COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, November 5, 2025 10:05 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE
Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Welcome to Philadelphia City Council. Is this working -- welcome to Philadelphia City Council Committee on Public Health. (Background chatter.)
Okay. Let's go. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Philadelphia City Council's Committee on Public Health and Human Services. I now note that the hour has come. Mr. Sham, would you please call the roll.
I note for the record that a quorum of this committee is present and this hearing is called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services considering testimony on Resolution No. 250936. Mr. Sham, would you please read the title of the resolution.
Resolution 8 No. 250936, authorizing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings to examine the impacts of the current crisis threatening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education, SNAP- Ed, on food and nutrition security in Philadelphia, including barriers to accessing benefits, disruptions to nutrition and education and outreach, consequences for residents and opportunities for coordinated city and community response.
Before we call up the first panel, I would like to recognize Council President Johnson for some opening remarks -- excuse me. One addition. I just want to recognize our colleague Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr., Mr. Fourth District is here.
I want to first and foremost thank Chairwoman Dr. Nina Ahmad for hosting this hearing, and I thank all of you for taking time out of your day to be here as we address the pressing crisis threatening SNAP and SNAP-Ed. I want to also thank all the members of City Council for joining us. , who's not a part of this committee but thought it not robbery to take time out of his schedule to be here as we address this issue in this moment in time. I also want to thank members of my Food and Nutrition Security Task Force for joining us today to speak on this critical issue and to recognize my two Co-Chairs Mark Edwards of the Food Trust and George Matysik of Share Food Program for their leadership and partnership in our efforts to ensure Philadelphians are fed. On October 23rd, I introduced a resolution calling for a hearing of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to examine the impact of the current and ongoing crisis threatening SNAP and SNAP-Ed on food and nutrition security in Philadelphia. Over the summer, the federal government passed a budget reconciliation bill that devastated SNAP and SNAP-Ed. Thousands of Philadelphians face losing their benefits and many programs providing vital nutrition education, are now facing complete funding after this year. These are two critical programs, lifelines for millions across the country and for the over 470,000 people here in Philadelphia that receive SNAP. The recent federal government shutdown dealt yet another blow, delaying November SNAP benefits leaving many Philadelphians anxious about how they would feed their families. And although a federal ruling has restored partial funding, which is still unacceptable, countless families still face hardship heading into the holiday season. I want to publicly thank our Mayor Cherelle Parker and her team on their swift action through the One Philly SNAP Support Plan, which is directing resources to organizations on the ground. And I thank her for working with me to ensure food reaches Philadelphians who need it the most. I want to take a moment to also acknowledge her Chief of Staff Tiffany Thurman and also Vanessa Garrett-Harley for making sure that the resources are going to the organizations in immediate and expedient fashion. While this immediate crisis has drawn our attention, we must also recognize that food insecurity has always been a longstanding emergency here in the city of Philadelphia. 30% of children here in the City of Philadelphia are food insecure. That's in children that go to bed hungry. That's 1 in 3 children that go to school hungry. And so, although we're addressing this issue in this moment in time, we have to also make sure we're addressing a long- term strategy to address food insecurity here in the city of Philadelphia. 66% of our city, struggle with food insecurity. The burden falls disproportionately on communities of color, with 30% of Black households and 33% of Hispanic households lacking reliable access to nutritious food, and more than 30% of Philadelphia's children experience food insecurity affecting their development and educational attainment. And we wonder why sometimes when our children go to school and they're reprimanded for their behavior, we're not addressing the overall aspects of why they're behaving the way they're behaving, because some of them come to school hungry and are acting out. These numbers reflect a reality that existed before any federal cuts. Let me say that again. These numbers reflect a reality that existed before any federal cuts or shutdowns, a reality where too many of our neighbors were already hungry. Through my convening of the Food and Nutrition Security Task Force, I've learned that addressing this crisis requires building sustainable food systems and strengthening our local food economy.
I've also learned how vital nutrition education is through alleviating food insecurity by helping families build long-term food resilience and empowering communities with the knowledge and skills to make healthier, cost- effective choices. I'm grateful to the many leaders and advocates here today who are doing this work every day, and I'm hopeful through our united effort we can continue to feed Philadelphia and build a more secure and equitable future for all. And as I was preparing my notes, I thought about how although I'm a graduate from University of Pennsylvania of Fels Institute of Government, graduate of Mansfield University, I got a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice with dual minors in Philosophy and Sociology, went to Harvard Business School, I got a certificate in Nonprofit Leadership and Board Management, served as State Representative under Governor Ed Rendell and Tom Corby before becoming the first African American to represent the 2nd Councilmanic District and even serving as a City Council President, I remember humble beginnings when we had our check days. And some of you may or may not know what check days are. That means your family would get a number. And on that number, we would go to the 3-2 Center in South Philadelphia. It was located at Broad and Federal. And whatever your number was that day, if your number was No. 6, we would stand in line at that time to get our SNAP benefits. And I remember as a kid the most exciting time of the month for me was check day because we would go shopping. And I remember we would go shopping. We would have a shopping cart full of food, right, that would start our month. And I remember as a kid just growing up for me and you have to think about them humble beginnings, because sometimes you get in these elected positions and we forget where we come from. But I'm never ashamed to talk about how I grew up. And I remember Captain Crunch being my favorite cereal as a kid, right. Then I had the Crunch Berries, right. But all of that was a part of me growing up and us being on public assistance as a kid. So although we talk about these numbers, there are faces. There are faces behind these numbers. There are people who are here who are significantly being impacted while individuals play politics on the backs of those who are most in need. So we're not here for fanfare. We're not here for likes today. We're here to really get some things done and also make sure that, one, we implement this particular initiative effectively as we respond to addressing the temporary SNAP cuts, but also begin looking at a long-term strategy to address food insecurity here in the city of Philadelphia. And for me, we have no other more critical issue. Because at the end of the day when you talk about poverty -- I know we are no longer the largest, poorest city in America. We're No. 2, which still means there are children, there are families going to bed hungry. There are children, there are families waking up hungry, and it's up to us to be on the front line to help those families working together. And so, with that being said I'm going to turn it over to my Chair. And I want to thank my Chair. And also, beyond this hearing you also have members who are already doing town halls around this issue to educate individuals around how they can follow up to make sure their new criteria that SNAP is requiring individuals so they can remain on the rolls to receive their SNAP benefits are educated properly. So with that being said, I'll turn it over to you, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Council President. I want to recognize that we have Councilmember Jamie Gauthier from the 3rd District joining us as well. And now, I'm going to recognize myself for some opening remarks. Once again, good morning. As the Chair of this committee, I take this issue very seriously. I want to thank all of you for being here this morning. And let's be clear about why we are here. This crisis is man-made. It stems from choices by the Trump Administration, choices that triggered layoffs, destabilized basic public services and now propose only partial SNAP benefits, while holding the country hostage to a government shutdown that threatens to drive health care premiums even higher. This is not fiscal discipline. This is cruelty by design. Let me just say it again. Cruelty by design and families in Philadelphia are paying the price. SNAP is not a luxury. As you heard, it is a lifeline for nearly half a million of our neighbors; mothers now forced to decide who can eat and who cannot, seniors, people with disabilities, veterans and working people holding two, three jobs who still can't outrun the cost of living. These cuts push seniors to ration groceries and those with disabilities to choose between food and medicine and squeeze the very veterans who have already sacrificed for our country. In addition to being the Chair of this committee, I'm also part of the Food and Nutrition Security Task Force and we have been working to address this issue, identifying not just immediate relief for hungry families, but also long-term solutions like the Council President mentioned. Even with federal and state support, there are still far too many Philadelphians who are food insecure and I'm committed to working with Council President and my colleagues in Council and the Task Force members to advance policies that will prove to be durable and sustainable. I also want to take a moment to thank Mayor Cherelle Parker for meeting the immediate moment in a short period of time. She was able to take swift action and coordinate with city agencies and community partners in addressing this unfortunate crisis in a responsible manner. The shutdown chaos does not stop at the grocery line. It ripples through health care, delayed coverage, higher costs, worse outcomes. And by undermining SNAP, the same decision-makers stripped away prevention and education, the tools that help families stretch dollars and stay healthy. This is wasteful, short- sighted and dangerous. Hunger has no place in a city as strong as ours and we will not normalize it. And thank you and we will begin our proceedings. (Applause.)
