Alyson Rosenthal, a nonprofit leader and Chief Program Officer at the West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH), has ample experience working at the intersection of health, social justice, and sustainable agriculture. In our conversation, Alyson shares how community engagement shapes food policy, the need for urgent policy reforms, and the challenges of addressing food insecurity alongside other social issues like housing and healthcare. Her perspective sheds light on the vital role of grassroots advocacy in creating equitable and sustainable food systems across New York City.

HOW DO YOU SEE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SHAPING FOOD POLICIES? 

Alyson Rosenthal (AR): Community engagement is critical to shaping effective, impactful programs and policies. Listening to the voices and engaging those directly affected by food policies and programs are key to ensuring the needs and priorities of the community are addressed in meaningful and impactful ways.  The West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) strives to engage our community of customers in all aspects of our work from policy change and program development to organizational governance.  For decades, the board of directors of WSCAH has always made sure to have numerous voices of our customers.  This has pushed our organization to be focused on our customer experience front and center. Whether we are speaking of the importance of fresh produce or bringing food to people where they live, these decisions come through the powerful community we are part of.  A recent policy example includes, WSCAH’s engagement of over 1,000 customers and community members who attended our annual block party, WSCAH Rocks the Block, in a FRAC (Food Research and Action Center) facilitated paper plate campaign to reinstate the City’s Community Food Connections (CFC) budget to the $57 Milion after being cut by more than half. This funding supports over 500 food pantries in providing healthy food to people across the city. The passionate heartfelt messages written on the paper plates by our community members were delivered directly to city council members at a City Council hearing. Customers of our Roundtable partners also submitted messages on paper plates and collectively our voices were heard – the budget was reinstated!

HOW DO YOU SEE THE INTERSECTION OF FOOD POLICY WITH OTHER SOCIAL ISSUES (SUCH AS HOUSING, HEALTHCARE, OR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY) IN COMMUNITIES YOU SERVE? CAN YOU PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THESE INTERSECTIONS IMPACT YOUR WORK?

AR: Food insecurity is just one of a constellation of challenges that our community experiences and is often exacerbated by issues like the lack of affordable housing, living wage jobs, and affordable healthcare.  The past couple of years, during the post-COVID era, WSCAH has seen a surge in the demand for food and services, far exceeding the demand experienced during the peak of the pandemic. Many of the pandemic relief benefits and protections were phased out in NYC and across the nation, which included housing supports, free school meals for all, expansions to SNAP, child tax credits, unemployment benefits and more. Without these social supports combined with the exorbitant cost of living, including inflated grocery prices, families are forced to make tough choices between paying for rent or medical prescriptions and putting a healthy meal on the table.  When times are tough, and government support is inadequate, people turn to pantries, like WSCAH.  

WHAT ARE THE TOP 2-3 FOOD POLICIES YOUR ORGANIZATION BELIEVES NEED IMMEDIATE CHANGE OR IMPROVEMENT? HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION ADVOCATING FOR THESE CHANGES?

AR: WSCAH is presently focused on three areas of food policy: 

(1) The first is expanding SNAP access and support through the Federal Farm Bill legislation package. We are pushing for the inclusion of the following legislative measures: 

  • The Closing the Meal Gap Act (H.R. 3037, S. 1336): This bill will boost SNAP benefits for all participants, ensuring that SNAP reflects real costs of living and more effectively reduces hunger.  
  • The Improving Access to Nutrition Act (H.R. 1510, S. 2435): This bill will eliminate the three-month time limit on SNAP eligibility for certain working-age adults who cannot document sufficient hours of work, preventing unnecessary hunger among our most vulnerable citizens.  
  • The Enhance Access to SNAP Act (H.R. 3183, S. 1488): This bill would put college students with lower incomes on equal footing with other qualifying individuals, helping them focus on their education without the burden of food insecurity.  
  • The Hot Foods Act of 2023 (H.R. 3519, S. 2258): This bill will permanently end the prohibition of using SNAP benefits to purchase hot, prepared foods, which is critical for those without stable housing or cooking facilities.  
  • The Lift the Bar Act (H.R. 4170, S. 2038): This bill seeks to restore access to public programs for lawfully present immigrants by removing the five-year waiting period and other barriers to SNAP eligibility.   

(2) The second is the creation of a NYS administered program that would provide State-funded food benefits to households currently ineligible for the SNAP program due to their citizenship status, equal to the allotment for similarly situated SNAP-eligible households. The aim of this measure would be to alleviate the significant pressures on NYC government and local emergency food and benefits access providers. In Fiscal Year 2023, NYC has already spent $1.45 billion to support immigrants with a variety of services, including shelter, food and social services. With the current level of need, NYC could spend as much as $12 billion over the next three fiscal years.   

(3) Finally, WSCAH is aiming for a reform of the Community Food Connection (CFC) program, formerly known as the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP). CFC provides funding to more than 500 community kitchens and food pantries citywide. Managed by the Department of Social Services (DSS/HRA), CFC represents New York City’s primary baseline funding for direct community food assistance. CFC supplies nutritious and fresh food across all five boroughs and is a vital source of food for our network which serves over 1 million New Yorkers annually.  

WSCAH is advocating to baseline CFC into the FY2026 budget at $60 million dollars, with direct funding targeted to frontline providers (organizations like WSCAH, other food pantries and soup kitchens). We are also asking for a separate allocation within CFC for coalitions working to transform the system, such as the Roundtable. 

WHAT FACTORS COULD ELEVATE THIS POLICY ISSUE TO BECOME A PRIORITY FOR LEGISLATORS AND POLICYMAKERS?  

AR: Much of WSCAH’s advocacy efforts are pursued in collaboration with The Roundtable: Allies for Food Access, a dedicated network of emergency food providers in New York City collaborating to bring more resources to communities, so none of our neighbors go hungry.  The Roundtable leverages the collective influence of its member organizations for key advocacy measures at the city and state levels. Roundtable organizations are embedded in the communities they serve and keenly understand the resources and policies those communities need in order to ensure that none of our neighbors go hungry.  

During the pandemic, the Roundtable successfully advocated for frontline worker vaccine eligibility for all emergency food workers and played a significant role in amending the Community Food Connection (formerly EFAP) program to include fresh produce for the first time in the program’s history. Roundtable members were leaders and members of the Mayors Food Transition Team and were involved with the Mayor’s Innovative Capacity Building Group, a collaborative effort between the city and emergency food providers to find new solutions to bring healthy food to the communities that need it most and currently have the least access. 

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE:

Alyson Rosenthal is a non-profit leader and Nutritionist with two decades of experience developing and scaling successful programs that work at the intersection of health, social justice and sustainable agriculture. Alyson is currently the Chief Program Officer at the West Side Campaign Against Hunger where she leads all programming at one of the largest and most successful emergency feeding providers in New York City. 

Formerly, Alyson was the Director of Food and Nutrition Programs at Children’s Aid where she led the organization’s obesity prevention and health promotion initiatives. Prior to her work with Children’s Aid, she spent 7 years at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where her work focused on improving access to healthy food in the food retail environment. 

Alyson is a Registered Dietitian and holds a MS in Food Policy and Economics from Tufts University and a BS in Dietetics and Nutritional Sciences from the University of Vermont. She is dedicated to improving health disparities and is strongly motivated by the power of food to bring communities together and to foster change. 

 

Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank Julia Greene for her assistance with reaching out to Rachel Ingram on behalf of CUNY Urban Food Policy Monitor and for her input in the conceptualization and implementation of the community interviews part of this newsletter issue.