COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVIES, November 5, 2025

I understand the scale of it, but we got to make it happen. So thank you.

Councilmember, if I may, though I can't speak to the infusion of monies from different places, I will say that CEO will always continue to convene working groups to have this conversation ongoing as it will never end. So that's something that we will commit to. We will always take care of also expanding our current and internal programs to try to expand our work and reach out for more folks as well.

Thank you. Because I think it's just as important what we do and how we do it. And so, if people sort of get the feeling that if this drags on too long, that they're going to be on their own, it's not a good feeling. It's our job as leaders in the city to make sure people understand that we're going to make sure that they eat, we're going to make sure that they eat and we're going to figure it out no matter what that looks like. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Rue Landau has one quick question. We've spent two hours with you so we have to move along. I know other panelists are sitting. So, Councilmember Rue Landau, very brief question.

Very brief question for Rob Dubow. Do you know how much money Philadelphia pays as a whole, income, households, businesses to the federal government each month in taxes?

Do not know that, but we can try to figure that out.

Do you know the annual number approximately?

No, don't know that.

We'd love to know that because at some point Philadelphia can also withhold their tax money that they're paying to the federal government so we can feed our people. It's a plan. Thank you. (Applause.)

Okay. Are you done?

(Nodded affirmatively).

Okay. Thank you very much to the panel. I know we have some follow- ups we will be looking from you, but appreciate all your hard work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Sham, if you would call the next panel.

George Matysik, Executive Director of Share Food Program; Loree Jones Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Philabundance; and Mackenzie Libby, Staff Attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Still good morning. Three minutes left. Please state your name and begin your testimony.

George Matysik, Executive Director of the Share Food Program. Good morning, Council President Johnson, Chairwoman Ahmad, members of Council. My name is George Matysik and I'm Executive Director of the Shared Food Program, original food bank headquartered in North Philadelphia that serves more than 500,000 people per month in the Philadelphia area. I also serve as the Co-chair of City Council's Food and Nutrition Security Task Force, along with my Co-chair Mark Edwards of the Food Trust. I want to start by thanking the Council President and this body for creating the Food and Nutrition Task Force. When the Council President first reached out in late 2024, we had no idea how critical this group's convening would be and the need for us to address both the important and the urgent. I thank all of the task force members who were able to join us here today at Share Food Program. We believe there are two truths behind our work, that food is a human right and that hunger is solvable. These should not be controversial statements, but we have collectively seen the actions of this current White House administration that's made an attempt to disprove them both. Over the last three years, the amount of folks coming to us at Share Food Program has risen 120%, all while the federal resources have continued to decline. This year alone the Trump Administration cut more than $8.5 million in food and funds from our organization representing more than 20% of our resources. And now, in addition to those cuts the administration continues to target SNAP recipients with only a federal judge's order compelling them to restore partial funding. We shouldn't have to make a federal case out of putting food on the table of our families, but that's literally what this White House is doing here in Philadelphia. 475,000 individuals have had food ripped away from their dining room table to be used at a Washington negotiating table. We are pulling resources away from our children to send to adults in Washington who are acting like children. Council President, members of Council, I applaud you for being the adults in the room, for demonstrating the seriousness of governing, for protecting our working class and for stepping up to find resources for our families. Two days ago, Loree and I were thrilled to stand with Mayor Parker as a historic and timely investment was made into our food banks at a time when it's needed more than ever. This urgent $4 million investment into food banks and food pantries will be essential in increasing the amount of food we can send to hundreds of thousands of families that are relying on us right now. And while it can't fill all of the gaps left by the Trump Administration, this is a huge step forward for our city and one I hope we can continue to build upon. In fact, over the last two weeks our pantries are reporting a 12-fold increase in new registrants, a number we have not seen since at least the pandemic. And while there are many echoes of 2020 and 2021, in this moment the difference is during the pandemic Washington helped us solve the problem in this moment. Washington and Washington alone is creating this problem. But while Washington is showing us government at its worst, you, Philadelphia City Council, Mayor Cherelle Parker, continue to show us government at its best. Thank you for putting your words into action today. (Applause.)

Thank you. We appreciate that acknowledgement. We'll take testimony from the next witness and we'll ask questions all at once.

Good afternoon, City Council. My name is Loree Jones Brown. I have the privilege and honor of serving as Chief Executive of Philabundance, a Feeding America Hunger Relief organization in the Greater Philadelphia area. I want to start by Council President Johnson in whose district is our headquarters and Councilmember Ahmad for calling today's hearing to better understand the urgent SNAP crisis. Thank you for taking time to hear how the disruption of SNAP benefits is affecting our most vulnerable neighbors and further straining an already overstretched charitable food network. We are navigating unchartered territory, as SNAP has never before in its 60-plus year history been threatened in this way. Even during other unprecedented crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, SNAP benefits were not only available but temporarily increased to better meet our neighbors needs. Now, the nearly 815,000 people in our region who rely on SNAP, including 475,000 right here in Philly, are left without reliable food access, most of whom are children, seniors, people with disabilities and working families seeking to make ends meet. We know that when SNAP is cut or out of reach, people turn to food banks to fill the gap and we're already seeing a surge in need, as has been stated today by George and others. Our pantry partners are seeing scared faces and longer lines. On Saturday, the Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry served a record of 102 households up from their already higher than average 65 households they've been serving lately. Families are showing up at Philabundance's warehouses in Council President's District and Councilwoman Lozada's districts looking for help. And our phones are ringing off the hook from folks trying to navigate the Charitable Food Network, often for the first time. We anticipate this will only increase the longer our neighbors go without their benefits, and this is on top of the let us not forget 20,000 federal workers in Philadelphia who've been working without pay since mid-October, many of whom are also turning to our food bank and food banks and pantries as their only valuable resource to put food on the table. Philabundance and our partners are committed to doing everything we can do to fill the gap. But here's the reality: You'll hear us say this over and over again. SNAP is our nation's number one defense against food. To put this into perspective, for every one meal we provide and we provide millions of meals each year, 36 million last year, for every meal a food bank like ours provides, SNAP provides nine. Despite our best efforts, food banks cannot possibly make up for this loss, a loss of this magnitude. There's simply no 5 substitute for SNAP. Nonetheless Philabundance and our incredible partners are stepping up to meet this moment and help bridge the gap. Philabundance a couple weeks ago committed to providing at least 25% more food to our network over the coming months. That's an increase of 600,000 meals each month at a cost of nearly a million dollars. A couple weeks ago we ordered five truckloads and got that in and started posting that already for our partners to take advantage of. Even with that, they're saying they need more. We also coordinated the larger charitable food network with our direct partners and others two Fridays ago asking what resources they had to share and what resources they needed. And of course, thanks in large part to the support of the City of Philadelphia announced earlier this week, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania support announced on Friday and other donors were able to increase that even more. So we're grateful that through this emergency funding, coordination and partnership, we'll be able to help supply our 210 Philly-based partners, about 40% of whom are faith-based institutions, with more food and provide our neighbors with more hope. We were relieved to learn earlier this week about the SNAP benefits. I won't go into that part of my testimony.

I think the City Solicitor explained that. The upshot is that even as we're hearing some positive progress we really don't know how much support is going to come to neighbors and frankly when they're going to get it and then how long that support will last. So additionally, I want to be clear. Our neighbors are facing a hunger crisis. We were facing a hunger crisis even before this lapse and they will continue to face a hunger crisis after the government shutdown ends and when, and hopefully soon SNAP benefits are once again received in full and on time. Food insecurity had already been on the rise, affecting in 6 Philadelphians, including 1 in 3 children, as the Council President has noted and has been highlighted through his task force work. Our pantry partners had already been reporting a 30% and higher increase in need over the prior year, with a particular surge interestingly in dual-income households seeking support like never before. Across this region and country, we saw a 44% increase in the number of people who are food insecure from 2021 to 2023. Half a million people in our region, which includes South Jersey, in 2021 went up to nearly 700,000 in 2023. This was before this current SNAP crisis. Meanwhile, our network has been left with less resources to meet the growing need as key federal programs, and George mentioned some of them, that directly support food banks were eliminated earlier this year. As a result, empty shelves have become commonplace. I invite you to visit our warehouses. In five years I've not seen them as empty as they are now. Some pantries had to reduce how much they could offer each guest. Small Things in Fairhill was offering guests 30 pounds of food each visit at their free grocery store. That's been reduced by half down to 15. On top of this, our network has been operating for five months now. Let us not forget, with no state funding because of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania state budget impasse, we are feeling that in the nonprofit sector. And of course, and I appreciate that you mentioned this to CEO and thank you, Orlando, for your testimony earlier, that we also have experienced the harmful changes included in the legislation signed into law on July 4th and we're trying to navigate that as well. And let me also remind you that people needing support navigating SNAP benefits even before this current crisis, remember that in our city and region, our two key resources for people went away last year. A year and a half ago, we lost two critical nonprofits that were helping people navigate the benefit system. They're no 13 longer here. (inaudible) in this moment at Philabundance with others, with our incredible partners at PASSE(ph) will also be looking to ramp up to provide people with supports around SNAP. And I also want to highlight now, you'll hear from Mark later, that also at this moment SNAP-Ed resources were taken. The federal government ended those too. So in the face of these challenges, we at Philabundance with our incredible partners will continue to do everything we can to ensure our neighbors have access to the food they need. But we cannot do it alone and we know that through conversations like this, that we have City Council, the Mayor's Office, the Mayor and the Administration standing with us. We do believe that together we can work to relieve hunger now and hunger for good. Thank you. I will also just note that my colleague, Kelly Fisher is here, Government Relations Manager. I will be leaving momentarily, but she'll be able to answer any questions, and I'd be happy to follow up and answer any questions as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Please proceed with your testimony and state your name.