Before we ask for the panel, I want to yield to my Councilmembers, anybody who might have some comments to make? Okay. I recognize Councilmember O'Rourke for some comments.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate that. Good morning to my colleagues, our guests in the chamber today and the listening public. Thank you for joining us, for tuning in and also thanks to those who will be watching this back later today, next week, in the months to come. I'm sure it'll be a point of interest in the coming days, weeks and months. Like access to clear water and clear air, safe shelter and care, access to food is something that the richest nation in recorded history ought to be able to ensure. As we say, you don't judge the greatness of a nation by how the richest and well- off are doing, but by those who are in most need. And it says something wicked, I dare say twisted, about the state of that nation when it does not. And while we will identify and indict the clear cause of this SNAP crisis, I do want to admit that I sit here a bit frustrated with our timing this morning, because as the Council President said, hunger is not a new concern or issue certainly in the municipality of Philadelphia. And also, on the day of the President swearing in, day 1, he was signing executive orders based on Project 2025 directives, day 1. By the end of his first month, it was clear that the goals laid out in that document were a large part of his governing strategy, if you want to call it that. And the plan for SNAP was laid out there and in the big, goofy-looking bill that they passed in July. On this and many other fronts, we were plainly told what to expect. And I don't know if we can say -- and I'm talking about we as electeds here and abroad -- we actually heeded those warnings adequately. Our reach is limited. Our capacity is strained when compared to higher levels of government. We can only be prepared for so much. But during the crafting of our City's budget this past spring, my very first question was focused on how we were planning to safeguard Philadelphia from a Trump Administration. And I was not alone in this body in sharing my concerns on that front. Business as usual will not work. And I implore everyone here and my colleagues to consider how our budget decisions, that's the thing that we have control over, are showing up in this moment and to have the foresight to think about the next several years to come and how we navigate that process. We've got to invest in our city services. We've got to invest in our people. And I fear that in too many ways the priorities we set during our spring budget cycle ignored our reality. We are defunding ourselves over crises that we could have seen coming and putting families at risk as a result. I'm grateful that we had a surplus this year to address this crisis, but we have to be honest with ourselves. That surplus does exist because we're struggling to fill city positions that are more important than ever. This approach is just not sustainable because we know more crises will come certainly under this would-be king. Still I have plenty of faith that we can and will respond capably and I'm grateful for the efforts of everyone here to be a part of that process. I have faith, because frankly I trusted a man who took two fish, five loaves of bread and made that more than enough.
Oh, yeah, turned the water into wine, took nutrients and made it a good time. Do I have a witness in the room. I also believe that we don't need to bank on a miracle to keep our people fed, right. God will not do for us what God has endowed for us to do for ourselves. And I think that we can do and we will do much better. I'll close just by asking for a quick show of hands. If you or someone you love has ever relied on SNAP for nutritional assistance, could you just raise your hand real quick? (Hands raised.)
Jesus. When the impact of some scheme in Washington is so broad, so immediate, so evident ahead of time, we got to be better prepared. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. That's what they told me. But thank you for everyone being here for being a part of the solution. I believe a better day is upon us and I think we're going to be a part of making that happen. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Councilmember. I want to recognize Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you, Chair. I just want to take one second to, first of all, thank the Council President and the Chair for convening us today and for all of you being here. This is an essential conversation. Yesterday as I drove around this city on Election day going to polling places, I saw lines for food that I have never seen in my entire life. They wrapped around blocks and blocks and blocks. It was heartwrenching. So it's only November 5 and we are already seeing the results of this. And what I'm really looking for today here in Philadelphia, the City of First, is that we come up with a real long- term solution to this issue. I thank the Mayor. I thank the Governor for standing up and putting in some emergency funding and for all of our food banks and folks who are handing out food. It's so fantastic. But that is not the long-term solution for already overwhelmed and overworked food pantries. SNAP can provide nine times the amount of meals that food banks can provide. We've got to make sure that we fix this in a way that gives cash to people's pockets, that gives them dignity, that gives them a way of choosing for their families what they need, and that's how we're going to have Philly thrive. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Councilmember. Are there any other members who would like to offer opening remarks? And I recognize Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr.
Thank you so much, Madam Chair. And thank you, President, for bringing this worthwhile issue before the body and assembling stakeholders that can do something about it. I came down here because the trickle-down effect in my district is real. Let me first acknowledge Share who is in the 4th District, and Philabundance, who impacts organizations in my district for their work. Going back to the pandemic, I remember seeing a guy that I went to school with, had his grandson with him, his grandson holding onto his two fingers tightly as he was down at a food giveaway. And I'm looking wondering, why is he in the line. When I got to talk to him, he sheepishly, humbly, brokenheartedly said, because he got his business -- not business. His workplace was closed down due to the pandemic and this was the way he was going to feed his grandkid. And I'll never forget that grandson looking up to his grandfather and saying, it's going to be all right, grandpa. It broke my heart to see that. But thank you, that he was able to take something home to feed him. The second thing. Most recently this weekend I'm at one of my ShopRites and a lady who could have been any of our grandmothers had a cart and the security guards were going through her receipt taking things out of the cart that she was attempting to steal. In the greatest country in the world, this should not be happening. The third thing that I want to say in closing is it's not just the absence of SNAP. It is also the prices of food. In that same shopping trip, my favorite cereal is -- yours is Captain Crunch. Mines is Cream of Wheat. $8.65 for a box of Cream of Wheat --
Excuse me. I wasn't fortunate enough to afford Cream of Wheat. We had grits with sugar. (Laughter.)
I get it. I get it. But as we look at these issues, we got to look at shrinkflation. We got to look at how the consumer is getting less and having to pay more. So I'm looking forward to some of the insights that people have. Well, I have one more. We have to change the rules with the School District. There is no 23 way that kids that come and probably is one of their only predictable meals for many, right, have to watch food not being eaten and then thrown in the trash when they have siblings at home that could use that food. That is a waste. And on behalf of students all over Philadelphia, ketchup is not a vegetable. Can we get better lunches and can we find vendors that can provide it more nutritious? I know Philabundance could do a better job than whoever they are in providing that type of food. So I'm looking forward, Mr. President, Madam Chair, to hear some of the solutions to some of these problems.
Thank you. I just want to say for the record that Philabundance's headquarters is in the 2nd Councilmanic District in South Philly for the record.
Thank you, Councilmember, for sharing and humanizing this issue. This is not just dollars and cents and somebody's sitting in the White House decimating our loved ones here. When I came to this country, I didn't have any of these benefits. I had to measure my pennies to see what I could afford that day. I didn't have access to all this. And I think coming from a country that is really poor and had none of these safety nets, so I can tell you how important it is. I come from a place where parents have to watch their children emaciate and die in front of their eyes. When I came here and I saw how government steps up in times of need and creates these safety nets, it is critical that we send this message to the rest of the globe that in hard times we can step up. That's the role of government, in our most vulnerable times to step up. Not this cruelty campaign to deny us the very basic human need of nutrition and food, right. So with that, Mr. Sham, will you please call the first panel to testify on this bill.
