Senate Bill S7533A

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S7533A

SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to the
Nourish New York program

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

The purpose of the legislation is to direct monies appropriated for the
Nourish New York program to be distributed as was intended when the law
was established. The bill clarifies that the funds must be distributed
to the ten regional food banks, which may suballocate funding to food
relief organizations.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill amends section 452 of the agriculture and
markets law to clarify that any monies appropriated shall be distributed
without an application or competitive procurement process to the ten
regional food banks. It further clarifies that such funds shall be
              

distributed on a regional basis and shall be shall be distributed equal-
ly to food banks in regions with more than one regional food bank. It
also clarifies that regional food banks may suballocate funds to food
relief organizations.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In each of the seven rounds of funding distributed since the Nourish NY
program's inception, funding was allocated to the 10 regional food
banks. The regional food banks, the food relief organizations who
received suballocations from the regional food banks, and the farmers
who work with the regional food banks all rely on their long-standing
Nourish NY allocations.

However in September 2022, the Department of Health added the $50
million of funding from the Nourish New York program into the smaller,
$36.6 million Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) in
the most recent Request for Application (RFA). This change was made
without any warning, transparency, or justification. This process was
flawed in that:

    1. The programs each have- a separate intent, each has a stand-alone
appropriation, and each has different programmatic parameters; and

    2. the application for and methodology used to determine awards for
the Nourish NY program appears to be flawed.

The 38-page application was clearly designed for the HPNAP program with
the Nourish NY program tacked on seemingly as an afterthought - despite
the fact that the amount available for Nourish NY far exceeds the HPNAP
funding. The RFA provides virtually no information about the Nourish NY
program, nor does it collect sufficient information to evaluate appli-
cants for Nourish NY Funding. In fact, it was not until October 18, 2022
- nearly a full month after the RFA was released - that addendum #3
relating to Nourish NY was added. Even once the RFA was amended, it only
required applicants to check a box on the application cover sheet indi-
cating interest in receiving Nourish NY funding and to submit a justi-
fication that included "the proposed use of NNY funding and the Appli-
cant's ability to comply with NNY requirements for purchasing and
distributing NYS grown or produced foods."

Further, applicants were only informed that they could receive a "set
proportion" of their HPNAP allocation for Nourish NY funding, based on a
formula "to be determined" by DOH. However, it now appears that some
organizations who received no HPNAP allocation have been awarded Nourish
NY funding.

As a result, despite the FY2024 NYS budget allocating more than $58.6
million for HPNAP and $50 million for Nourish NY, this flawed process
resulted in severe funding cuts to some regional food banks and other
food relief organizations. As such, this bill seeks to clarify that
monies appropriated for the Nourish NYk program must be allocated to the
ten regional food banks, as they have been since the inception of the
program. It also clarifies that regional food banks may continue to
suballocate funding to food relief organizations.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Legislation

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.