Good afternoon. Mackenzie Libby, staff attorney at Community Legal Services. Thank you, Council President Johnson, Chairwoman Ahmad and the Committee on Public Health and Human Services for organizing today's hearing and for standing with Philadelphians during this extraordinary crisis. As many others have mentioned, as our city unites to support families facing hunger this month, we cannot lose sight of the harsh new rules that also threaten to take food away from the over 470,000 Philadelphians who rely on SNAP every month. But before I talk about those new barriers to SNAP, I want to speak briefly about the barriers that existed long before these changes. CLS has represented families who need SNAP benefits for decades. In the last year alone, CLS represented 345 Philadelphians who were unfairly denied SNAP. Our clients are seniors struggling to get by on fixed incomes, working parents with young children and disabled people who are surviving on no income while they wait to be approved for disability. The most common reason that CLS clients lose access to SNAP benefits is paperwork, renewal packets that go missing in the mail, delays scanning timely submitted change reports or pictures of pay stubs with a date accidentally cut off, just to name a few examples. SNAP work requirements create even more paperwork and red tape that will take food away from Philadelphians. New rules, as many have mentioned, set a time limit for adults between and 64 who do not live in a SNAP household with a child under 14 and who do not receive disability benefits. If people subject to these work requirements cannot prove they are complying or exempt, they may only receive three months of SNAP every three years. Pennsylvania estimates that 30,000 Philadelphians became subject to these new work requirements in September. SNAP recipients who are already working an average of hours per week, as 17 the rule requires, should be sure 18 that the county assistance office knows about their work. But compliance is not always simple. Home health aides, crossing guards and other workers whose hours fluctuate must report every time their hours drop below hours per week. If they remain 2 out of compliance for three months, 3 they will stop receiving SNAP and 4 will not be eligible for benefits 5 again until January 2027. 6 When work requirements 7 were in effect in other parts of 8 the state in 2016, nearly 9 two-thirds of the people subject to 10 those work requirements lost their 11 SNAP after three months. The best 12 way, as has been mentioned, to help 13 Philadelphians keep their SNAP is 14 to help eligible people claim 15 exemptions from these paperwork 16 requirements. Many adults meet at 17 least one exemption, which will 18 allow them to keep their SNAP until 19 their next annual renewal. 50 per week before taxes are exempt as long as the county assistance office knows about their work. Adults are also exempt if they have a medical condition that reduces their ability to work, are pregnant, caring for a sick family member, participating in a drug or alcohol treatment program, receiving unemployment compensation or experiencing homelessness. org/snapchanges. In addition to work requirements, Pennsylvania DHS began implementing SNAP immigrant eligibility restrictions required by HR on November 1. These new rules end SNAP eligibility for humanitarian immigrants who do not have green cards. These restrictions apply to anyone applying for benefits after November 1 and current recipients at their next annual renewal. The best way to keep immigrant families connected to SNAP is to ensure that any household member who has a green card has shared a copy of that green card with the county assistance office. The delay of November benefits and the impact that has already been felt throughout our communities highlight the fundamental importance of SNAP for our neighbors, our economy and the health of our city.

I thank City Council for your commitment to ensuring continued access to this vital program. We look forward to working with all of you to help prevent hunger and CLS will of course be there to assist anyone who loses their SNAP as a result of these changes. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Start with you, question about the immigration who's eligible, people with green cards, people in asylum hearings or things of that nature who don't have ability to work means they can't pay for stuff. They're not eligible?

So someone who is let's say an asylee or a refugee who has not become a permanent resident, has not gotten their green card, may be able to work, may have work authorization, but those people are not going to be eligible for SNAP at their next renewal.

So you just want to make sure -- we should probably talk offline to have clarity as to what these categories are and who is eligible and who's not and align that with the work requirements. Because if you're not able to work, you're not able to have money so we're going to have hungry people sitting on the street basically is what you're saying.

Absolutely.

The second thing I wanted to just state and ask you for your feedback, what I'm hearing is outside of this emergency we still have created such an onerous system we're going to exclude a lot of people, right, with all these ways of reporting and the surveillance of people is going to be so much heightened. It seems to me that we need to have these alternate pathways to buttress what SNAP is going to do beyond this crisis, right, going forward until we have a change of administration or we are able to change the laws or have more accountability through the court system. So in that gap, what we have discussed about our corporate partners, our philanthropic partners, the state who has a big surplus sitting there, all of these folks need to be mobilized as additional even when SNAP is restored, right. So I want all of you to stay alert about that and advocate. Because without that advocacy, we can say some things, but the pressure when constituents of everybody who's elected in state happens, that's a much bigger pressure. So please make note of that. Lastly, I wanted to just understand the money that was allocated to both Share and Philabundance, do you have a sense of the percentage that will go to overhead and what will go to actual service providing the actual resources?

0%. 0% will go to overhead.

Say that again.

100% of it will go to food. 0% will go to overhead.

All right.

Same.

So you're just absorbing -- you're just keeping your admin going the way it was and absorbing extra work to do all this?

Yeah. I mean, obviously the costs for both organizations are continuing to climb. But right now we need food out to our communities and that's what we're all prioritizing. So for us, we're buying premade boxes, at least a portion of it will be for premade boxes of food. That's one of the big requests we're getting for right now as those lines continue to grow. So that's -- yeah, every dollar that we're raising is either going for food and then to some of our partner organizations as well. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Council President.

Yeah. I will yield to my members, but just a couple things. Well, one, thank you, George, for your work in this area and being Co-chair of the task force and convening the work that you already have been doing. Even prior to you being a part of the task force, we've done stuff in Grays Ferry and being on the ground in South Philadelphia. And obviously, Loree, thank you as well for your hard work and your dedication also in this space, right, the kind of work that you've been doing and kind of navigating and showing me the process early on in terms of how does the process work in the space of food. I call it insecurity. And then I was told from the task force it's not insecurity. We should be saying food security, right. Just give us an idea of how far can you stretch $1 million. Because even before the city got involved, y'all were always advocating and trying to find partnerships. Because again, this is only one moment in time. We've been dealing with food insecurity prior to this, which made your lives much more interesting in terms of advocating and trying to find ways to make sure we're feeding those who are most vulnerable. So in the grand scheme of things, how far does the million really stretch in terms of the work that you were doing?

So I've been asked a lot about how we're feeling and I try not to, being a person of faith, talk about being worried. This (inaudible) worried, I probably should say concerned. The reality is before this challenge there is no way we can ensure that everybody had a meal. There's no way we could. And then you've heard us say over and over again for every meal this is what SNAP could provide. So I personally feel really inadequate at this moment because I know we can't make up that gap. But to tell you the numbers, what we had committed to do already was to go from distributing 2.4 million pounds -- sorry, 2.4 million meals in the month of November and increase that to 3 million meals. That is for both Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southeastern New Jersey. So that 25% increase, that's what comes up. 600,000 additional meals each month. It costs us for every dollar we get, we can buy two meals. And so, essentially one way of looking at the million dollars is it's 2 million meals. And the way the contract works with the city, that is specifically for Philadelphia, so we're doing others outside of that. So that'll be 2 million more meals and be able to provide within the City of Philadelphia over this time, which sounds like a lot. But I will admit, because we're all friends here, that we're talking about -- if it was 2 million meals, that's four meals for each of the 500,000 people that are on SNAP, right. So you take the scope of it. So I am grateful to be a part of a network that has rallied the way that it has. Grateful to have support that we've seen at the city, the state level, individual donors, individuals, you know, showing up. But I have to admit, Council President, I still feel concerned and inadequate even though I'm proud of what we'll be able to do and what our team is already doing.

I mean, Budget Director Dubow said it himself, right, this is not nearly what is needed to make up for the impact that the SNAP program has nor can food banks ever make up for what the SNAP program is. That is the primary defense. And frankly, I should say the fact that a Share Food Program exists at all is a policy failure.

Yes.

We shouldn't have to be doing this work in the richest country in the history of the world. We have the resources in this country. We have the resources in Washington to be able to address food insecurity. We say on every t-shirt that Shared Food Program has, we say food is a human right and hunger is solvable. It is what makes the work that we do so infuriating at times that you guys deal with very complex issues, right, things like crime, things like addiction. These are really complex problems that don't have a single solution. For the work that we do, it's actually really easy. We just need to get the food to the people who need it. And I do want to applaud my city for taking a step forward. Is it everything that we need? Absolutely not. Everybody in this room I think agrees to that. But it is at a time when we are seeing great uncertainty in Washington, I feel certain what the folks in this building are doing to help support our communities.