Renee Garcia, City Solicitor of the City of Philadelphia; Dr. Palak Raval- Nelson, Health Commissioner for the Department of Public Health; and Orlando Rendon, Executive Director of Community Empowerment and Opportunity at the City of Philadelphia. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning. Noting for the record that Ms. Renee Garcia will not be taking any questions; am I correct? CITY SOLICITOR GARCIA: I can take questions about -- there are a lot of topics covered. I can take questions about what I'm going to speak about for sure.
Okay. We were told you would not. Well, we're happy to hear you will. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. CITY SOLICITOR GARCIA: Renee Garcia, City Solicitor. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning, Council President. Good morning, members. Good morning, guests. And I'll echo my gratitude for everybody who has come together to meet this moment and for everybody who met the moment yesterday and will meet the moment tomorrow. Before we go into the details of the program, we thought it'd be helpful for me to do an overview of the federal litigation. Because if you've been following in the news, things change every two hours and it's very hard to follow what is going on. So I'll do a deep overview and then we'll move on to the details. So there's --
Ms. Garcia, just real quick just for the record, members would like to know also because you are our lawyer, just for clarity just give us the framework on what you want to answer and the reason why you prefer not to answer as opposed to folks just thinking I don't want to answer and that's not the case, so just the legal case going.
So as you know, our conversations are privileged, my conversations, the Administration are privileged. So I am giving an overview of public information regarding the litigation. But if there are questions about legal strategy, those are questions I do not want to answer in the public and we can have off-site conversations about that. I wouldn't want to waive privilege.
I just wanted to put that into context that we would want the wider public to know that no one's hiding anything. It's just around legal strategy and not putting us in the predicament down the line. CITY SOLICITOR GARCIA: Exactly. Thank you for that, for the clarification. So with the publicly available knowledge, there are two cases, one in the District of Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island. Both of those cases have been moving very rapidly over the last week, which is creating the confusion in the press on what is being paid and what is not being paid. The cases revolve around a contingency fund for SNAP benefits that was set up in 2024. That contingency fund only had $6 billion in it. So 6 billion, whereas the monthly need as a nation is $8.62 billion. So the contingency fund was not enough to even cover one month of benefits. Over the course of Friday and Saturday, both judges issued orders, emergency orders, advising that the government would have a choice whether they used that contingency fund and did a partial payment for November or they tapped other funds and did a full payment in November. We learned on Monday that they elected to do a partial payment for November, meaning, that they would not be tapping other funds to cover all of November's benefits. Again, there's only $6 billion. There's a great much more need for that. Here's how the math breaks down on that 6 billion. 4.65 will go for SNAP benefits for November. 150 million will go to a nutritional block grant, the -- and I can see you all writing. I can also submit this later on -- for Puerto Rico and Samoa, and then there's $450 million for administrative support. Now, those three numbers did not add up to 6. It's because they tapped in October $750 million from this fund already for that block grant and for administrative fees. So 4.65 billion going out is about half of what the states need to fulfill their benefits. Again, they elected not to take other funding from the USDA, which would have affected school lunch programs. They're very public about that. Pa gets 366 million a month. We don't know the exact number that's going to come, but I assume it's about half. Now, yesterday there was another case development in Rhode Island. The plaintiffs in that case, which are various nonprofits and a couple cities, filed for emergency relief saying that the partial payment was not going to be enough. That hearing is tomorrow. So again, things are developing very rapidly. What we don't know is, okay, the government is at least going to send half of this money, how long is it going to take to get to people's EBT cards. In Pennsylvania, the money actually goes to a third party that loads it onto the cards. We do not know the details of that. Everybody's following that very closely. But I want to say that the kind of the upshot is Pennsylvania is looking at about half what they would normally get for the month. That is the legal overview. I can answer any questions about the record. They did -- and I can leave this document with you. They did this morning publish the chart of how much people would get per month based on their household. So a household of one would get $149. A household of eight would get $894 and so on and so forth. So they did publish that. They have not published the full number for each state.
So thank you for that testimony. I just wanted to ask a question about clarification about loading the EBT cards. From what I understood, the President has said they will not be loaded and even the partial, it will be partial, but that loading is contingent on the impasse in the federal government budget to be over; am I correct? CITY SOLICITOR GARCIA: He did say that and then it was walked back yesterday. So as far as we know this morning, the payment will be made. Do not know the details on when it's made and ultimately when it gets onto the EBT cards.
Yeah. We just need to be very clear for our constituents to understand this back and forth and when they actually will have their EBT cards loaded. So if we could have a channel for us to be able to share that, that would be really helpful. CITY SOLICITOR GARCIA: Absolutely.
Can I ask one more clarifying question. So this is simply for November with the contingency fund we have now. Is there any plan going forward? CITY SOLICITOR GARCIA: There's nothing for December. This will be completely extinguishing that contingency fund.
One other question about the amount in the contingency fund. Was there a lawsuit about the fact that it was not fully funded, the fact that there was supposed to be more money in the contingency fund? CITY SOLICITOR GARCIA: That I haven't seen. I know there was another case in New York that was then withdrawn. So if you saw that, maybe it was that case. But these two cases are not challenging the 2024 congressional allocation to the fund.
Good morning. Orlando Rendon, Executive Director for Community Empowerment and Opportunity. Good morning, Chairperson Ahmad, Vice-Chair Lozada and members of City Council. My name is Orlando Rendon. I am the Executive Director of the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity better known as CEO. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on Resolution 2 No. 250936, introduced by Chairperson Ahmad on behalf of Council President Johnson. " For children, the numbers are even worse. In 2023, 30% or in children were food insecure. Additionally, according to a 2022 School District of Philadelphia report on household food insecurity, 27% of students reported not having enough food at home in the past 30 days. In the past 30 days, and 20% of families reported facing food insecurity. Nearly half a million Philadelphians depend on the federally-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as SNAP. To put the food on the table every day, simply put SNAP is a lifeline for Philadelphians. SNAP is a government society safety net and was supplemented by the incredible work of the nonprofit sector. Its impact dwarfs that of the nonprofit sector. To put things in perspective, for every one meal provided by the charitable Food Network, SNAP provides nine meals. SNAP beneficiaries are Philadelphians of all ages and needs, including children, seniors, people with disabilities and veterans. 2 million in SNAP payments were made to Philadelphians. As you're all aware, due to the federal budget stalemate SNAP benefits were not distributed to the states in the time to make the November 1st payments to Pennsylvanians. As a result, for the first time in the SNAP program's history, the lifeline has been paused and many Philadelphians are facing the devastating prospect of not having enough food. After two court rulings requiring the USDA to release SNAP funds, we learned that only partial benefits will be distributed in November. Even when the funds are released, we anticipate it will take around 10 business days for payments to be loaded onto people's cards. Compounding the financial stress felt by Philadelphians because of the federal shutdown, many federal employees are facing a future of weeks without paychecks. I am proud to say that the Parker Administration has stepped up to help Philadelphia navigate these uncertain times. We responded in a strategic way that addressed the many needs, challenges facing city residents with our One Philly SNAP support plan, a coordinated intergovernmental public-private partnership, we made an immediate allocation of $2 million to the city's two largest food distribution partners Philabundance and Share. These two organizations can now increase their food distribution exponentially and move more food to the smaller partner organizations that they support. The Health Department, in partnership with the Reinvestment Fund, established the One Philly SNAP Support Grant program to distribute up to $2 million in individual grants to food security organizations, many which are small grassroots that can deliver immediate food assistance. m. gov/snapsupportgrant. We plan to distribute funds as soon as Monday, November 10th. My colleague Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, our Health Commissioner, is here to answer any questions about this grant program today. The total million just described in addition to a million Regional Food Fund established by Philly partners to support the region's food banks through a donation from Aramark, the Office of Children's and Families and the Mayor's Office of Education, in partnership with Sharing Access and Food Connect, are expanding the One Philly Produce Project to 43 Community and Extended Day Extended Year program Schools beginning next week. We expected to ship you more than 300,000 pounds of fresh produce this school year.
