February Newsletter

In case you missed Executive Director, Karen Belcher's important message from last Friday, I wanted to also include it here:

"Dear Partners,

As I’m sure you are aware, late in the day on Monday, January 27, a vague and confusing memo was sent out by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to all federal agencies directing them to suspend payments of agency grants and loans. I want to assure you that we were monitoring the situation and seeking out information about potential impacts, with the goal of providing an update once we had some concrete information from either government agencies, funders, and/or other organizations.

Things moved very quickly, and on Tuesday, January 28, a federal judge blocked the administration from implementing the spending freeze shortly before it was to take effect, and on Wednesday, January 29, the order was rescinded.

We know that we will need to continue to be vigilant in our efforts to protect and strengthen the programs and funding that support our mission to end hunger, and we will all need to work together to advocate to that end.

We anticipate there will be similar actions in the future. Please know that the Food Bank staff will be monitoring announcements from the administration and will communicate information to our network of partners to the best of our ability.

In Partnership,

Karen"

The new year is off to a very busy start in the advocacy world, so after a brief pause in the advocacy newsletter, you should expect to hear from me frequently with both updates and action alerts.

Faith-Based Organizations | Take Action Now!

Last Friday, you should have received a time-sensitive Advocacy Action for faith-based agency partners only. The deadline to sign-on is Friday, February 7, 2025 at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

Faith-Based Network Letter Sign-on

District Changes

Please note, there were new district boundaries that took effect this year for Congressional districts and New York State Assembly districts, so your program’s legislative district(s) may have changed. New York State Senate boundaries remained the same.

Federal Update

The 119^th Congress has been sworn in, there is a new administration and cabinet confirmations are underway. We have four congressional districts that overlap with portions of the Food Bank’s service area, and they are represented by Rep. Josh Riley (19^th CD), Rep. Elise Stefanik (21^st CD), Rep. John Mannion (22^nd CD), and Rep. Claudia Tenney (24th CD). Rep. Stefanik has been nominated for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and as of the time I’m writing this, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. When her seat is vacated there will be a special election to fill the vacancy.

Late last year, another Continuing Resolution was passed to fund the government through March 14. That CR also included another extension of the Farm Bill, which is now authorized through September 30, 2025. This means we still need a funding package to fund federal programs through September 30, 2025 as well as a Farm Bill. I also want to highlight that Rep. Riley and Rep. Mannion are both on the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees the Farm Bill, so they will be very important for our advocacy efforts to strengthen and protect nutrition programs like SNAP and TEFAP (USDA foods).

Advocacy Resources

New resources available!

We want to share the updated district maps reflecting the current legislative districts that overlap with the Food Bank’s service area. We also have a poster that you can print out and have on hand at your agency encouraging neighbors to sign the Feeding New York State budget petition. Use the buttons below to access these resources.

Advocacy Newsletter Archive

Assembly District Map

Congressional District Map

Senate District Map

Click-to-Action Printout

State Update

The New York State legislative session has started, and Governor Hochul has held her State of the State and released her budget book. As you may have heard, there is the very exciting news that the Governor has supported and included one of our main priorities: free school meals for ALL New York students. She has also proposed maintaining funding for HPNAP and Nourish New York at the same level as last year’s budget. These are all significant victories and I want to recognize that this is because of the tireless work advocates, including you, have been doing to highlight the importance of anti-hunger programs and the tremendous need in our communities. There is much more work to be done. We need to make sure that universal school meals are included in the final budget, and we want to increase funding for HPNAP and Nourish New York over what was in last year's budget.

We are again doing a click-to-action campaign with our partners at Feeding New York State that we urge you to participate in and share. The campaign can be found HERE, and only takes a minute to complete and send a message to your elected officials supporting our budget priorities.

Sign the Petition!

Click-to-Action Printout

Thanks for taking the time to read this newsletter! I want to make sure this is a helpful resource for you, so please let me know if there is anything you would like to see in the future or if you have any feedback.

In partnership,

Becky Lare

Director of Government Relations

Food Bank Contacts:

(315) 437-1899 or (800) 444-1562

Director of Government of Relations: Becky Lare, (315) 437-1899 ext. 246