Covering for Chairwoman Ahmad, I recognize Councilmember O'Rourke and then Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Vice-Chair. Thank you all again for being here today. Thank you for your testimony and for the work that you do every day. I've had the privilege of, like every other member I'm sure, to tour Philabundance and other places as well, working with you as well recently. Thank you for what you do to support Philadelphians who are in need. You talked about the increased barriers that many folks face, even to access SNAP as well as how food banks are being squeezed from all sides and from the inside, including due to the state's budget impasse, which I was -- just to make this point, I feel very strongly by the day whether it has to do with food, whether it has to do with housing, whether it has to do with transit, municipalities are increasingly going to have to learn to stand on our own two feet. We cannot rely on the federal government or the state anymore. That should be a realization that's processed and digested and then therefore fundamentally change our approach so that we don't come before panels and ask about what the contingency plan is and say, they have to do their job. They're not. And so, something like an answer would have to suffice. I appreciate Mr. Rendon, he just stepped out, for actually staying behind a little bit longer to hear what you all would say and what maybe the public commentators may say or whatever about what we might need to do. So my question is if it were up to you, what would the city do to fill these gaps? And I recognize nothing that we do even prior to, but --

Well, I have a little bit of a background in city government and I have to say --

Not a little bit --

A little bit of a background in city government and have the honor also of working with CEO as a volunteer board member with them right now. I was impressed Monday evening when I heard from all of the departments in the government as well as utilities standing up and saying here's how we're helping people in this moment. They responded to SNAP recipients, they responded to federal workers and they even talked about programs that other residents could have access to. I've not in a while seen that level of coordination and thoughtfulness. And again, I've been doing this work for a while in a variety of ways. So I have to say I was impressed and did not expect to be. I thought, okay, you're going to announce what you're doing, great. I was impressed by the way they said -- I mean, what they said, you heard from DHS across the board, the utility side, rental forgiveness, revenue support and forgiveness, a coordinated way. They also thought about the commerce side of it. There's a grocery store near me that received 80% -- 80% of its receipts are SNAP. So they're thinking, okay, how do we keep them going in this moment because we know we already have food apartheid across the city, how do we make sure that doesn't get worse. So in the moment, I would say first it's impressive that the city is thinking about this in such a comprehensive, holistic way. And I think that in this moment of crisis how do we take that and build on it because we know this is going to last. And then the other piece of that is worth thinking about what happened was signed into law on July 4. This next piece we're going to be facing is Medicaid, right. And so, I think there's a real opportunity. The only thing I would add to that is what work we're doing I think we can continue to ensure that there is coordination among all of these networks, right. And so, at Philabundance we have 210 that we work directly with. We know there are hundreds of others of organizations and I think we can continue to make sure that there is more conversation and coordination. I think one of the things we need to be doing in this moment is ensure that we are maximizing the impact, getting as much food to people as we can and reducing redundancy. So I think there's a little bit of opportunity for us to do more than that. But I have to say I was very impressed with what Mayor Cherelle Parker and the team put together and really again, I have to say to what was already happening with Council President Kenyatta Johnson's task force.

So the answer to what we need long term my hope is will be addressed by the task force, the Food and Nutrition Task Force, over the course of the next few months with the hope by early next year we would be able to release a list of what we as a larger food access community are going to be looking at. Because the reality is we are as a city, it's like we have 475,000 people right now in an urgent situation. It's like we're in the ambulance right now on the way to the hospital. But what does the long-term care look like for those 475,000 people who rely on the SNAP program every day. And so, yes, Loree and I could tell you what we could do today to help relieve poverty and food insecurity, more importantly for today, but that doesn't address the long-term systemic challenges that we need to, and that's something that I hope along with our Food Task Force members we can address over the course of the next few months.

I would just say that I actually think that that's great, what you have said and what Ms. Loree just said as well is good. I want to acknowledge what Commissioner Ali stated as well. So thank you for being here to hear those sorts of things. But asking the question how do we build on the cost of -- the heretofore maybe not seen or rarely seen cross-collaboration that has happened since Monday to figure out how to do this, sustaining that for the long term, that's even an answer. And I appreciate you saying that, that we recognize that there are ways for us to meet the moment to ask questions about deep insecurity and struggling in a moment and figuring out what we can as city government do about that. I think doing that over -- sustaining that beyond this moment I think is important in light of the fact that it becomes evident by the day that the state and the federal government is incapable of meeting the moment. We got to stand our own two feet. So thank you for answering that. One other question and then I'll hang up. While food banks are incredibly important, we've heard from constituents that sometimes they can be difficult to access given they're open certain hours, delivery options are often saturated, there are language issues, can you speak to the potential pros and cons of more direct forms of assistance like SNAP beyond the mere scale of the program, for example, in terms of access, people's agency and choice in food, ease of use? So the cultural relevancy?

Sorry, what was that?

Cultural relevancy.

Okay. So again, SNAP is the most important program that we have to relieve food insecurity in our region, right, and in our country. We would love nothing more than to have the resources and the ability to be able to provide access to food 24/7. And I would say as a network here in Philadelphia we find all types of innovative ways to be able to do that. And yet again, in the richest country of the history of the world, we don't have all the resources that are required to be able to do that. But make no mistake our collective goal is if somebody of means can go online and order food and expect it to be on their doorstep in two hours, the expectation should be that somebody that doesn't have the means should be able to do the same thing. Our goal within our food insecurity network needs to have the same level of service, dignity, quality between the haves and the have-nots. And I think that's the long-term work that we need to address within our food security task force to be able to make sure that not only are the ones who are doing relief for today able to raise our level of service, but also that we are creating the network long term to address these systemic issues that led us here in the first place. (Applause.)

Can I put a pin in that? I'm glad you said that. And I do have a working group that deals specifically with job training, growth and development, right, because also we want to put more people to work. We want to build generational wealth and hopefully, an individual won't have to go and apply for SNAP, right. We actually want to put you out of business. That's the long-term goal. But I'm glad you talked about the systemic issues that arise as to how we got to this particular point in time right now. But the key moment is rising to the level and addressing the issue. I do know, and I know Rob Dubow left already and the Administration left already, but I know they're always watching. And so, we do have a reserve, federal reserve, that we put to the side early on, what the Administration put aside early on. At one point it was 93 million, an additional 5 million. So I'm going to round it off because I learned that in public school, so about 100 million in federal reserves because the question was asked, in the event that things don't go right coming out of Washington D.C., that we will put some funding to the side for rainy days, so to speak. Well, it's raining. And so, obviously as we move forward, we'll have a longer discussion with the Administration on how we continue to have a robust approach in addressing this very critical issue. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council President. It's a monsoon. I wanted to yield the floor to Councilmember --

For the record, we're ending FY25 fund balance 1.2 billion, the highest it's ever have been. And so, we will be paying attention in terms of how we advocate, as my good brother O'Rourke says, for the least of these as we go through our budgetary process.

Yes. Well, thank you for that and for saying that. We need you to be obsolete. We want people to have agency and a job that pays a living wage. $7.25 is our minimum wage, unbelievable. Inhumane is the word. So, so much more to talk about the long-term solutions we need to look for. But I yield the floor to Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.

Good morning -- good afternoon, I'm sorry, Madam Chair. Thank you for your leadership on this. Of course, Council President, thank you for your leadership as well, members of the committee, thank you for your amazing questions. I have no questions. I just want to say thank you for the great work that you do. I've been listening to everything so far this hearing and the information that you provided is amazing. But the work that you do is greatly appreciated. I know my office partners with the organizations that are here right now to do this work and we have been doing it for some time. But like Council President said, the goal is to put you guys out of business. And similar to what Councilmember O'Rourke said, we can't just rely on other levels of representation as a city, as a municipality. We have to think about a lot of different complex issues in ways that we didn't have to think in the past. So it's unfortunate that we're in this position, but I do thank God that the people who have the seats that they have currently right now have the hearts and the humanity and they're humanitarians and they care a lot about the people in the city, especially our children. And I'm excited for the next panel to be able to listen to what the school district and other folks who focus on young people have to do. So, Madam Chair, I just wanted to take 65 seconds to say thank you for the great work that you're doing. It's very much appreciated.

Appreciate that, Councilmember. We're going to go to Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Looking at this from all angles, we are going to see an increase as we've been talking about people getting in lines and coming to get food. Is there a -- I've been at some of the Philabundance distributions, right. I've given out food in my district office as well. Is there a plan or a way to be able to help those who are coming to get in line to be able to pick up this food? I'm sure you all heard us last week we voted on a bill that would require people to pay for paper bags or for plastic bags. That's an additional burden on people. We're asking people to figure out how they're going to collect large amounts of food from different spaces. Do you see this as being an additional burden or a challenge for our food banks, for our pantries, for our residents? Is Philabundance and your partner food banks prepared to be able to provide residents with these additional bags that are going to be required when they're coming to pick up food?

