COMMENTARY

SNAP Cuts Threaten New York’s AAPI Children and Families

By Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
November 3, 2025

Food insecurity remains a hidden yet persistent problem for AAPI children and families across New York State. With SNAP disbursements freezing on November 1, we are deeply concerned by the impact on vulnerable AAPI families who are already struggling to put food on their tables each day.

Although often unrecognized and shrouded by the harmful myth of the model minority, Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) New Yorkers have one of the highest rates of poverty at 23%, similar to that of Black and Latino New Yorkers. AAPI communities also face high levels of housing insecurity, and multiple health disparities. And New York City’s AAPI communities already face significant food disparities, often living in food deserts and struggling with financial insecurity that increases the risk of malnutrition and hunger.

Only 40% of AAPI households eligible for SNAP are active recipients, and only 53% of Asian American seniors living in poverty receive SNAP benefits. This reflects the structural barriers including linguistic isolation, immigration status, and cultural divides that reduce access to essential supports such as food assistance. Nationwide, almost 2 million Asian Americans and more than 128,000 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders rely on SNAP benefits.

SNAP benefits are a lifeline for immigrant families in maintaining financial stability and managing health and wellness. Especially for heavily immigrant communities such as the diverse AAPI communities across New York, SNAP benefits allow families to purchase culturally appropriate food from local small businesses often within the communities in which families live and work. And critical are the intersections – with the SNAP freeze, small businesses lose customers, schools and community organizations carry additional burdens to support children and families, and the health system bears the long-term costs of malnutrition and negative impacts to mental health.

We’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic what happens when the most vulnerable New Yorkers from immigrant, refugee, and linguistically isolated backgrounds lack access to food. In 2022, CACF alongside our partners at NYU’s the Center for the Study of Asian American Health (CSAAH) at NYU Grossman School of Medicine (NYU CSAAH) and the Chinese-American Planning Council, released the NYC COVID-19 Community Resources and Needs Assessment (CHRNA) survey. The report shows that accessing food was the most cited concern (51%), followed by housing (26%) and paying for utility bills (26%). Families went to extreme measures— including changing their food habits, rationing or skipping meals, compromising other basic necessities, and relying solely on food pantries and food banks and community-based organizations — to put food on their tables.

The city’s community-based organizations (CBOs) are already stretched to capacity as they have historically filled the gaps by providing healthy, culturally appropriate foods to their respective communities. CBOs who serve communities of color — like our partners at the South Asian Council for Social Services, UA3, and the Caribbean Equality Project — are able to provide culturally appropriate foods and culturally responsive outreach to AAPI New Yorkers. However, even these community outlets are already constrained with cuts in federal funding and tightening state budgets in anticipation of additional federal funding gaps next fiscal year when the implementation of many major components of H.R.1 are set to take place.

New York has taken several emergency measures in order to address the $700 million total gap in SNAP funding for November. Governor Kathy Hochul has committed a total of $106 million to food banks and pantries serving food insecure New Yorkers; in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams committed $15 million to citywide food assistance initiatives. However, without additional state or federal action to ensure that SNAP can be fully funded through November and regardless of the shutdown, the New York faces a widespread hunger crisis, which will continue to have disastrous and disproportionate impacts on our AAPI and immigrant communities. CACF calls on New York State leaders – Governor Kathy Hochul, Speaker Carl Heastie, and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, to:

  1. Convene an emergency session to fully commit to funding the entire $700 million needed to cover SNAP through at least November.
  2. Allocate additional funding to anti-hunger initiatives, including culturally responsive and community-centered food banks and pantries, emergency shelters, and soup kitchens.
  3. Support targeted outreach to communities about emergency food programs in multiple languages to ensure immigrant and linguistically-isolated households are not left behind.

For New York State residents in need of food assistance, please refer to Food Pantries Food Connect Map or Feeding America.

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Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) is the nation’s only pan-Asian children and families’ advocacy organization bringing together community-based organizations as well as youth and community allies to fight for equity for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).