2024 New York State Policy Priorities
Anti-hunger Prioritization and Programming
- Ensure New York State’s Integrated Eligibility System (IES), currently in development, provides “No Wrong Door” to facilitate access to nutrition assistance programs for low-income residents, including system integrations that allow secure sharing of application information among agencies to determine eligibility for all means-tested programs. IES should ensure a seamless application and benefit utilization experience. NYS should include advocates and stakeholders in planning and implementation processes.
- Engage the public health and medical community to promote food access and nutrition as an essential component of a healthy life:
- Increase healthcare provider screening for food insecurity among low-income, vulnerable populations.
- Teach professionals to identify hunger by incorporating training into curricula to recognize signs and symptoms of hunger.
- Provide training and resources to increase healthcare provider referrals to federal nutrition programs.
- Use New York’s 2019-2024 Prevention Agenda’s food security goal area to promote interventions, local collaborations, policies, and programs for the public health and healthcare systems to address food insecurity as a factor in adverse health outcomes.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- Improve and expand state-level outreach and education efforts:
- Maintain current funding for the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program ($5.45M) plus appropriate COLAs to allow uninterrupted services in all New York State counties and provide additional services in some high-need counties.
- Increase outreach and education to vulnerable populations with low participation, including priority areas identified by USDA.
- Assess existing racial disparities in SNAP participation, and reduce barriers to participation by underserved populations in the state.
- Continue work with SUNY and CUNY to ensure that all low-income students have access to SNAP in NYS.
- Develop relationships with New York State Division of Veterans’ Services and other local veteran service organizations to help connect veterans to SNAP in NYS.
- Ensure immigrant communities and mixed status families understand the changes to the public charge rule and current eligibility rules for this population.
- Utilize the state’s Medicaid system as a cross-referral mechanism:
- Establish a statewide process for data-matching Medicaid and SNAP cases to identify people participating in Medicaid but not SNAP; provide outreach and assistance to support SNAP participation among eligible households.
- Increase outreach and education on new ways to utilize benefits including online retailers, restaurant meals, and through incentive programs; and for waivers and replacement benefits during declared emergencies.
- Streamline/simplify program:
- End mandatory enforcement of SNAP Employment and Training programs in all counties that are still using this model.
- Adopt uniform SNAP rules and ensure their consistent implementation across the state:
- Move toward a state-level SNAP administration model instead of our current county-administered system
- In the interim:
- Require all local districts to participate in all available waivers that would enhance access, eligibility, and/or benefit allotments or improve timeliness issues
- Require all counties to provide mobile document upload services for SNAP.
- Establish a seamless inter-county transfer process for SNAP recipients who move between counties that would maintain eligibility, ensure continuation of benefits, and reduce administrative burdens
- Adopt a standard excess medical deduction.
- Replicate HRA’s Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) upstate so that people 55 and older and those with disabilities have access to an automated phone system to complete their recertification process and align with myBenefits and interview systems in upstate counties
- Increase SNAP access:
- Take maximum advantage of federal ABAWD waivers, grant exceptions and exemptions, and provide ABAWD individuals with timely, consistent, understandable instructions on compliance.
- Ensure that Social Security offices in New York State are assisting SSI applicants who are not automatically enrolled into SNAP through NYSCAP with SNAP applications, and that they use innovations like the myBenefits portal and telephonic signature to ensure timely submission and reduce barriers to SNAP for seniors and people with disabilities.
- Ensure the populations who are newly exempt from the ABAWD time limit (foster youth, people who are homeless, and veterans) and community organizations working with these populations are informed of the new rules.
- Improve SNAP access for individuals leaving prison and re-entering society.
- Extend the USDA NYC texting pilot statewide to reduce churn and save SNAP offices time and money by reminding people of critical steps around interviews and recertifications ensuring that eligible households continue to receive SNAP benefits.
- Remove the requirement of an email address on the myBenefits portal for SNAP applications and access to EBT accounts.
- Continue to build on college student access in NYS by adding new groups of students under the already defined criteria that have allowed Career and Technical Education (CTE) students to participate, mirroring other states that have policies allowing access to more low-income students.
