Despite skyrocketing demand and dire food shortages at the state’s more than 2,000 emergency feeding programs, the new State budget – just agreed upon by the New York State Legislature and Governor David Patterson – cuts the main source of State funding for such programs by 16%.

Advocates indicated that the State could have avoided such cuts if it had enacted the Assembly plan to restore more equitable taxation to state residents earning more than one million dollars a year or if the State had reduced funding for numerous types of corporate welfare still supported by State dollars.

The Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) is the main source of State funding for charitable food pantries, soup kitchens, and food banks that feed hungry New Yorkers in suburban, rural and urban communities across the State. As a result of the recession, soaring food prices, cuts in private donations, and a sharp reduction in Federal funding, many such agencies statewide were already running out of food even before the State cut.

The 2007-2008 budget enacted by Governor Spitzer and the Legislature last year provided $28.34 million to HPNAP, but, citing the crisis situation faced by charitable feeding agencies, Governor Spitzer added $5 million in funding to the program last November, bringing the total for the year to $33.34 million. Unless the State again provides extra money to the program mid-year, this year’s funding level of $27.85 million for HPNAP will be $490,000 less than last year’s enacted budget level, and $5.49 million (16%) less than the funding actually allocated last year.

“It is unconscionable that the State has chosen to react to the fiscal downturn by cutting the types of programs that serve the very people hardest hit by the recession,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, an umbrella group for the city’s pantries and kitchens. “Budget tricks and slippery terminology aside, the fact remains that, unless more money is provided later this budget year, food pantries and soup kitchens across the state will now suffer from large State cuts at a time when they already have bare shelves.”

Continued Berg, “Times are certainly tough for the State budget and sacrifices certainly need to be made, but why are such sacrifices once again placed disproportionately on the backs of our most vulnerable neighbors? Had the State simply accepted the Assembly proposal to restore adequate taxation to the very wealthiest state residents or had the State reduced corporate welfare, it could have had plenty of money left over for true priorities such as fighting hunger, improving education, and making health care affordable. Once again, the State has very distorted priorities.”