For Share, I can tell you one of the things that we're looking at is additional boxes of food. So if you remember during the pandemic, we were doing a lot of boxes versus having the lines. It's really for a couple of reasons, but one of them is just to for line management. The lines that we are seeing are increasing at really unprecedented rates. And so, there is a need because of that to try to get people through quickly. And so, we'll likely be doing more packaged boxes over the course of the next week or two. Long term, obviously our goal is to provide the most choice as possible within our network, whether it is at our pantries. And I think that's also one of the biggest evolutions that we have seen over the course of the last years or so within the food 9 banks, is that there's a greater 10 priority on providing more choice and working with more of the partner organizations who have the additional capacity, not just to be able to be able to manage the lines and have more ability for choice, but also really working on what I think is a goal of everybody here, how do we end up shortening that line in the long run. And, that is, how do we use food as the gateway to the other programs and services to help pull people out of poverty. And so, those are all the resources that we're trying to pull together. And when we look at our pantry network, we're evaluating a number of different things for us at Share Food program. It is not just where you're geographically located at or how much food can you store there, but what are the other services that your organization is helping to provide that is going to help somebody get the additional assistance that they need to pull themselves out of poverty.

Yeah. And I agree with everything that George said. Philabundance is trying to do very similar things. These past few years we've been very much trying to support our pantry partners in increasingly adopting choice models and additionally adopting a more than food approach where they can get holistic wraparound services while they're attending or while they are visiting a food pantry. Yet in this moment, there is a lot that we're balancing. So yes, to the degree that we can, we're focusing on the food that we can get in the quickest and get out to our neighbors the fastest as well. And yes, a lot of that will come with prepackaged boxes and bags and focusing on really serving as many people as we can in this moment. So it is a balancing act and it's not ideal. And I agree. There is really no world where food banks should be existing in the first place in this country, but here we are.

So for some of the seniors -- for instance, when I distributed food at Esperanza for some of our seniors, many of them preferred to take the food out of boxes because it was just easier for them to carry. And so, are we working with our partners to ensure that the no-box option is available? And if so, are we working with them to prepare for additional bags that they're going to be able to use if they don't bring enough?

Yes. Well, one of the other things that we've done over the course of the last few years, particularly for seniors, is incorporated a home delivery option for seniors that get the food delivered directly to their doorstep so they don't even have to worry about taking it back from the pantry. So at Share, we now serve north of about 5000 seniors per month that get a home delivery. We have a partnership with DoorDash. As of now, our partnership with DoorDash is the largest single DoorDash distribution of any type within the country. So it's something that we want to continue to prioritize. It also gets back to what I mentioned earlier about equity in food distribution, right. If somebody of means can order in two hours, somebody who doesn't have the means should be able to do the same thing. We want to deliver that level of service. But absolutely, we want to make it as easy on everybody, as dignified as possible for everybody to get the food assistance that they need.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. If there are no other questions for this panel, we thank you. And ask the Clerk to invite the next panel.

Thank you.

Thank you. (Applause.)

Teresa Fleming, Chief of Operations, School District of Philadelphia; Lisa Norton, Executive Director of Food Services, School District of Philadelphia; Elizabeth Keegan, food services, coordinator Dietetic Services, School District of Philadelphia; and Lauren Nocito, Director of Nutrition and Education, School District of Philadelphia. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Good morning, Council President, Councilmember Ahmad and members of City Council. My name is Theresa Fleming. I serve as the Chief Operating Officer for the School District of Philadelphia. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the district's efforts to ensure students continue to access nutritious meals at the School District of Philadelphia. We are steadfastly committed to the well-being of our students, staff and families. We understand that the ongoing government shutdown and the resulting SNAP benefit reduction raises a lot of anxiety and poses a significant challenge for many Philadelphia families. We take that very seriously. We're going to hear from Lisa Norton, who is our Executive Director of Food Services, that's going to provide more details on ways that the district is supporting families.

Good morning and thank you. There are a number of ways that the district is supporting families. Most immediately, we want to assure you that the district school meal program remains operational and will continue to serve every student. Our mission is to ensure that no child goes hungry during the school day and we're committed to providing nutritionist meals that fuel learning and academic success. And here is what you need to know, an overview of our district program: The Office of Food Services offers full service and preplate meals across 253 public and three charter schools. Our average daily meal participation is 102,300 meals over breakfast, lunch and after school. 100% of district-enrolled students are eligible to receive meals at no 24 cost, breakfast, lunch and after school at no cost under the federal -- excuse me, community eligibility provision. SNAP reductions do not have a direct impact on school meals. The district however anticipates higher participation rates across all meal programs, as students of families facing food insecurities may look to school meal programs as a source of daily nutrition. To meet the needs of the increased participation, we've developed a proactive strategy focused on closer collaboration with school leadership. This will help us quickly identify students who may be at risk of going without food. Our goal is to ensure no 20 student goes without a nutritious meal during the school day. In preparation for the increased demand, the district is engaging, proactively communicating with school leaders, community school coordinators and our current vendors to anticipate the increased volume. This also involves reviewing our current inventory, staffing levels and delivery schedules to ensure we can scale up meal production without compromising quality or service. Our overarching goal is to ensure no student goes without a nutritious meal during the school day. Students may struggle to learn if they are hungry, and it's our collective responsibility to remove that barrier. Now you will hear from Liz Keegan, a registered dietitian and a food services dietetic coordinator.

Thank you, Lisa. And good afternoon all. We recognize at the school district that these reductions, the SNAP reductions, may create gaps in access to resources. To help us address this, we ask for your support in communicating the meal programs available to your constituents. Nutritious meals are offered at all schools during the school day and after hours through our afterschool meal programs. In addition, our extended day and extended school year locations provide an added opportunity for students to receive a well-balanced meal beyond regular school hours. We are in Philadelphia one of the largest urban districts in the country. Despite having such a large student population, participation in school meal programs remains well below what our capacity is. Meaning, thousands of students who are eligible for those meals are not taking advantage of what they have available to them or may not even know what they have available to them. By increasing awareness and reinforcing that these meals are available to all students at no 8 cost, we can work together to close this gap. Now we will hear from Lauren Nocito, our Director of Nutrition Education.

Hi. Good afternoon. I'm going to talk a little bit about nutrition education and our SNAP-Ed partnerships within the School District of Philadelphia. So SNAP- Education, or SNAP-Ed has been eliminated at the federal level. Therefore, the district team members and six external partner organizations may be sunsetting at the end of the 2025-26 school year. Implementation of SNAPEd in the School District of Philadelphia is known as Eat Right Philly to our students and our schools. It is one of the most robust school-based programs that supports student engagement and has been consistently supporting student wellness for over years. 9 Last school year, Eat 10 Right Philly across the district 11 reached 213 schools with various 12 initiatives and over 36,000 13 students participated in hands-on 14 nutrition lessons with Eat Right 15 Philly team members. 16 Eat Right Philly offers 17 engaging lessons and activities, 18 which often include getting a 19 chance to chop vegetables for a fun 20 family meal they can share at home or getting their hands dirty in a small garden to understand where food comes from. These activities almost always include a food sample to provide exposure to new foods that might not be tried at home. The goal of SNAP- Education is to encourage families to choose the most nutritious items when they shop at local stores or take advantage of the many produce stands around the city. Additionally, Eat Right Philly has been the impetus for the Groceries for Good program that provides 12 to 20 schools with monthly free 13 produce distributions after school 14 hours for families. Bringing fresh 15 produce to schools conveniently for 16 families has helped school staff 17 address food insecurity for their 18 families. Over the last four years, this program has distributed over 400,000 pounds of fresh produce to families. In closing, we hope this information and resources are helpful during this challenging time. The health and well-being of students and their families is our top priority and we are doing what we can to provide every student access to healthy meals that they need to support their success in schools. Thank you and we welcome your questions.

Thank you so much. It is good to know that the school district has such a robust plan. But concerned that children are not availing this, so I just wanted to understand how that works? Children come to school and they have availability for lunch and breakfast and they're just not coming to this? What does it mean when you said that there's a low participation?

The meals are accessible for the students and they're just not participating in the meal program. So during lunch period, all of the students that are rostered in that particular period may not be coming up to the service line to get lunch.

Do we know what they're doing instead?

In terms of meals, no. 10

So it should not be no. I mean, they're in your purview, they're in your cafeteria. So we should know if they're not taking meals are they bringing lunch, are they buying lunch. It would be good to have that data to know why we have the capacity to have nutritious meals or maybe the meals don't taste good and they don't want the meals. So I don't know what the data says, but we need to follow up on that if we are saying people are not using the services.

I would just like to add that's a part of our plan, where we plan to collaborate more with the school leaders and our community stakeholders to understand what those gaps are and how we can encourage more students to take advantage of the meals that's accessible to them.

So not to belabor this point, this is not something new is what I'm understanding?