We launched a citywide public education campaign directing residents to the city's food and meal finder, where they can locate free groceries, meals and support accessing public benefits. gov/food is in multiple languages and is kept up-to-date on a regular basis. We also reallocated $1 million in funds at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services to support some of the most vulnerable families with food assistance. Families receiving prevention, child welfare, juvenile justice services are eligible to receive this additional support, which can be accessed by contacting their case managers. Finally, on Monday November 3rd, Mayor Parker hosted a convening of approximately 100 of Philadelphia's small and large food aid nonprofit leaders. At this meeting, providers were briefed on the city's response to the SNAP crisis and information was shared about the city's food finder and the grant support program. We recognize that Philadelphians facing critical times due to the lack of food and steady pay also need additional support. 5 million in emergency rental assistance for furloughed federal workers at risk of eviction. The Revenue Department also established a temporary payment deferral program for furloughed federal employees who are city residents, covering water bills, real estate tax installment plans and Owner-Occupied Payment Agreements with no late fees or penalties while federal pay is disrupted. The Commerce Department through the Merchants Fund has allocated 500,000 to an emergency relief grant that will offer financial relief to small food retailers, corner stores and community grocers that have suffered revenue losses due to disruptions in federal SNAP/EBT benefit processing. As you can see, this is an all-hands-on-deck approach to addressing this crisis. In addition to all the departments mentioned above, we are ensuring that our Water Department supports those who may be struggling with one-time payment of bills. We are also working with external partners such as PECO and PGW who are providing similar supports to their customers. All folks need to do is call and ask for help. CEO's beneficiary centers are also available for Philadelphians, that need to help navigate new work requirements for SNAP that recently took effect to apply for or renew their SNAP benefits as well as apply for help with utilities, property taxes, medical assistance and more. Residents can call Beneficiary Helpline at Clarifi at 1-800-994-5537 to connect to a BenePhilly specialist. Staff at neighborhood Community Action Centers have also been trained on the new changes that SNAP recipients need to understand and connect residents to resources. We are appreciative to City Council for holding this hearing and to Council President for his ongoing commitment to this issue, even before SNAP cuts with his Food and Nutrition Security Task Force. Even when SNAP is fully funded and people are receiving full benefits, there will still be many Philadelphians facing daily food security issues. For this reason, we need to continue to work together in partnership. gov/food and we thank you for the opportunity to testify. Representatives from every department are here and available to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.
Okay. We'll take Dr. Raval's testimony and then we'll ask some questions.
Thank you. Good morning. My name is Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson. I'm the Health Commissioner. I do not have formal testimony. Just answers to questions.
Thank you. So they're going to answer questions. Do you want to go first?
Yeah. Thank you, Orlando, for your testimony and also your leadership around this issue. I just had a couple brief questions regarding the One Philly SNAP Support Plan. Give me an idea regarding the Regional Food Fund, the $6 million. How we're going about the distribution of those funds? Are they direct payments or is there a grant process?
We've been allocated -- the Health Department has been allocated $2 million. And regarding that, we developed a very simplified grant application and those applications were made available as of Monday. We have 1177 people that have already applied. The application's closed tomorrow. And we have 3832 requests for application and people filling them out in different phases.
All right. So I don't want to be confusing. So I know there's a total of 4 million so I'm very aware of that part. I was part of that conversation. The 2 million to the two largest food bank organizations, which is Philabundance and Share, and there's 2 million of grants for organizations that can apply for $5,000 to $50,000 so I'm familiar with that. But also, the announcement is a total $4 million investment, correct, a million dollars from the Governor, right. How much is the philanthropic community contributing to this process and what are those organizations and how are those funds being distributed? Can somebody clarify that part?
Sure. I can let Rob Dubow come up and answer that question. (Witness approached witness table.)
So the food distribution money is really in three buckets, right. There's the 4 million coming from the city and we are handling how that's distributed in a way that Dr. Palak went through. Then there's 6 million coming from philanthropy and they are managing that, so that's not coming through us. And then there's a million from the state that --
So that million, I 4 guess the question is how do 5 organizations apply for the 6 6 million from the philanthropic communities that's totally separate from the City of Philadelphia? And because they're a partnership with the philanthropic community and the City of Philadelphia, wouldn't we get that information so we can provide to our Councilmembers and they can provide to their constituents to apply for the 6 million beyond our investment?
And we will work with philanthropy to get that information to you so you can have it.
So at this moment there's a commitment, but in terms of the actual program rollout from the philanthropic community hasn't been done as of yet?
That's correct. I believe we can get the information from the philanthropic community to get you the details in terms of how that will be disbursed and managed.
And that philanthropic funding will come through the Philadelphia Fund; is that what I thought I heard you just say for clarity?
Okay. I just wanted to get some clarity on that because we are working on a sense of urgency. And so, if the private sector can do what they can do to ramp up the level of participation so we can tamp down to $6 million for the constituencies, I think that would be great. How are we going about the metrics in terms of just tracking and making sure that the dollars and support of resources are going to the most vulnerable population that needs support here in the city of Philadelphia?
Sure. And I can speak to the 2 million that you mentioned, Council President. The other 2 million went to Share and Philabundance. We are receiving the applications from small organizations. We have a rubric set aside to ensure that they can serve food safely and that they have the capacity to provide food immediately. So we've been very direct. The application deadline ends at 5:00 p.m. today. The reviews will begin immediately tomorrow morning and there's a set rubric to ensure healthy, safe food, but also that the organization has the capacity to provide it.
And just last before I turn over to my colleagues to ask a couple questions --
Just add one thing on that, the grant agreements we will require regular reporting on the amount of food being distributed and where it's being distributed.
The metrics would be good just for us just as a city overall to show a level of investment on our end, but also the social impact as a result of the work that we're doing.
I want to go back to the philanthropic component. And so, in the chart that I had it just says philanthropic support and it says 6 million. Are we able to clarify what that 6 million means? Is it $6 million to be distributed to organizations? Because when it says support, that could be staff, that can be free consultation. I just want to get clarity on that part as well.
We'll work with philanthropy to get you a written follow-up on all of that. You want to know the whole process and all --
Yes. Orlando, give me an idea of -- and again, we were dealing with this crisis prior to today, right. And we knew that the change in the criteria was coming down the pike from Washington, D.C. What have we been doing regarding the new rules and requirements for SNAP? And can you clarify some of those rules and requirements?
I'm glad you brought that up because I know we're dealing with the immediate trauma and crisis in terms of getting food to people based on the suspension of benefits. But even if those benefits were fulfilled today, and you wait with the lag in terms of getting the money into people's pockets in order to get food, we still have to discuss in terms of the new regulations that have been posed by the federal government in terms of keeping your eligibility. There's a number of requirements that have been imposed in terms of working that could affect up to 65% of our folks receiving SNAP benefits in the city. We have been convening with a lot of work groups to talk about and how to strategize how to do this, creating strategic and educational campaigns to ensure that existing benefits, as we have with the BenePhilly program, raising their capacity to make sure that we can get folks onto this for awareness. There's a number of people who qualify for exemptions. It's just to make sure if they're not automatic, if you're like above 65 or below 18, you're okay, you would be exempt. But there's a lot of people in between. And there's a lot of different criteria that people may not be aware of that we need to educate, do outreach, send texting saying, if you think you're having a problem, come to us, we can help you fill out the appropriate paperwork. If there's a medical exemption of some sorts, we want to make sure that you're covered so that you don't lose your benefits.
How are we getting the word out regarding -- I know members of Council are doing town halls, right. And obviously, we would love to be in partnership with you as well. Are we doing town halls? Are we doing social media campaigns saying, hey, or radio ads saying hey, criteria is going to be changing? Are we doing anything from an outreach standpoint that you can elaborate on? And then also specifically around immigrants, if I'm correct, they aren't under this new policy, eligible for SNAP benefits, which I know for sure is going to impact a significant population of all of our constituencies? Could you elaborate on that? And if we have a plan to help immigrants who may no longer be under this policy, who aren't no longer eligible under this policy to get food in their hands?
