Jackson Heights, NY – Today, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas was joined by State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz along with the FoodStream Network (FSN), a social platform that connects leaders in the food industry with local groups to distribute nourishing meals to food insecure communities, and its coalition of restaurants, emergency food providers (EFPs), Food Banks, and other nonprofits, to call on Governor Hochul and legislative leadership to include the $25 million NYS Restaurant Resiliency Program (RRP) in the FY23 enacted state budget. The Restaurant Resiliency Program is designed to help support hundreds of local restaurants and millions of food-insecure New Yorkers who continue to be impacted by COVID-19 pandemic.

In the past year, the RRP has been successful in delivering food to vulnerable community members, while supporting local restaurants-workers and food establishments. Since the program went into action last fall, it has allowed restaurants across the state to prepare over 1 million meals for local food pantries, community centers and neighborhood refrigerators. RRP has provided vital support to our restaurants, while simultaneously delivering nutritious meals to people across New York State who are food insecure.

Last year, RRP was funded at $25M through the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and run by the Department of Agriculture and Markets. As of March 2022, Agriculture and Markets has officially spent down the $25M allocation. Now that the funding has run out, there are hundreds of restaurants across the state that have been approved to cook for the RRP, but have yet to prepare a single meal for their neighborhood food pantry, where unfortunately the lines are long and are growing due to the rising cost of food prices.

The RRP has support from all sectors of New York State small restaurants, Food Pantries, Emergency Food Providers, workers, and food recipients due to its multiple benefits and efficiency. In many cases, small local restaurants missed out on most or all state, local and federal assistance while being the most impacted segment of the economy during the pandemic.

This coming year, Governor Hochul proposes to keep the RRP and transfer its operation to the Department of Health. The Assembly one-house budget has allocated $25M towards the program, but the Senate one-house does not.

If refunded, the $25 million program will ensure many small restaurants stay open and many New Yorkers remain employed in businesses hardest hit by pandemic.

“Our restaurant industry is vital to the economic and cultural wellbeing of New York. I’m proud to have advocated for the Restaurant Resiliency Program to be included in our Assembly one-house resolution but we must ensure that this funding is in the final enacted state budget,” said Assemblymember González-Rojas. “Over one million meals have been prepared and provided to New Yorkers as a result of this program and every mouth fed is our state government doing what it’s supposed to do. I urge our Governor and legislative leadership to fund the program again this year because no one should have to go hungry in our state.”

“FoodStream Network was created in the height of a global pandemic that brought to the forefront social issues that are often ignored like food insecurity and local restaurants fighting to recover from the losses they experienced during the pandemic,’ said Rich Cumming, Co-Founder, FoodStream Network. “Today alongside our FoodStream members, our NYS Restaurant Resiliency Coalition, Senator Cordell Cleare, Assemblymember Jessica Gonzales-Rojas we’re advocating for $25 million to refund the New York State Restaurant Resiliency Program in the FY23 NYS State budget.”

“The beauty and inherent efficacy of the Restaurant Resiliency Program is that it helps vulnerable New Yorkers access high quality, locally sourced fresh and nutritious food options,” said NY State Senator Cordell Cleare, 30th District. “All of this is accomplished in a way that helps those in need, ensures the viability of local businesses and protects jobs. The small program is one of the success stories of the pandemic and should not only be funded again but made permanent.”

“It is imperative that this program is included in the final adopted state budget, therefore we call on the Senate, Assembly and Governor Hochul to fund the program at least $25M in FY2023,” said Kathleen DiPerna, Director of Government Relations, Rethink Food. “Additionally, if funded, we ask the State to hold stakeholder engagement sessions with key players (restaurants, EFPs, food banks, non-profits) in the program to share learnings and best practices on how to better administer and run the program, given our experience.”

"The nutritious meals provided through RRP were vital for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need. Gotham Food Pantry coordinated distribution of over 150,000 meals to areas of extremely high food insecurity throughout the five boroughs, with a focus on NYCHA housing,” said Doug Silver, Founder, Gotham Food Pantry. “For many families these meals were all they ate in a given day. Restoring RRP will be restoring a lifeline for friends and neighbors who still bear the brunt of historical inequalities that COVID-19 made impossible to ignore any longer."

“We are so thankful for the Restaurant Resiliency Program, since it helped us to be able to hire more staff and provide more inventory for our store and pay some of our rent,” said Davie Simmons, Founder, Uptown Veg.  “Our restaurant has served the community for 30 years now, and through RRP, we were able to provide 13,333 meals for our neighbors this past year. We look forward to continuing to work to provide options to underprivileged communities.”

“We are deeply grateful to our NYS Restaurant Resiliency Coalition, the State Senator Cordell Cleare, Assemblymember Jessica Gonzales-Rojas and everyone else who is championing this program and stepping up to help New Yorkers in need,” said Cumming, FSN. “Introducing programs that connect our local restaurants (and farms) directly with their communities and funding offers a sustainable solution to food insecurity and is precisely why the FoodStream Network exists.”

“We make and deliver meals to the Bowery mission in the lower east side. We understand the importance of nutritious meals for people in need.” said Pei Shan We & Bryan Chuntoni, Restaurant owners, Pho Inc. (Zen Yai) “Not only that, the funding from RRP in 2021 also helped restaurants to pay expenses and employees’ wages during the omicron pandemic when restaurant business is slow.”

Lois Frazier, Holy Tabernacle Church Food Outreach Program said of the initiative, “The 2021 Restaurant Resiliency Program helped our food program immensely. It assisted us with cooked meals for our community, we could serve families or a single person to eat immediately. They looked forward to receiving this restaurant dish.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic opened up new ways of thinking about the ways we address community issues,” said Carey King, Director, Uptown Grand Central. “Here in East Harlem, one of our biggest learnings was in the power of connecting our local restaurants to our local food pantries, community centers and fridges. The NYS RRP truly builds resilience in our communities by not just providing plates of food, but by building strong relationships between small businesses and their neighbors.”