Bronx officials push back on Trump bill over cuts to SNAP and food access

Hours before the U.S. Senate passed President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ local leaders gathered at the Bronx Borough Hall Greenmarket in opposition, citing concerns over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. 

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, District 77 Assemblyman Landon Dias, and U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres spoke alongside supporters of GrowNYC, a nonprofit providing sustainability services to New Yorkers, so they have access to produce that is fresh, locally grown and affordable.

All GrowNYC greenmarkets accept SNAP. 

Torres said the bill is an existential threat to food security in the Bronx. Half a million people — roughly a third of the Bronx population — depend on SNAP, making a $300 billion cut to the program detrimental to working people, Torres said. 

Of those on SNAP, 85 percent are households with children, senior citizens or those with disabilities, Torres said, adding the maximum monthly SNAP amount for a single individual is $292. 

Gibson said there’s limited access to healthy food options for the borough, adding she and other elected officials were a part of Not 26 — The Campaign for a Healthy Bronx, a movement to improve the residents’ health. 

She said she supports several other local and federal efforts aimed at remedying food insecurity, such as the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Healthy Bodegas Initiative. 

“This is not a Democratic versus Republican issue; this is a human issue,” Gibson told The Press. “I don’t understand why we’re aligned with party politics when it comes to the human aspect of what food equity means on a day-to-day basis for so many families.” 

Dias said Trump’s bill will have devastating economic consequences to local farms, grocery stores and bodegas. 

“When people go hungry, crime goes up,” Dias told The Press. “When people can’t eat, people get desperate. When people get desperate, people make bad decisions. That’s why we can’t afford [this bill].” 

Joe Morgiewicz, a fifth-generation owner and farmer of Goshen-based Morgiewicz Produce, also spoke to the crowd. He said he’s sold produce at the greenmarket since it opened 25 years ago and, today, 70 percent of his transactions at Bronx Borough Hall Greenmarket are through food assistance. 

“I’m earning a living doing what I love — farming and feeding the people of New York in the tri-state area,” Morgiewicz told The Press. “It’s all local to New York … and [the customers] are saving money while they’re at it.” 

Other speakers present were GrowNYC Assistant Director of Food Access and Agriculture Liz Carollo, Director of Organizing Filomena Acevedo of Hunger Free America and Graciela Perez, a senior at Baruch College whose family has benefitted from food assistance programs. 

“GrowNYC is important to Bronxites because it helps farmers sell products that they’ve grown, raised or baked directly to New Yorkers,” Carollo told The Press. “It provides fresh food access for all, and if you look around today, it provides a place for community.” 

Angie Williams, a resident who’s patronized the greenmarket for 25 years, said she visits to support the community and farmers. 

“The food is good — it's fresh, it’s healthy,” Williams said, “It brings the community and the neighborhood together.

The Bronx Borough Hall Greenmarket is open Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.