Correct.

And we're just having a plan to do this worries me, why we have not had a plan. From the day we had ability to give resources to our children, we should be collecting data, how many people are using it, who's not using it, which school is not using it. This should be at our fingertips, right, to know where we need to -- and then are we actually informing our families, are we putting a letter in their backpack to say, do you know that we have these things available, please tell your child, use it. Do we have all of this in place because --

Absolutely, Councilmember.

We do and they still are not using it?

Correct.

So have we found out why? Have we surveyed our children? And the answer is?

There's more than one answer to that question. And unfortunately, the metrics for it are very hard to guage just because there's such a wide range of reasons why students don't want to participate. It could be because of stigma. It could be because of various reasons, timing-wise. So we continue to look down this pathway to see how we can reach these students. Going out to the main locations where we do see lower participation, we do survey those students. And some of these very questions are questions we pose to the students, and most of the time they say they're not hungry. We know that's not the case. We are continuing to try to find ways to make sure that what we're giving to our students is what they want to eat. In the next couple of weeks, we'll be having a student food show where we have over 900 students coming down to our central office and sampling different food items to make sure what we're preparing and what we're serving on the menu is something that the kids want to eat. Because we understand that if we have these meals available, if the kids are not eating them, they do nothing for their nutrition.

So I wanted to understand the budget that is allocated to provide these meals that are not being used, what are we doing with those meals, how much money are we spending? And if it's not yielding results, we can do the same thing and expect different results. I just wanted to hear what is the budgeted amount for that?

The budgeted amount for the --

School meals.

-- Office of Food Services, we have $100 million budget.

And if we were to look at the number, how much of that 100 million is actually meals and how much of those meals are going to waste?

And so, when we talk about waste, it's hard for us to quantify. I know that we talked about food going in the trash. And so, the way that our program works when a student comes up to the line to get their meals, there are certain amount of components that they have to take for it to be considered a reimbursable meal. And there are items that if a student doesn't want, they put it on a share table. So, therefore, another student that may want another apple or fruit cup or milk has a share table to go to and they can have additional food. That's how we work on the waste.

So there's no throw away of food from what I heard earlier. No food is thrown away?

We in Food Services, we don't throw away food.

Where does all the food that went to the shared table, didn't get used, what happens to that?

Well, there are some organizations in some schools that come and collect the food. We do have some food pantries in schools. For Central High they have a food pantry. They come and get the food and put it in a refrigerator, so students throughout the day can come and access that food. Once the food crosses the line, once I reclaim the food, Food Services cannot handle it again, if that makes sense, because the -

Yeah, I hear you. It's just a waste of money and food, right. So we need to find a way around this where we have every school should have an ability to save this. Are families allowed to come to those pantries and help themselves?

If the school has a food pantry.

So should we not have a food pantry in every school? If Central has one, and Central probably needs it less than many other schools, we should have it in every school. And so, that should be a policy, that we have leftover food on the day -- right now we should institute it immediately because we could alleviate hunger right today if there was a food pantry. It doesn't take a lot to set up a food pantry. I know there's a whole bureaucracy. We cannot allow bureaucracy to make us go hungry, just putting it out there. So you guys have to pivot, do whatever you have to do to make sure all the food that is not being used is put out for families to come and take it. Just take it, right. So there's no accounting here. It's already accounted for because you put it out there. So I behoove our -- I hope Dr. Watlington is listening. I don't know who needs to make the change, but we are on the Education Committee for Council and we are going to be asking why this is not immediately instituted when we're having a hunger crisis in our city. We cannot have one iota of food go to waste. So let me be absolutely clear we'll be following up on this ASAP to see how quickly we must pivot to meet the need. Thank you, Councilmember -- I'm just incensed, Councilmember Quetcy Lozada -- oh, okay. Sorry. Can we just do our Chair of the Education Committee. Sorry.

I'm going to be real brief. Good afternoon. First and foremost, I just want to say thank you to Teresa Fleming, our Chief Operations Officer, as well as Chris Johnson, Public Relations person for the work you guys do with us when it comes to these issues. Because when we're talking about hunger and dealing with government, I mean it's going to be you guys that the Chairwoman is talking about that we're going to have to follow up with, so we appreciate the fact that you always get back to us. But this is a serious issue. One of the things that I've been really concerned with since I became the Chair of the Education Committee is the Procurement Office, and the School District of Philadelphia has done a really good job of increasing the percentage of contracts that go to Philadelphia-based businesses. When I became the Chairman, that number was below 5%. Now, that number is well above 20% so we're thriving in the right direction. But one of the contracts that I've always been critical of is the RFP contract for food. I've been very critical of it because that contract puts us in a position where a lot of the things that Dr. Ahmad is asking for right now, it's okay for us to say yes and we're going to follow up, but I know firsthand based on our quarterly fiscal meetings there's not much wiggle room that you have right now as it relates to the current contract. And then I believe it's a New York company that provides food services for us in the city of Philadelphia. So I'm telling you, if you don't know, that contract is going to be coming up soon. And I just wanted to add to what Dr. Ahmad said, we're going to monitor what happens with that contract, not because we want to impact what company you choose. , Philadelphia, and we also want to make sure that it gives autonomy to building leaders to have a little flexibility to do some of the things that Dr. Ahmad is saying right now. Because I know firsthand based on that contract and based on the requirements, you can't do those things. Now, as it relates to the young people eating the food, I'm sitting here talking to Council President and I'm sure he's going to add his couple cents to his lived experience. But I'm a product of the School District of Philadelphia, Elwood, Conwell, Frankford. I also still coach high school basketball, as a lot of you know. I'm very much involved with young people and I'm in the schools on a consistent basis. And I can tell you that stigma is definitely a part of the reason why young people don't eat free food. That's for sure. But it's nasty. That's a part of the reason as well too. So I know that the great folks of UNITE HERE who serve the food, they're not going to be offended by this because they don't have much say-so and much wiggle room as well either. So no particular question. I just wanted to add to the concern from Dr. Ahmad because I think Dr. Ahmad's line of questioning was right on point. But there are some things that we can do when that contract comes up, but we should do some things in the immediate right now. And one thing I would suggest based on what Dr. Ahmad said, just a simple survey, let's just survey everybody. So when you come back before us when we have our annual meeting in a couple weeks, we can be able to say, maybe we distribute the survey, maybe we have the results of the survey back. But I think data is important for us and I think it is important while we're dealing with this crisis that people understand exactly how the young people feel. We can all offer our theory and lived experiences from when we were younger, but let's hear from them. Let's let them tell us exactly what their perspective is as it relates to what we used to call freebies. I don't know what y'all called them, Prez. But let's hear their opinion as it relates to the free lunch and let them have some say-so as it relates to their perspective on what we're doing. Madam Chair, thank you so much.

I just wanted to offer perspective to the line of questioning that you have.

Thank you. Council President.

And I'll be real brief. And just in terms of this space, is there anywhere in America where children go to public school and the -- put it this way, do we have chefs actually just cook for the kids when they come to school? Is there any model like that, like fresh food cooked for students when they come as opposed to mass packaged meals? Is there any model like that?

Absolutely. We have preplate, which is what Councilman Thomas was talking about, the contract. And then we have full service locations where we prepare the food on premise. And we have 100 --

For the students?

Correct, 140 full service locations and 113 of the preplate that Councilman Thomas was talking about.

So you come in, you look at the menu, early school is about to start their breakfast. I want three scrambled eggs, some turkey bacon and some toast with jelly, and the person makes it right then and there for the kids when they come in?

Well, it wouldn't necessarily be scrambled eggs. Now, they can look on the menu to see what we're offering. We do have a cycled menu and items are prepared onsite. So we make fresh sandwiches, we make fresh salads. We cook burgers and baked chicken --

Not in realtime, correct?

Oh, absolutely, that day. We're cooking the food that day for service that day in our full service locations.

But they still keep saying --

But it's not made to order. It's not like a diner, no. The deli line is made to order. If you want to walk through the deli line, you can get a deli sandwich made to order.

Thank you very much. I just asked that concept. Hopefully in the future we think about how we address food in our public school system, right. Obviously, if you go to some of the charter schools, to be quite frank you'll see the level of flexibility what children are being fed, also being more sensitive to children's diets, right. Everybody don't eat meat, right. So is there an alternative for the kid that comes to school, right?

Absolutely.

And I just asked that concept because I have visited the private school side of things where your food is made to order. And I guess you get what you're paying for. But also, I'm thinking about this differently. And obviously, for some they don't think it's working the way it is, right. Then there's a stigma of children getting a free lunch. I think that stigma might be different when it's made to order type of meal, right. And I think it's worth the investment that we should do. I mean, the district has the largest budget beyond the Philadelphia Police Department. Several billion dollars the Philadelphia School District receives. I know that for a fact, right. So I think we have to revisit and think outside the box, whereas we used to say maybe reimagine food programs for our students in our schools and maybe they think about it differently in terms of -- it is a clearer point that some kids may think that there's a stigma that comes along with it, oh, you get free lunch, that means you're on public assistance, yada, yada, yada. But if it's getting cooked to order, it might be a different type of approach and hopefully it tastes a little better.

