Our notable achievements in recent years include:

  • Advocating for increased funding and access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which in 2021 helped to achieve, after many years with no increases, an increase by 25% for the 2 plus million New Yorkers relying on SNAP as a major part of their food budget.
  • Passing the SWEAT bill (Securing Wages Earned Against Theft) through the Assembly in the 2016-17 legislative session.
  • Pressuring through the media, Hunger Action Network got Governor Cuomo to release the long-awaited recommendations of his Hunger Task Force as part of his 2016 Budget/ State of the State address.
  • Working with a diverse group of advocates,  secured passage of the Farm to Emergency Feeding Program Tax Credit in the 2016-17 Legislative Session.
  • Passing the School to Emergency Feeding Programs in the 2016-2017 legislative session.
  • Obtaining a 10% annual hike in the basic welfare grant in NYS beginning in 2013.
  • Organizing hundreds of anti-hunger education and media events to raise awareness of hunger in our communities which helped lead to a $26 million increase in funding for emergency food programs over the last 25 years
  • Working with other groups to convene a statewide revenue and progressive budget campaign that successfully lead towards the enactment of a series of progressive revenue options, including a hike in the personal income tax rate for the wealthiest New Yorkers.
  • Initiating a campaign for public funding of transitional jobs for welfare participants that resulted in the allocation of more than $70 million in 2009-10
  • Convincing the Governor to issue an Executive Order to establish an NYS Food Policy Council (renewed in 2011)
  • Cofounding three low-income Community Supported Agriculture Projects in NYC (2007-09) in West Harlem, LI City and Flatbush, which offers a subsidized payment plan to those on public assistance for a $5 weekly payment that can be made with their food stamp card
  • Obtaining a 23% increase in funding for five years for emergency feeding programs as well as an additional $500,000 for the 2015 -16 fiscal year.
  • NY Health Act, a universal single-payer plan for NY State, in the Assembly in the 2014-15 session for the first time since its introduction more than 20 years ago. The bill passed the Assembly again in the 2015-16 session and 2016 -17 sessions.
  • Increasing the minimum wage in the 2016-17 state budget included an increase in gradual steps over the next five years for upstate and three years for NYC up to $15.