- Maintain and increase the adequacy of benefits, and provide sufficient resources to support healthy eating:
- Provide a state supplement to increase the minimum SNAP benefit
- Maintain food choice for SNAP recipients
- To support healthy eating:
- Increase accessibility to a variety of healthy food for SNAP recipients by reducing food deserts
- Continue and expand incentive programs to increase buying power for fruits and vegetables at farmers markets and extend these initiatives to include fresh, canned, and frozen produce as well as lightly processed food at other types of SNAP retailers
- Ensure that when implementing the Restaurant Meals Program, NYS includes healthy options for target populations and adequate availability of locations throughout counties in NYS.
- Expand the SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot, to include smaller local grocers and farmers markets, while ensuring online purchasing is available throughout the state.
School Meal Programs: School Breakfast Program (SBP), National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)
- Expand student access to free school meals:
- Establish and fund a statewide, permanent Healthy School Meals for All NY Kids program across all schools in the NSLP.
- Remove state-level barriers to adopting the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP):
- Provide guidance to schools on CEP implementation and its potential impact on state aid and state foundation funding.
- Hold CEP schools harmless from changes to state aid formula as a result of operating a universal school meal program.
- Maximize the use of Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) throughout NYS:
- Provide state supplemental funding to all schools eligible for CEP who do not receive 100% federal free reimbursement rate for all meals served through the Healthy School Meals for All NY Kids program. State funding should fill the gap in CEP reimbursement to ensure all high-poverty schools are fully-funded, and therefore able to implement CEP.
- Streamline/Simplify program:
- Improve New York State’s direct certification process:
- Include all the federally allowable categories to be included in the state’s electronic Direct Certification Matching Process (DCMP)
- Ensure NY State Education Department (NYSED) monitors implementation and continues to make improvements to data matching algorithms within the state’s DCMP.
- Coordinate within NYSED to improve student databases for purposes of strengthening access to school meal programs.
- Improve New York State’s direct certification process:
- Protect state investments:
- Protect and expand current school breakfast state laws to ensure Breakfast After the Bell programming for all children in all required schools.
- Protect and expand the current Farm to School 30% NYS Incentive Program to include all school meals, and to ensure full financial benefit for schools participating in New York’s new CEP state subsidy. These improvements will reduce the local administrative burdens of leveraging the program and ensure access to local NYS products through the federal school meal programs.
- Protect and maintain all current state reimbursement investments in the SBP and the NSLP, including the new CEP state subsidy.
Out-of-School-Time Meal Programs: Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), Summer EBT, and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Afterschool Meals
- Improve and expand state-level outreach and education efforts:
- Coordinate and cross-promote SFSP and CACFP, by posting information and resources on both state agency websites, and by developing a user-friendly system to connect sites with sponsors in both programs.
- Cross-promote Summer EBT with SFSP outreach typically performed by schools towards the end of the school year
- Strengthen linkages between NYS Office for Children and Family Services (OCFS) and DOH/CACFP databases to conduct regular outreach to registered school-age childcare providers who are not participating in CACFP.
- Create linkages with NYSED and DOH/CACFP databases to conduct regular outreach to summer meal sponsors and school districts that are not participating in CACFP, including SFAs that currently provide afterschool snacks through NSLP.
- Increase outreach, education, application, and claiming assistance to CACFP providers throughout the application process and beyond.
- Ensure NYS Department of Health (DOH) regularly assesses, revises if needed, and reports on use of the online CACFP prescreening tool for potential providers.
- Provide user-friendly supplementary guidance and assistance to help afterschool program providers understand school-age child care registration requirements as they pertain to CACFP.
- Provide recorded online and in-person training opportunities for potential and new sponsors.
- Streamline program applications and administration:
- Implement allowable USDA CACFP paperwork reduction recommendations when applicable to NYS, including:
- Eliminating state-specific documentation and recordkeeping requirements, such as food production records, that are not required by federal regulation.