So I'm going to ask upon my Deputy Executive Director, Beth McConnell, who can speak in terms of the strategy. A lot of the things that you mentioned are included in terms of town halls and joining with City Council to make sure we get their word out. But she can speak also in terms of the population with immigrants and the plan in terms of those who are exempt, who are still complying and those who don't have a chance, but what do we do in terms of making sure that they're covered as well? MR. McCONNELL: Good morning, Council President. Beth McConnell, Deputy Executive Director of Policy and Programs at CEO. So in addition to -- so starting in August, CEO has been convening leaders across the Administration and multiple departments to plan for the new work requirements, some of which went into effect September 1st and others November 1st. We've been collaborating weekly. We've been meeting routinely with PA DHS. They've been great partners. Secretary Arkoosh and her team have been great partners on this. In addition to the kind of traditional outreach that we've been doing, there's social media toolkits, there's e-blasts, there's flyers, all that stuff. One of the other things that we're really working very hard on is much more targeted outreach using data. We have a data-sharing agreement that the Parker Administration signed with PA DHS this summer. That gives us actually a list of all the households in Philadelphia that have SNAP and TANF and that allows us to do targeted text-based outreach, some mailing and we might be able to do some also targeted telephone calls to those individuals to say, hey, you got to know about this and here are the resources to help you navigate it. We hope to launch that text-based outreach in the next couple of weeks. We also have a partnership with the School District of Philadelphia that's also sharing information about school district families that we can do targeted outreach with. And we'll be directing a lot of them to a variety of resources in addition to the Philly Food Finder, but also the BenePhilly program for folks that need help navigating the new work requirements, knowing whether they're affected and getting in any paperwork that they need to get in.
Well, thank you very much. Thank you for your leadership. I just want to clarify just for the record and all those that are paying attention on this particular hearing, under the budget reconciliation bill which is the One Big Ugly bill -- thank you, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier -- as September 1, 2025 adults aged 18 to 54 without a dependent under 18 must prove they work or volunteer at least 20 hours per week to maintain their SNAP benefits. Those who cannot meet this requirement may only receive SNAP for three months within a three- year period, unless they qualify for an exemption. As of November 1, 2025, work requirements have expanded even further now applying to adults up to age 64 and narrowing eligibility for exemptions. Adults without a dependent child under the age of 13 are now subject to these rules, and 14 veterans and current or former foster youth ages to 24 are no 16 longer exempt. 17 And for me, that shows 18 that a specific population of individuals will be severely impacted. Are we doing anything as a city from the employment job training or volunteer opportunities perspective to help individuals meet the 20-hour requirement?
I'll let you answer that. MS. McCONNELL: We've been in collaboration with Philadelphia Works to discuss ways that opportunities for employment and training can be made available to more Philadelphians so that they can meet those needs. As you know, the state budget impasse is also a complicating factor in all of this and has affected workforce development providers as well. So it's something that we're paying close attention to. We also know that folks can meet the obligations through a combination of actual work and community service opportunities, as you mentioned, Council President. So we've been talking also to PA DHS and a number of community service providers, but how people could kind of piece these things together. There's been some discussion about some platforms and tools that could be used to connect people that have volunteer opportunities with people that are looking for them. And so, that is kind of ongoing and in development. This is all happening very quickly, as you know. But, yes, I think it's very important that those opportunities be available to folks. But it's really not very sustainable long-term, right. A lot of people are -- even if they're able to meet some of those work requirements in the first couple of months or even the first year, to be able to continue that over long term is going to be a real challenge. And so, that's something I think we have to pay attention to, how many Philadelphians are losing SNAP, either permanently or until the next opportunity to reapply as a result of being unable to meet the work or community service opportunities.
And if I may, this is where we're working with our partners to get out, as you discussed, all the exemptions that you described. We've been working with our neighborhood community action centers that are all over the city to make sure that particular staff is trained for folks to come in to be able to know where the resources are, where the hiccups are and to inform these individuals where that lies. Working with CCME as well for workforce development, to make sure that there's opportunities that perhaps come into the city that could help and assist for those requirements so they don't lose their eligibility, so those are things we have been pushing and having conversations with as well.
And the last part, is it that immigrants are no longer eligible, period, or they can be eligible to meet the requirement? Could you clarify that part, the new requirement? MS. McCONNELL: Yeah. There are a number of folks who have lawful status in the United States but are not US citizens who have previously been eligible for SNAP that will lose their eligibility permanently. I do want to I think refer maybe to some of our legal services organizations that have a little bit more expertise on that to answer those questions than me, but I think it's something very concerning that they will permanently lose. There's some new guidance that came out from the Food and Nutrition Service last week, I think it was. I think there's some questions about that guidance that still need to be answered. But, yes, there are a number of folks that will absolutely lose.
I do see we have Community Legal Services on the next panel so I'll save that question for clarification. I yield, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Council President. I want to acknowledge the presence of Councilmember Cindy Bass who joined us. And before I hand over the mic to my colleague Quetcy Lozada, I have a quick question. To be clear, there is no comparable method of people getting resources directly. It has to go through either the food like Share or Philabundance? There is no direct alternate way of people to get EBT like sort of resources directly to them so they can go buy stuff at a grocery store. They have to go through these other agencies? I just want to be clear so we can tell our constituents.
Sure. They do have to go through the grant process or what has been put in place. There's not a mechanism for direct payment to folks.
So that's a whole education process because people are not used to this. And so, we really need to ramp that up and we would love to see what is happening to make sure that -- you mentioned the data analysis. We know who they are, right. We should be able to do it -- two weeks is a little long for us to be able to mobilize that. I would love to see that we are using our data that already identifies which households are SNAP recipients to immediately tell them, this is how you have to go about feeding yourself, right. That's one. And, two, I had a question about DHS. I heard that DHS was going to be giving some resources. How is that going to happen? Is that a direct resource allocation or do they also have to go through the other organizations? COMMISSIONER ALI: So good morning. I'm Kimberly Ali. I'm the Commissioner for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. So thank you for that question, Dr. Ahmad. In terms of DHS, they will receive direct allocation and how they will do that, when I talk about DHS I'm talking about families who are receiving prevention services through DHS child welfare, families who are receiving services through child welfare as well as young people who are receiving services through our Juvenile Justice Services Center. And so, I have authorized the providers to purchase gift cards to grocery stores because we did not want to overwhelm the food banks, the pantries. And so, their authorization occurred last Friday. We already have some money that's already on the ground so that we can make sure that those gift cards are in the hands of the families who need it the most.
Thank you. Can we take this gift card approach to the whole system because that would -- listen, I mean we're doing it in one sector for one group of people who are already engaged with DHS. It seems to me the least amount of Admin overhead if we already know who are the SNAP recipients and we just send them the gift cards, whether they're DHS-impacted or otherwise, that would be so much easier for the families to utilize. So I would highly recommend we look at why don't we do this direct service because we would -- that was happening already with EBT cards. We're just replacing it with gift cards from the city for these resources. So I would love to get a response from you -- maybe not you. I mean, you need to go back and talk about it. But can we mobilize like asap gift cards that we already know how to do, just amplify what Commissioner Ali is doing and do it for the rest of our community. COMMISSIONER ALI: So we'll take it back for consideration.