Thank you, Council President. Disruption is the name of the game. We go to Councilmember Quetcy Lozada who's been waiting patiently, and we're trying to wrap this up so we can give you a little break and then go to the next panel. So go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to reiterate the fact that our children, when you ask them at least in my district, why don't you eat the food, they say it's nasty, right. But I also want to put out there a recommendation that we've received, right. You have a school like Memphis Charter Academy that is under fire right now by the school district, right, but who have zero waste in lunch. You know why? Because those children are part of the process around selecting lunch, right. They cook certain meals and they allow children to test them. And the children say, I like this chicken, I don't like that chicken, I like that pasta, I don't like that pasta, I want this hamburger, I don't like that hamburger. And when you do that and you offer children what it is they're a part of, they tend to eat it. And I don't know why we don't adopt that type of model?

So Ms. Keegan did mention that in a couple of weeks we will have 900 students coming down to the district office for our seventh Annual Food Show where they will taste from about 30 different vendors 50 different items that they will then rate and that will appear on the menu because the students selected it. We also --

Well, why do we have so many kids not eating the food if they're a part of the --

I can tell you that over the last two years our participation has increased a lot because of the steps that we have taken in engaging our students more in what it is that we are feeding them. We want them to eat, so we want to make sure that we are putting in front of them what they like and the food show is one way. On the other side and that's more so for the full service locations that I was speaking of, on the other side for the preplate we do have what we call the VIP Taster program where they actually come into the school and they give them five different menu items that the students taste and they rate. And then those items, the ones that they like will appear on that menu as well. So we are actively engaging our students with surveys throughout the year, asking them what they want to see, what they don't like. Our Nutrislice app, which is our menu, allows the students to rate every item every day and we use that information to build our menus as well.

So what is that data telling us? If you guys are rating them every day what is it telling you?

The data gives us a good insight into the items that are successful and the students do like. We are seeing that there is an average rating on most of our items. So we are encouraging students to include information as far as when -- because I've heard it before, students saying things are nasty and I say, what makes it nasty, and encouraging them to tell us the things that they don't like about certain items to increase their awareness of vocabulary around food and also to provide us feedback that we can actually use to put into the menu. So when they say something is crunchy or those types of adjectives and those words, we're able to actually utilize that information to change our menu and adapt to what they give us in their feedback.

Somebody in their testimony mentioned that as part of the outreach you all were going to work through community coordinators in the schools to be able to connect young people or families with just food. What are you doing in those schools that don't have community coordinators?

Well, we are working with the leaders, the administration in the schools to identify students that might have more, you know, that are going without food. So that's what I mentioned in the testimony, that we will be working with the school leaders to make sure that we are addressing their students that they have identified that have more of a need.

I met with some of the school district's administration. I met with some principals I want to say a few days ago, right. And they're saying we can't do more, we don't have the capacity to do more, there's no way that I can reach out. We were talking about truancy and direct communication with parents and they say they can't do more. In a situation like the one that we're in right now, does the school district have the capacity to be able to identify someone in the school that will be that coordinator, that will be that person that is going to call home to say, hey, Michael didn't eat lunch today, he didn't eat his breakfast today, you know, what can we do, you know, can you encourage him to eat? Is there someone that's going to be able to connect with mom and dad or with Michael to be able to make sure that he has something in his tummy?

We do have our Office of Family and Community Engagement that we will take that information back to, to understand how we can ensure the face coordinators for each of our networks, what type of outreach they currently do with the families and ensure that we're including information gathering around students that may be facing the food insecurity. So thank you for lifting that up.

Councilmember Jones mentioned earlier that we don't want to throw food away. You guys say you don't throw food away. But I do have a school in my district that does throw food away, and community residents know that it goes in the garbage. Thankfully enough, there is someone in the school building that puts it in a way where folks can come grab it. How do we ensure that that food gets into the hands of community as opposed to it being -- so the leftover food, right? You're saying you connect with, I don't know, members of food pantries. How do we or how can we put it in a place or a space outside of that immediate school building where residents from in that community can actually benefit from it? Is there a way for us to do that? I mean, I know that somebody said to me, Councilmember, we're not allowed to do that. But how do you -- that school figure it out, right. How do we ensure that that occurs across the city?

I would like to go visit that school to see what it is that they're doing and how they're doing it. But we would have to engage the school leaders. We would have to engage someone within the school to set up what you're asking to allow the community to come get the food. It would have to be someone within the school working with the meal or with the food that was left over and putting it in a place where the community can come get it.

So there's nothing on the legal side that prevents us from doing that. That just has to be a policy or coordinated through the individual schools, is that what we're saying?

Correct.

And so, can we prioritize that? Can we work with each one of our schools to prioritize anything that's left over, anything that's extra, anything that's left on that share table? Can we identify a space in every one of our schools that we invite the community to come get that food?

We can certainly take that back to explore that option with our academic partners and see how best to implement it at all schools.

Thank you.

Thank you. Just the number 100 million is rotating in my head. We want every bit of that 100 million to be used and utilized by our school population and support their families as well. So we're going to follow up on that piece. You have a question?

Yes, a short one.

Okay. Council President. Yeah, we have to keep moving.

I just have a real quick one that's really focused on the purpose of why we're here. You mentioned in your testimony of federal funding for SNAP-Ed. We talk about SNAP is only focusing on those who are using the EBT cards, but we're also losing funding for SNAP-Ed, which will be eliminated. Therefore, potentially sunsetting the district team members of six external partner organizations at the end of 25-26 school year. So how would this loss of funding affect your Eat Right Philly program and broader nutrition education work and what is needed from City Council and local partners to help sustain that particular initiative?

That's a very good question. So, yes, the district does receive SNAP education funding directly and then I think in the next panel you'll hear from some of the partners that the district works with that bring SNAP education into our schools. So there are six organizations that are doing that. And at this point in time, there is not identified I guess funding to provide that in the future. So it is a supplemental nutrition education program, so it is meant to enhance what's happening during the school day. So like I said, there's a lot of cooking classes. There's gardening. We do a lot of work around food insecurity similar to what you're bringing up, trying to help support schools, build their capacity to address food insecurity in the schools. So, yes, that is something that I think the school district and the external partners can put their heads together and see -- I'm sure you'll hear a little bit of that from the next panel as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you all for your testimony. I know we have some follow-ups because we want to make sure this food insecurity of the moment is overlaid by the data you already have of where this insecurity is and what school is in that space. And we need to move and we cannot allow bureaucracy to stand in the way of feeding people. I just want you to all think how do we mobilize this so it doesn't take, you know, five weeks to get a policy change around something like this, but we'll be following up. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And we are running short of time. We have another hearing in this room, so I apologize but we're not able to take the break that I thought we could. So I would like the Clerk to call up the next panel. And I thank our stenographer who has been working tirelessly to do this work. So please everybody acknowledge our stenographer who is working tirelessly. (Applause.)

Mark Edwards, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Food Trust; Erica Lewis, the Caring Center; Mandy Booth, Chief Executive Officer of Vetri Community Partnership; and Jacob Zychick, Community Advocacy Director for the American Heart Association. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

And just for the record, I do know we have still from the Administration the Department of Human Services Commissioner Kimberly Ali.

She already left.

Who else would be in attendance -- the Administration is still here and I also see Stephanie over there as well, just for the record in case y'all may have any additional questions that might need clarification.

Thank you all. Please state your name and begin your testimony.

Good afternoon. My name is Mark Edwards and I'm the President and CEO of The Food Trust. I want to start by first inviting you to enjoy the apple at your place setting.

We were looking at this. Not sure we were supposed to eat it. There's no policy around it.

Yes, it's locally sourced from one of our Farm-to-School programs. And so, as you eat it, you can enjoy the health benefits of getting your Vitamin C, your potassium and your fiber. It's actually a good representation of who we are as an organization. We think of ourselves as standing between hunger and health. And so, I sit here before you today not only as the President and CEO of The Food Trust, and many of my colleagues are here with signs and partners are here with signs. I think we even have a carrot that's joining us here today. And I also have the pleasure of serving as the Co-chair of the City of Philadelphia's Food and Nutrition Security Task Force. And so, thank you, Council President --

And thank you for your service.

