and food stamps, by deeming them a
“public charge.”
Brooklyn receives more food
stamp benefi ts through the federal
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program than any other borough
in the city — 22 percent of residents
were enrolled in the program in 2018
— but experts claim the mere mention
of Trump’s exclusionary new
proposal has already caused benefi -
ciaries to fl ee the program.
“The policies coming out of the federal
government are already having
a chilling effect on some of our most
vulnerable neighbors, scaring them
away from SNAP and other vital resources
like shelter and healthcare,”
said Camesha Grant, a representative
of Food Bank for New York City. “This
rule is the latest attempt to intimidate
immigrants and their families — it
would lead to thousands more New
Yorkers going hungry every day.”
Brooklyn’s hardest-hit neighborhoods
will be Bedford-Stuyvesant,
Brownsville, and Ocean Hill, where
more than 30 percent of residents rely
on food stamps, according to a report
by Food Bank for New York City .
Trump fi rst proposed the public
charge rule last year, the mere suggestion
of which prompted benefi ciaries
to fl ee the food stamp program,
which saw a 12 percent enrollment
dip from 2018 to 2019, according to a
report published by the Mayor’s Offi
ce of Immigrant Affairs .
Those hungry Brooklyn residents
who fl ed the federal program last
year turned to local food pantries for
help, and employees recounted the
miserable experience of having to
turn hundreds of families away.
“We’ve cut hundreds of families
and turned away hundreds of people,”
said Tom Neve, who runs the
Bensonhurst food pantry and social
services organization, Reaching-Out
Community Services.
A survey found that 81 percent of
soup kitchens and food pantries see
federal policy changes as a signifi -
cant threat to their ability to serve
New Yorkers in need, and more than
half of the city’s food pantries reported
running low on food in 2018,
according to Food Bank for New York
City .
And with many food pantries already
operating on a shoestring budget,
operators pray they can keep
their already struggling missions
open in the face of what’s to come.
“I hope to God we can keep our
doors open,” Neve said.
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