No, hold on. Let's put a pin there. That's DHS doing it. So, Kim, that's out of your wheelhouse but I think that is a realistic conversation to have with the Administration. Orlando, since I know you deal with the Benefit Bank and also we have the Finance Director over there as well with the city with a $7 billion budget, surely we can figure out strategies and ways to really meet this moment in time in the history. And so, we'll continue having this conversation as we move forward. But it's not new direct payments. And I think the City had a program under the Promise Initiative where we were doing direct payments before and at this particular point in time, that does allow individuals who don't want to go to a food bank, right, the dignity to also work going to rather it's ShopRite or Sprouts or any other store to purchase food so that you're addressing it from a variety of different ways. But how much are you authorizing? COMMISSIONER COMMISSIONER ALI: So we allocated a million dollars.
Well, thank you, Council President. We'll yield the floor to Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to follow up on the line of questioning the Council President had around outreach and information. And I heard what you all are saying, but in neighborhoods or in communities where there is limited digital literacy and internet access, what supports are being expanded to be able to ensure that people are getting connected, especially if we're expecting them to go find their nearest pantry, upload documentation, fill out applications? Are those individuals that you are preparing in all of these access centers, are they culturally competent? Do they speak multiple languages? Are you going to increase staffing in those spaces, given what we're expecting could potentially be happening?
Absolutely. So as mentioned before, with the neighborhood community action centers, they've been trained in terms of what all the resources are. I believe the staff that are established in particular communities are culturally competent where they are. We will supplement that and just with CEO in terms of outreach with our own teams, and different mechanisms and methods to do that via text, but in different languages to folks that are targeted with information we may get. So we do have a plan in terms of try to outreach and make sure we touch everyone as possible to ensure that they have the accurate information to make sure to get the resources that are needed.
Thank you. And then one of the questions that we received in one of our community meetings was related to DHS. And the question or the concerns for some of the parents was, I may be put in a situation where I'm not going to be able to feed my children the way that is expected. My neighbor, the school, someone may call DHS on me. Is DHS prepared to respond to those types of situations where parents are put in this position that is really not an abusive situation intentionally, but as a result of what is happening around us? COMMISSIONER COMMISSIONER ALI: Yes, thank you for that question. So absolutely. So let me first just give some context around DHS. Our mission is to stabilize families and support families in their most difficult times. So food insecurity is one of those. And so, I want to also dispel a myth and give you a sense of the data around it. When I look at the last four years, we received only 199 reports into our DHS hotline because of failure to provide adequate nutrition. To give you a sense, we receive about 35,000 calls a year into the DHS hotline. So very, very few calls. However, we'll continue to track that. What I will say is that if a family is in need of some supportive services, they can call DHS at 215-683-4DHS. So that's 215-683-4DHS and we will support them.
Thank you for that. And finally, you know, my family was put in a situation where my dad went to work and found that the factory was shut down and we were one-income family, and we had to go to public assistance and my mom refused. And so, that forced my dad to be able to take care of a family of five, to be able to put food on the table. And I saw how difficult it was for my dad and other men to be put in a situation where they had to go stand in line in order to be able to provide for their families. And so, looking at options or situations where we can make it a more direct access as opposed to people having to go stand in line and people having to go feel like they are begging in order to provide for their families, it is extremely important and we know that. We know our cultures, we know our families. And so, anything that we can do to give folks more direct access and to eliminate all of these barriers that sometimes we put into place that are really not necessary are extremely important. So I encourage all of us to figure out what those options are so that we can make sure people do not go hungry in our communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Lozada. To re-emphasize, we need direct payments. I will yield the floor to Councilmember Cindy Bass. You just told me --
(Inaudible). I thank my colleague -- okay. Thank you, Councilwoman. Let me ask you a question. Anybody in the room 22 raised on food stamps, raise your hand if willing to, right. (Hands raised.)
So for those of us, listen, there's a saying, if you know, then you know. The stamps are very important. Most of the time people run out of food stamps before they run out a month. And even before we hit this moment, it just wasn't enough. Yesterday I happened to be driving down Broad Street in my district and I came across the giveaway that Saudia Shuler was doing at her location around Broad and Pike near Erie and the line was wrapped around the entire city block, and probably then some. I don't know what was happening on the other side of the line, how far it was going. She served about 4000 families yesterday and that's families so it's more than one person. Those are moms, dads, children, grandmoms, aunts, uncles, it's everybody. And so, I say all that to say that we're at this moment, but it's so critically important that we have a plan. I'm praying that we get out of this mess sooner rather than later because it's just so real. But getting out of it isn't enough because what we had before wasn't enough. I know that you all know this. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I really just wanted to emphasize -- I don't have a question. I really just wanted to emphasize the importance of making sure that food assistance goes so much further than where it was pregovernment shutdown. It's got to go further. We've got to be the drivers of it. We need to make sure that everyone in the city of Philadelphia has access at all times regardless of what's happening on a federal or state level or even a city level regardless of what's happening, how do we get there mobilizing all of the resources that we know that we have available. So I know that, listen, you got a tall order right now. But I'm just thinking after this crisis -- because again, I'm praying that we're able to wrap this up sooner rather than later, although we don't see it in sight. You know, listen, we're very hopeful. But after this is over, what happens to food insecurity in the city of Philadelphia which was already unacceptable. So we were giving out food in my district during the pandemic. We started the day of the government shutdown here in the city of Philadelphia, which was like March 13th of 2020. And that was a Friday because I remember it was Friday 13th. And then that following Monday, we were at Panati Playground making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and just doing whatever because people had no idea where to turn, you know, what the money situation was going to look like. We just need to stay there in that mode of trying to figure out how people are going to eat no matter what is happening. So I thank you for your service. I thank you for all the hard work. I know each of you and the work that you do, but I just really want to implore upon you to think beyond where we are right now because it wasn't working before. It's certainly not working now so how are we going to fix that. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Councilmember Bass. Councilmember Gauthier, finally your chance.
Councilmember Gauthier, can I just make one brief comment. This is for the Health Commissioner. I just wanted to clarify, Dr. Nelson, regarding philanthropic support. It's called the 6 million Regional Food Fund. I just wanted to clarify that for the record. This is a part of press release given out by the Mayor. I just wanted to make sure I had my facts straight that there is a $6 billion Regional Food Fund established by philanthropic partners to support regional food banks. And so, I just wanted to state that for the record because when I mentioned it, it was like what are you talking about.
No, understood, Councilmember. And as our Finance Director, Mr. Dubow explained that that's being handled directly through the philanthropic organizations, we'll make sure we get you additional --
I know, I know. I was ready for my stuff with all my numbers because --
-- they're coming in every minute. Applications are coming in every minute, sir, so I was ready with my numbers.
Recognize Councilmember Gauthier who's been waiting patiently.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Council, for hosting this really important critical conversation. Thank you to the gracious members of the Public Health Committee for allowing me to ask questions. This is so important. And I'm really proud of all of us for coming together in the way that we have to make sure that we're stepping into the gap for people. And I commend the Parker Administration for the resources that you put in place pretty quickly and how comprehensive they are. And I also wanted to just acknowledge all of the organizations doing this hard work, Share, Philabundance, the Food Trust, many, many others across the city because we all know that this was a need before these recent happenings. I wanted to remind people in my district that my office hosts a food giveaway every Thursday at noon at 52nd and Cedar at our district office. But of course, agree with my colleague that we can't rely on food giveaways. So I'm happy that we're going about this by many other methods. I don't know if this is a mechanism to get direct payments to people, but just wanted to remind the members of the committee and everyone present that we do have the PHL Housing Plus program that we use to provide people with money that they pay their rent with as well as a host of other needs. We just, I believe, made a commitment to continue that program based on how well it has done in keeping people in their home. So I liked the sort of gift card idea, but just wanted to throw that out there as another means of getting direct payments to folks that we already have in place. I wanted to just go back to this issue of outreach. I think that's going to be incredibly important, particularly around helping people to understand the new eligibility requirements and what they need to do to be in compliance. I was heartened to hear us say that we're going to have a texting program. We're going to be reaching out to people directly. I think I heard us say that we'll be helping people at the Community Action Centers as well as at the BenePhilly sites. But I just wanted to hear a little bit more detail there. Beth said that she thought that we'd be able to have sort of that outreach system launch in a few weeks. I wanted to ask how confident we are in that sort of timespan because it's very critical. I also wanted to ask and wanted to hear specifically how are we expanding staff at the BenePhilly sites and at the Community Action Centers to really be able to shepherd people through this process, because I think folks will not just need a text. They're probably going to need a level of hand-holding to determine how they continue to get served. And I know that we've done this at other points in the city. I'll just have a quick example. I had my first son at 25. I don't know what list I was on from the city, but I would get a call from the Health Department every few months to say if I had gotten vaccines for my son. And I thought it was annoying at the time, but I still got that call every few months as a new mom to just make sure that I was on track. Because obviously, that was important and is an important public health issue. SNAP is what we're dealing with now, and I think we all probably agree that the people targeted by these policies, Black people, Brown people, immigrants are going to continue to get beaten down by this Administration. And so, I foresee that we're not just going to need this sort of case management help with the SNAP issue. We're probably going to need it for a while. So I just wanted to hear more specifics about how we're resourcing ourselves to really help navigate people through this very tough time.