Thank you, and thank you for your leadership. And thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the committee for hosting these hearings. Putting these hearings on is very important for us. And so, the Food Trust as an organization is focused on fighting for Philadelphians' right for healthy food for more than 30 years. As you heard today, the SNAP freeze has left families scrambling to put food on the table and we're all rallying to meet the moment. But make no mistake, whether SNAP benefits return next week, next month or next year, Philadelphia is in dire straits. in 6 of us experience food insecurity far above the regional and national average. And so, we're caught in what feels like an endless cycle of hunger and hardship. The hearings proposed in Council President Johnson's resolution give us the chance to come together and build real, lasting nutrition security solutions that reach every corner of our city. Philadelphia's response must go beyond emergency food. Our city is dynamic, so our solutions must be multi-faceted. Our city is diverse so every sector must have a seat at the table. Our city is resilient. And so, our solution must be tough enough to withstand any storm in the short term. We know that we must ensure that SNAP-eligible recipients can access healthy food right now because it's urgent. The Food Trust's emergency food interventions focus on meeting people where they are, where they shop, protecting families' dignity to choose foods that they like to eat. With city support, we have scaled up distribution of our food bucks, and thank you to the City of Philadelphia for your investment in food bucks and Councilwoman Ahmad for your support and your advocacy for our food bucks. These are coupons that families can use to shop at farmers markets, corner stores and supermarkets, allowing shoppers lots of choices and supporting neighborhood retailers who rely on SNAP transactions for their economic livelihood. And at our farmers markets, we are fundraising for healthy food mutual aid, donating unsold produce to pantries and community fridges and supporting farmers to host pop-ups distributing fresh fruits and vegetables, not just communities that we work in, but some that are specifically targeted to seniors. By working together, we can weather the storm. But emergency response alone, while it is very important and we support it, is not enough. We believe that nutrition is the bridge just as that apple is between hunger and health. I think that bears repeating. Nutrition is the bridge between hunger and health, and we know that poor nutrition fuels rising rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease and a trillion dollar toll on our nation's health care system and economy. To reverse these trends, we need a comprehensive approach to nutrition security that connects access, affordability and education. We've heard a lot this morning about SNAP and I think we all understand SNAP. But you also begin to hear in this panel discussion and the panel discussion before this one about SNAP- Education. Think about it this way, SNAP is the means, it's the money, and SNAP-Education is the know-how. And so, in order to reverse these trends, we again believe that a comprehensive approach to nutrition security is necessary and one that connects access to affordability and education. And so, unlike SNAP, which when the Big Ugly Bill was signed, the federal resources allocated to SNAP were reduced. In the case of SNAP-Education, the resources were not reduced when that bill was signed on July 4th. They were eliminated all together. So that even when the government opens and/or SNAP comes back, whenever that happens, SNAP- Education goes away. And so, the know-how goes away, so that threatens the health and livelihood of our city. This program didn't just teach nutrition. It improved diet quality, reduced chronic disease, stretched food dollars and supported local farmers and retailers.

And so, our city partnerships and funding have amplified the fact that helping educators build lasting trust in communities that we serve is a very noble and important thing to do. Today Philadelphia now has the opportunity and the responsibility to rebuild and sustain proven nutrition programs and signal to our residents that we're committed to their health for the long haul. I'm proud to be joined here today by my colleagues, many of those educators and partners, including The Food Trust, our own team as I've indicated, and our Caring Center partners who you're going to hear from shortly, who teach children where their food comes from, cook healthy meals in classrooms and guide shoppers at corner stores and farmers markets. They are the heart of the work that we do. Without integrating nutrition education into food access strategies, we risk repeating the same cycle, where families get food but not the tools to turn it into lasting health. However, if we combine immediate relief with long-term investment, putting nutritious food on tables today, while empowering families to make healthy choices for years to come, we can move Philadelphia from hunger to health. So thank you.

Please state your name and begin your testimony. Thank you, Mark. We'll come back to you.

Hello. My name is Erica Lewis. I am the Hospitality Manager at the Caring Center. I've been there for 10 years and I'm here to share my 11 story and my experience with SNAP- 12 Ed. 13 We really need SNAP-Ed 14 involved in our schools and our 15 communities with our children. 16 SNAP-Ed is an amazing program. It 17 has been a tremendous help and 18 support to the Caring Center. It 19 makes me nervous to think that we 20 might have this program fully 21 eliminated. Without it, my 22 children would be greatly impacted. 23 Without SNAP-Ed, there 24 would be no additional refrigeration and freezers so that my school is able to purchase multiple cases of fruit and vegetable for lunches and snack. In the past, we only had enough room for two cases of vegetables or fresh fruit. But after receiving a grant from SNAP-Ed, we were able to purchase more refrigeration. Now, we serve fruit, fresh fruit and vegetables every day with at least two of the three meals that we serve. Without SNAP-Ed, we wouldn't have the funding to help us be able to afford local produce through programs such as the Quarter Back grant that gave us a quarter for every meal that was served to every child that contained a PA local fruit or vegetable. We not only benefit it, but PA farmers benefited as well. There were other grants, like Farm-to-School Institute that helped build our own garden where my children learn how to plant, plant a seed, water it, watch it grow, harvest most of it, prepare it and eat it, but also be able to go back and harvest seeds that we can plant for the next season. We were also able to reach out to our families and community in the Mantua section of Philadelphia. Farm-to-School Institute has had a part of the grant where we had to involve our community, in which we purchased boxes of local fruit and vegetables to give away to our parents and our neighbors. Programs like Food Bucks for RX and Cooking Beyond the Classroom and Center Cooking Activities with Ms. Erica help children try new fruits and vegetables and also enabled them to bring local produce home. Food Bucks gave us a stipend for farmers markets and co-ops so that parents could take their children and go shopping for items to consume at home. I remember one parent, she was really excited. She wanted to know if she could join the program twice because they were able to purchase berries, something that they didn't often have in the home. But she was like everybody was so excited to have strawberries and blueberries. And it was amazing that the program was able to provide that for them. Also, Cooking Beyond the Classroom gives you everything that you need to prepare a meal with your family. So they were able to bring what they were learning at school, when they cooked with me, home as well. So the program Cooking Beyond the Classroom gives them the food that they need to make up a recipe and then they prepare it with their families. Children cooking at school helps them to try things they normally wouldn't pick up. I had a young man, his name was Donald, and we were doing a, I believe, health salad that we were preparing and it had rainbow carrots in it. And I have these special knives that they use. And they cut up their carrots and broccoli and everything and they put it in their health salad. Donald, we had to get him to like, come on, Donald, you made this, try it. And he tried it and he liked it, so much so that when Donald was I think he was about 18 came back to visit the center to say hello. And he said, Ms. Erica, you know I like vegetables because of you. So it just made me feel really good that what I was doing wasn't in vain. We really need this SNAP-Ed program to help our children, to help our families, to help our communities. Thank you for your time and thank you for listening.

Thank you. (Applause.)

State your name and proceed with your testimony.

My name is Maddie Booth. I'm the CEO of Vetri Community Partnership. Thank you to City Council President Johnson and members for convening the Food and Nutrition Security Task Force, of which I'm a proud member, to City Council for their increased interest and attention to food and funding issues impacting our community and to the Public Health and Human Services Committee, including Chairwoman Ahmad for hosting this hearing. We're proud to operate in Philadelphia with the Mayor and City Council who govern with care and compassion for neighbors. So thank you so much for what you're doing. As I mentioned, I'm the proud CEO of Vetri Community Partnership. We're a Philadelphia nonprofit that nourishes minds, bodies and communities with nutrition education through cooking. Vetri Community Partnership offers hands-on cooking and tasting opportunities featuring recipes that are nutritious, vegetable-focused, affordable and most importantly delicious. Our cooking workshops are interactive, they're welcoming, they're hands-on that empower people of all ages, from kids in kindergarten through senior citizens, to build culinary confidence and increase nutritional knowledge. Our nutrition education services take place in schools, health and community centers and in our own teaching kitchen. Each year, VCP reaches nearly 30,000 community members of all ages and backgrounds. We are also 1 of 22 Pennsylvania SNAP-Ed providers and one of nine partners serving residents in Philadelphia. Our SNAP-Ed team of nine offers hands-on cooking classes, fruit and vegetable promotion for kindergarten through 8th grade students at 16 schools during the school day and creates about 16,000 experiences for students annually. This accounts for over half of our organization's total reach. SNAP-Ed is, as you've heard, the nutrition education and promotion arm of the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and a cornerstone program to protect and increase food security. SNAP-Ed is an effective, community-centered tool that addresses food insecurity, nutrition and equity and chronic disease prevention, especially in underresourced communities. Using a variety of evidence-based public health approaches, SNAP-Ed strengthen schools, community organizations like ours and households by equipping people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to make nutritious choices and make lasting changes within a very limited budget. With the elimination of SNAP-Ed funding, our ability to provide the scale of services to which our neighbors and school partners have become accustomed to will be significantly diminished. These cuts could deepen health disparities, will undermine years of progress and force organizations like ours to scale back at a moment when we should be scaling up. With this loss of funding, community-based organizations will also need to likely lay off highly-dedicated employees who spend their days in schools providing hands-on cooking classes and exposure to fruits, vegetables and whole grains. It's also worth noting that after this year, Vetri Community Partnership will receive zero government dollars, no local city, state or federal funding for providing nutrition education through cooking services. The ripple effects in our community could also be quite significant, especially paired with these cuts to SNAP dollars. One goal of SNAP-Ed was to help folks stretch already limited food budgets and to support their families' food consumption and intake. Our neighbors and communities will need more support accessing food and also accessing nutrition education because they go hand in hand. In our programs, we see a lot of students enjoying something for the first time, whether it's a fruit or a vegetable new to them or just prepared in a new way. We hear some participants saying I can cook now, and feeling confident, engaged in and curious about cooking at home.