- Allowing SFAs to apply for CACFP using their NSLP application with an addendum for additional information required for CACFP.
- Ease SFSP and CACFP administration and operation for sponsors and sites by integrating the use of more technology to increase capacity.
- Implement allowable USDA CACFP paperwork reduction recommendations when applicable to NYS, including:
- Maximize program access:
- Require school districts with eligible schools in underserved communities to provide summer meals as a sponsor or vendor for a minimum of 30 days, with increased administrative support from the regulatory agency.
- Require eligible schools hosting space for afterschool enrichment programs or providing extended learning days to provide access to CACFP’s At-Risk Afterschool Snack/Supper Program and/or NSLP snacks.
- Require schools and community-based organizations receiving afterschool program grants administered through OCFS (Advantage After School, Empire State, and Youth Development Program) or NYSED (21st Century Community Learning Centers, Extended School Day/School Violence Prevention) to ensure program participants have access to afterschool nutrition through CACFP’s At-Risk Afterschool Snack/Supper Program or NSLP snacks, with encouragement to serve complete meals through CACFP where eligible.
- Implement and/or promote use of model CACFP practices that increase participation and retention, such as:
- Offering alternative meal service models such as the umbrella model, meals in the classroom, and campus model.
- Maximizing current sponsor capacity (for both affiliated and unaffiliated sites).
- Providing guidance specific to school food authorities to show flexibility in the sponsor application process for these entities.
- Protect and strengthen state investments:
- Maintain all current state reimbursement investments in the SFSP.
- Provide supplemental reimbursement and/or funding incentives for summer meal sponsors to:
- Include enrichment activities in their meal service.
- Provide transportation to underserved areas.
- Increase the amount of NYS-grown fruit and vegetables on the menu.
- Expand their service reach in terms of meal types served, average daily participation, and days of service.
- Provide supplemental reimbursement to CACFP providers in recognition of food and administrative costs they incur to provide the program in NYS.
- Maintain current state funding for CACFP outreach.
- Provide a state supplement to federal Summer EBT benefits.
Child Care Meal Programs
- Improve and expand state-level CACFP outreach and education efforts:
- Increase outreach, education, application, and claiming assistance to providers throughout the application process and beyond.
- Ensure NYS Department of Health (DOH) regularly assesses, revises if needed, and reports on use of the online CACFP prescreening tool for potential providers.
- Strengthen linkages between NYS Office for Children and Family Services (OCFS) and DOH/CACFP databases to conduct regular outreach to licensed and legally exempt childcare providers who are not participating in CACFP.
- Provide recorded online and in-person training opportunities for potential and new sponsors.
- Streamline CACFP application and administration:
- Implement allowable USDA CACFP paperwork reduction recommendations when applicable to NYS, including eliminating state-specific documentation and recordkeeping requirements, such as food production records, that are not required by federal regulation.
- Improve the CACFP Information and Payment System to mitigate providers’ and sponsors’ reliance on external software to streamline paperwork.
- Protect and strengthen state investments:
- Provide supplemental reimbursement to CACFP providers in recognition of food and administrative costs to provide the program in NYS.
- Maintain current state funding for CACFP outreach.
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
- Maximize participation and retention among eligible New Yorkers:
- Identify opportunities to more closely align WIC outreach and referrals with NYS First 1000 Days initiative.
- Create an effective automatic referral system with other programs/agencies serving potentially eligible families, including Medicaid, SNAP, Early Head Start, and Head Start.
- Maintain a comprehensive statewide outreach plan.
- Improve online tools to facilitate prescreening and application, especially among non-English readers.
- Accelerate the ability to use WIC EBT for online ordering and payment, and for touch-free pick-up and self-checkout.
- Include WIC in state emergency and disaster planning.
- Ensure consistent communication and policy guidance from regional offices to local agencies.
- Support efforts and provide adequate funding to use technology for applications, appointment scheduling, and ongoing participant requirements, ideally integrated into state management information systems.
- Provide adequate, competitive contracted funding and COLAs for WIC local agencies to recruit and retain their professional workforce
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