I'll just say that with BenePhilly we mentioned earlier in terms of the capacity, the one-on one financial counseling that occurs, we are expanding our partners in terms of making sure that we meet the demand. In order to do that, luckily we received an award amount from William Penn Foundation to expand on that work to get more individuals to go and assist and help to do that. We also have -- and I wanted to mention something that Councilwoman Bass mentioned in terms of SNAP is not enough, just as is, but the fact that we are still able to provide over 2000 benefits that may be eligible that are public for folks. If you qualify for LIHEAP, if you do something with Homestead, you get some utility assistance, that may free up some resources to be able to help offset in terms of trying to do something with food as well. So we are expanding on that as well. As far as we already have some folks on the ground with NCAC, Neighborhood Community Action Centers, that are already knocking on doors with literature and flyers to make sure that people understand what the resources are and where to find them and where to reach them. So those are some of the things that we're just doing now to build upon the capacity for moving forward to meet the demand.
That's great. I think I'm asking, and this could be a follow-up, if you can provide specifics about how many people we're bringing on and what we think that we'll be able to do from the perspective of serving the public certainly. And then the other question, how are we reasonably certain that we will have this outreach system ready to launch in the next few weeks?
We're working on this. It's already happening. So it's ongoing literally on a day-to-day basis and it's evolving as we speak.
Thank you so much for all of your work and for being here today.
Thank you, Councilmember Gauthier. I'll yield the floor to Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you. I wanted to follow up also on the outreach system. I was really interested in all the years I've worked in the city and with the city, have been always concerned that we weren't sharing enough information to make things go faster. And as the head of the Tech Committee, I know Beth McConnell said that we're going to start getting some data about all households who have SNAP or TANF from the state, right. And what was the name of that --
And in that system, so you're saying that's already started?
That just began as something that we were striving to get for a very long time. We were able to get that agreement and that's going to come into a key role in terms of targeted outreach for folks once we get that information to be able to say, this is where we're going, this is the people who need it the most and we can actually get the resources at their door when we can do that.
First of all, that's fantastic. Congratulations. It always seems so simple what we needed. And to actually get it in that data- sharing agreement, are we sharing data back with the state?
Yeah. MS. McCONNELL: So I can confirm that we have received delivery of data from PA DHS. That is specifically -- there's obviously very specific-use cases that we can use the data for and there are things that are not in that agreement. The current agreement allows us to do targeted outreach to help people maintain their SNAP benefits and also help people enroll in SNAP or apply in SNAP that are not currently enrolled. So we'll be using the PA DHS data to do targeted outreach for those two purposes. We have been in ongoing conversation with DHS about ways that we could either amend or have a new data-sharing agreement to also be able to communicate some data back that we have as a city. For example, we know people who might have experienced homelessness because they've had an interaction with our homeless system. Could we potentially provide that to PA DHS so they could exempt those people who should be exempt but they don't have that info. Now, again this is an exploratory conversation. Obviously, the privacy rights of people are paramount. There are multiple reviews from lawyers at PA DHS and the City of Philadelphia before any of that can be executed. But I can say we've been having very, very fruitful discussions about that possibility, and I just use the homelessness data as one example. There could be other forms of data. So we're looking forward to continuing those conversations with a sense of urgency, obviously for the moment that we're having now. But we'll be ready to answer your questions, be able to launch that outreach of the data that we already have very soon.
That's super helpful. Last question: Is there a plan to share the data sets that you have now with other departments in the city? MS. McCONNELL: No, we do -- well, no, we don't -- let me pause on the question and let us get back to you, because I think that the legal agreement -- I don't want to misstate what's in the legal agreement, which I don't have right in front of me, but there are limitations on who can get access to that data. They have to be specifically named in the data- sharing agreement. So let me just double confirm on that and get back to you.
Thank you, Councilmember. Before I yield the floor to Councilmember O'Rourke, quick question/clarification. So just going over the numbers one more time, the City of Philadelphia has 4 million for the Food Bank of people, 2 and 2, that's 4. And then you have a million --
Is it a total of 7 million from the City? I just want to be clear.
Let me restate it. So it's a total of 4 million. The 6 million that President Johnson was referring to is from the philanthropic organizations and they're handling that on their own.
Then we have $4 million -- the total is 7 million for other services as well. But the money towards food, just for food is million. Share and Philabundance had 1 million 4 each. And then the remaining 2 million was allocated through the Health Department to provide grants and opportunities for smaller organizations to get the food out the door to people that need it.
So that's 1, plus 2, plus 3 that you're saying for over -- what is that for, the 3 million?
The remaining dollars, I think Rob can explain that. That's for housing and other things.
Okay. Those are the direct rent and all of those things that will go through -- how will that be disbursed?
So there's 1.5 million in rental assistance that will be disbursed through the Office of Planning and Development. There's the $1 million that the DHS Commissioner was talking about, and then there is also $500,000 for businesses that will go through Commerce.
Okay. So that makes up the 3 million sort of that adminish-type of work.
Okay. So philanthropic support 6 million outside of our purview. And the state support, the 1 million, is that coming through us? Are they doing this directly? Do we know what they're doing with that?
We can get you details. But I think what they're doing is working with local food distributors.
Just for clarity, Rob, so 13 the million that comes from the 14 state, right, is that million coming through our budget?
So we're basically just saying because the state is giving a million, we're claiming it as a part of being supportive of what's going on in the City of Philadelphia, but it's not a direct contribution to the City of Philadelphia?
We were trying to capture (inaudible) all of the assistance that is coming. And so, we're putting together what we're doing, what philanthropy is doing, what the state is doing.
Thank you. Yield the floor to Councilmember Nick O'Rourke.
Thank you, Madam Chair. You have already pointed this out. My apologies. Thank you all for your testimonies and being here today and providing what you've provided. Madam Chair has already kind of spoken to this and pointed this out. Hitting it again just now, for my purposes I want to underline it again for anybody that's watching this back and make sure that we don't miss this moment. Additional investments in food banks, we know that they're critical, right. As you said, Director Rendon, in your testimony, as Member Landau also underlined in her remarks, her opening remarks, I believe, SNAP's scale and impact dwarfs anything that nonprofits can realistically do in this moment. It's super important in my mind. When I got here to Council, my first floor speech included in my dream city, King's vision for a guaranteed basic income would be the reality in the city. So we'd have to worry about how to get money into people's hands directly. Thank you, Commissioner Ali, for what you all have done at DHS to get cards, proactively thinking about that and mobilizing that. Member Gauthier, before she left mentioned something around housing plus, that might be a good idea. Right now those are all pilot programs, the guaranteed incomes that exist. Hopefully one day we can realize that as a permanent thing. But can you clarify beyond the million from DHS, are there any direct aid that's going to the hands of Philadelphians right now beyond that one particular thing?
