Assisting people to access Food Stamps is only one part of our efforts to provide food assistance to New Yorkers. In addition, HRA's Office of Food Programs and Policy Coordination seeks to improve the nutritional status of low-income New Yorkers by providing education about Food Stamp eligibility and general nutrition and administering the distribution of non-perishable food commodities to 620 active emergency food programs (soup kitchens and food pantries). In 2002, HRA distributed 14.6 million pounds of food that fed 11.1 million meals.
The City's TANF reauthorization proposal and our current and future programs build on our success to date by addressing barriers to employment for those currently on the caseload, and support the client to be a participant in the process. We believe that in order to increase the self-sufficiency of current or potential public assistance clients, we must make the client the primary catalyst in his or her future.
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