In the program that we're rolling out, we've mobilized over the last week; is that what you're talking about or are you talking about more globally in government?
No. Directly in city government, yes. Can you point to anything other than what Member Ali, sorry -- Director Ali, Commissioner Ali --
-- Commissioner Ali has done that reflects direct money into people's hands to go get food now?
Okay. Please do. Again, this has been spoken to. I'm underlining it because I think it's essential. Member Bass, Member Landau, somebody else, I was out yesterday doing a tour of North Philly and I saw the line twice the size. I saw on social media, you know, social media is kind of the streets now. It's where you get your information. There are a number of young brothers who are out collecting food, trying to get ahead of this to get actual food in people's hands. The brother broke down in tears when he realized how long the line was. He was hurt that he could not meet the moment. And so, I cannot overemphasize how absolutely essential it is for us to be thinking direct money in people's hands to get food in their bellies yesterday, and I think that's the kind of thinking that we need to do in terms of how we mobilize our government in this moment. So I just wanted to underline that.
And let me just emphasize we understand the urgency of the moment which is why we mobilized as quickly as we did. We understand this situation.
Okay. Thank you. Well, I want to emphasize it again. Thank you for saying that you understand it. It can't be overstated that we need to get that into the hands. Also, I want to say that I actually appreciate the recognition in your testimony, Mr. Rendon. We recognize that Philadelphians facing critical times due to lack of food and steady pay also need additional support. And for that reason, the Division of Housing Community Development at the Department of Planning and Development earmarked 1.5 million in emergency rental assistance for furlough of federal workers and risk of eviction. That's wonderful. Can we not be in the spirit of underlining and emphasizing even more (inaudible) in our approach? Namely, I believe Mayor Dickens in Atlanta. And I'll be damn if we be outdone by the city of Atlanta who actually put a moratorium on evictions. Is that not something that we can be looking at to happen here in the city of Philadelphia at this time?
I'm sure that's something that we can take back and discuss and see where that goes and where that lies, what we're able to do.
We should also mention the deferral that the Revenue Department is doing during the shutdown on amounts that are owed for property taxes and water bills. So there's a deferral program for that too.
Okay. Thank you for that. And finally, if this crisis lasts for months, God forbid. But if it does, what's the city's current thinking and long-term plans to ensure that residents can still access food? I heard the solicitor mention we don't have any resources. There's no money at least allocated anywhere beyond a month. Where are we at?
I mean, to be clear if there's no federal budget for six months, we don't have the capability to stand in for food stamps in the long term. We just don't have that financial capability. We're mobilizing as quickly as we can. We're doing what we can, but they have to come to -- they have to do their jobs.
Is that the end of the thinking and conversation? Like, when you're talking about what to do if this goes on beyond a month, is it just like, well, we don't know because they're --
No, we are doing things and we've shown that we're doing things. But if your question is what if this just lingers on and on, can we make up for what the federal government has done, we can't. They have to do their jobs.
Heard. I just want to get on the record -- the point of these hearings is to get on the record the things that you're thinking, what the plans are, whatever. So I'm asking it so I can hear and get to the public where our thinking is on that. We all know, right, as I've already spoken to that to be able to meet this moment we need significantly more than we have in our resources. But in the way of contingency plans or even stop gap, something, I wanted to get on the record what it is that the thinking currently was. That's why I'm asking the question.
I am not -- I feel a sense like I'm undermining your recognition of the moment. I recognize that. I need to get on record what the thinking is and that's why I'm asking the question.
Right, and that's kind of what we've gone through in this hearing, what we're doing, what our planning is.
Thank you. Just to underscore my colleague's point, the big corporate entities in Philadelphia, including one down the road, have given millions of dollars for a new Ballroom in Washington D.C. Just letting you know they have resources to share and give away so they need to be at the table being part of the solution. We want to make sure that we don't need to do this ever. We should have our folks in Philadelphia self-sufficient being able to do one job that pays a living wage that allows to put food on the table and we need to not tiptoe around our corporate partners because they are making enormous profits that are not being put back into the City of Philadelphia and we need to demand that. So I want our Administration to Councilmember O'Rourke's point, there are ways to plan further out so that, God forbid, we go beyond too long. We understand that. But I think for us not to know that we have entities right here who can fill these gaps for us and here we are scrambling around for this one dollar and we are making our families really have so much shame associated with having to stand in a food line, which is why we want direct payments, which is why we want the corporate sector stand up and do what's right and we have to demand that. So this is part of what I hope people are listening to, that there is ability to do this, there is ability to meet this moment. We have partners right here who could do that, but we have to ask them because they're not volunteering to give us the money. They're sending it to a ballroom in Washington, D.C., just so you know. I yield the floor to Councilmember Quetcy Lozada and then to Councilmember Bass.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In an effort to call on all of everyone that had the potential to be able to help, are we working directly with some of our faith-based partners to be able to become some of those more neighborhood spaces that could help us with identifying food or connecting folks with food as opposed to sending them to the bigger food banks? I know that I have over 500 churches in the 7th Council District, many of them distribute food. Some come from Share. Some come from Philabundance. Some from Small Things and Caring for Friends, but who were not able to take advantage of applying for that grant but they are the trusted partners. What are we doing to be able to engage them who have direct access to some of these families in need?
I will say the CEO with their internal outreach teams are already including a lot of literature as we go around in the neighborhoods and knock on doors in terms of all the SNAP-related resources. But when we discuss individuals or entities like neighborhood community access centers who know who the stakeholders are in those particular communities, including churches, when they do their outreach and go around spreading the word in terms of training, the trainer, we want to give you all the information, all the literature to help spread the word based on your constituents. Those are the things that are going to be occurring to help make that reach farther for us and for you.
So is that already in place or are we going to put that in place?
And so, we know we are certain that we're reaching some of those immigrant families who are afraid to stand in these lines but who would go to their local church to be able to receive?
Thank you, Councilmember. We'll go to Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just wanted to go back to my colleague Councilman O'Rourke's question about if this should drag on and what the Administration is prepared to do. And so, I know, Mr. Dubow, that you thought that there were no 20 preparations if -- okay, maybe I heard it wrong.
I didn't say that. But what I did say is we can't wholly make up for the federal government, right. That's really literally tens and tens of millions of dollars a month that come to people in food. We don't have that kind of resource. That doesn't mean we can't do anything and that we're not planning on what we do. And some of the things that Orlando talked about, some of the things that Dr. Palak talked about, I just wanted to make the point that we can't fully step up, that there will be challenges that are larger than our resources.
I certainly would understand that this is a totally unexpected expense that the city was not prepared for. But nonetheless, we have to meet the moment. There's no question --
Right, but I'm just saying long term. I'm certainly hopeful again that this doesn't drag on for very much longer. But if it does, then the City of Philadelphia has to make sure that people can eat. We are ultimately responsible for our citizens and it's great if we can have help from the Commonwealth. It's great when we get federal assistance. But all of that being off the table, we have to make it happen. We got to figure it out and make it happen. I just really wanted to make that point. And I understand your concerns and your worry, but there's always some place that we could cut at least temporarily to figure that out and make it happen. So I just wanted to emphasize that because I'm troubled by the idea that our only response is, well, they got to do their jobs. I agree they do have to do their jobs.
I know. I'm sorry, but that's kind of in my mind at least it was summing up to be, is that we'll do what we can, but they got to do their jobs. We need to have a concrete plan in place to ensure and to reassure people we got you. No matter what happens we got you.
Yep. And I said, this is why we're stepping up now, this is why we're putting in the resources we have and we will continue to work on it. It was just the point I was making is the scale of food stamps.