One of our SNAP-Ed educators heard from a Philadelphia parent whose son Henry had taken part in his school SNAP-Ed nutrition education classes. After just a few sessions, Henry was already making changes at home. He prepared a veggie tray appetizer for his family. He set the table and he served water instead of soda. It's a small moment with big implications. When kids like Henry bring these lessons home, families eat better and health outcomes can improve. And the numbers bear this out. SNAP-Ed costs just $5 per year per beneficiary. And for every dollar invested in SNAP-Ed, nearly $10 can be saved in future health costs. Cooking is an essential life skill and one that increases the likelihood that accessible foods reach the bellies of our kids and our neighbors. Research shows that self-perceived cooking skills, believing that you are a capable or good cook, lead to individuals making more nutritious choices for themselves and their families. This is particularly important in Philadelphia where data has shown that kids eat fewer than one serving of vegetables a day. Diet- related health conditions like hypertension and diabetes also impact adults across the city. While we can't prevent and manage disease entirely through cooking and nutrition, we can certainly help people gain the skills and the confidence to cook and eat well. By working with participants on honing skills from reading nutrition labels to dicing vegetables, community members leave Vetri Community Partnership classes feeling empowered to include nutritious ingredients in their daily lives, plus people of all ages get the opportunity to cook and taste new ingredients, preparations or dishes without the risk of wasting their money or their food. Also, it's really fun. Thank you for your interest in promoting the health and well-being of all Philadelphians. As you consider the future of food and nutrition security in our city, we ask that you champion the restoration and protection of nutrition education funding and invest in programs that build a healthier Philadelphia for all. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. We need every child to have the potential to be Henry. Yes, we hear you. My children used to cook with us when they were little and they now cook and eat vegetables because of exactly what you said. And that's a Montessori approach to empowering young people, and we should really integrate that into our school systems, especially in our kindergarten spaces. So thank you for that -- oh, sorry. I didn't realize Jacob. Go ahead. Apologies, Jacob. I wanted everybody to be done before we started talking.

No 12 problem. Jacob Zychick. I'm speaking on behalf of the American Heart Association and thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony here today. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Philadelphia. The American Heart Association is focused on providing evidence-based strategies for parents and caregivers to create a healthy food environment for young children that supports the development of positive eating behaviors and maintenance of a healthy weight in childhood, thereby reducing the risks of overweight, obesity and cardiovascular disease later in life. The American Heart Association believes that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, plays an important role in addressing health and hunger among families with low incomes, and the Association supports SNAP access and funding to address food insecurity and improve health. In July 2025, Congress passed a budget reconciliation bill 19 that include major changes to SNAP and SNAP-Ed, including stricter work requirements, reduced eligibility, funding cuts and the elimination of funding for SNAP-Ed. The federal government shutdown that began on October 1st has put benefits even further at risk, with nearly 500,000 Philadelphia residents projected to lose SNAP benefits in November if the shutdown continues. Those changes in current lapses of federal funding will make it even more challenging for the nearly over 900,000 Philadelphians who live in areas of overabundance and unhealthy foods. Mayor Cherelle Parker's Executive Order on November 1st is an important step to immediately help the nearly one-third of Philadelphia's population impacted by the lapse of federal funding for SNAP, but we also must begin to work on a citywide long-term approach to nutrition security centered around equitable health outcomes and sustainability that includes stronger coordination between the city, nonprofits, hospitals and schools. The American Heart Association has collaborated with city government and community stakeholders to develop and implement innovative strategies that address nutrition and access to healthier food. That includes expanded access to nutrition incentive programs like Philadelphia Food Bucks, incorporating our science and research to support the development of nutrition standards for city government agencies and direct capacity development and support for neighborhood organizations and community schools to provide healthier food options. The American Heart Association support evidence-based programs and initiatives that remove barriers to access and affordability for families to purchase fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods like the Food Bucks program, which has been active for years. 6 Nutrition incentives 7 support a triple bottom line, 8 helping families bring home more 9 nutritious foods, supporting 10 Pennsylvania farmers and keeping 11 more food dollars in the community. 12 Nutrition incentives empower 13 families to purchase healthier food 14 options by making products more 15 affordable. The Food Trust has documented numerous positive impacts of this initiative, including improving fruit and vegetable consumption, increasing SNAP sales at farmers markets and bringing revenue to regional farmers and family-owned retailers. The American Heart Association is also supportive of produce prescription programs that can cause greater collaboration between health care providers, neighborhood retailers and community partners. Produce prescription programs enable doctors prescribe fruits and vegetables in addition to medications. Patients receive electronic cards or vouchers to access free or discounted produce of their choice at retail, grocery or farmers markets. Produce prescriptions were associated with significant improvements in fruits and vegetables intakes, food security and health status for children and adults.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health has played a significant role as a convener and implementer of innovative strategies to remove barriers to healthy nutritious food by leveraging and potentially even expanding current initiatives like Philly Loves Fresh and the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative. The city can provide additional support to community organizations that are serving in neighborhoods where the man far exceeds the current capacity to be provided. The American Heart Association serves on Council President Johnson's Task Force addressing nutrition and hunger. The current efforts led by Mayor Cherelle Parker and the City Council are important to support families in need. We must begin to plan a state a sustainable citywide approach to address nutrition and security and incorporates both innovative solutions and proven, effective, evidence-based programs. Thank you so much for the opportunity to provide testimony. I just wanted to add one thing. We did share this with staff and we'll circulate it also. It's a list of some of the direct community work that we are doing to address nutrition security. Since 2020, we've partnered alongside 52 food pantries to increase their capacity and really ensure that they're providing healthier food options. That's in addition to some of the work we're doing even with some of the surrounding counties. So definitely excited to participate moving forward too.

Thank you so much for all your important testimony that tells us what is working. Having worked with you on the Food Bucks program I was very proud to be able to support that, and watching that in action was really illuminating that we should have it in every corner of Philadelphia. The fact that people are able to get their SNAP- Ed piece done and figure out what to buy in the grocery store with their food bucks and the grocer is getting revenue as well and also changing what produce, what they're putting out there for their customers. So this is a culture shift, a change in how we do so we move away from all the preservative and packaged food and make sure we see it everywhere, particularly in our schools. This is our youngest Philadelphians who need to have that culture shift in what they're presented with in terms of food. So you heard us have the conversation with the school district. This has to be real and this has to be actionable so that we can see more Donalds, and I forget his name now, who are going to try new things and make it a part of their lifestyle and helping their families have culture shift as well. So I thank you so much. I wanted to ask a quick question about the food bucks model. To infuse resources in there, could that meet the need of this SNAP cessation? Could you speak to that, Mark?

Yes. And as indicated in my testimony, that's precisely how we are using some of the investment that the city has made so that we can offer up what we refer to as community bucks. And that is to say there are no cash requirements associated with matching it. You can take that voucher and go directly to a retailer and purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.

So the money that we are just talking about could actually be deployed in this manner?

That's correct, we're making an application for that. So, yeah, we hope.

This would also get the grocer, to get revenue as well --

Correct.

-- as they're doing this.

That's correct.

That's a win-win in terms of keeping the food ecosystem going with directing some of the dollars into this way of addressing the lack of SNAP benefits.

Yeah. And I would also add too that with continued investment in this way hopefully as the years go on, there are opportunities at the federal level for us to be able to match federal -- these bucks that we refer to as food bucks, they're also referred to as incentives. And so, there's an opportunity for us to match our local investment with federal investment one-to-one. So --

Amplify.

So if the City of Philadelphia invests $100, we can get $100 from the feds or apply for $100 from the feds.

Thank you. Anybody has any questions?

It's going to be brief. So I thank you, Mark, for your leadership with the Food and Security Task Force. Thank you, Jacob, as well for your participation. And also educating me around the whole dynamic, not just SNAP but overall how we look at addressing food security as well as the education component because it's key to change habits, right. We look at nutrition, look at health and also our lifestyles, we address certain things in a positive way, can prevent a variety of different illnesses down the line. And so I thank you for your leadership around this particular issue. And say your name again from the Caring Center.

Erica.

Erica, you keep -- no. 24

(Inaudible).

Okay. I just want to personally say thank you. I've known you for years. My boys attended the Caring Center. You're still on the same mission, so you keep up the good work and very powerful and informative testimony.

All right. Thank you so much for your testimony. (Applause.)

If the Clerk would call up our last panel. Thank you for your patience.

Dr. Senbagam Virudachalam, Pediatrician and Policy Lab faculty member at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Kate Colyer, Regional Program Director for Greater Philadelphia Food Connect; and Chris Bolden Newsome, Co-director of Sankofa Community Farm. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Please state your name and begin your testimony.

Good morning or good afternoon now.

It's been a long day, yes. Thank you for your patience.

Yes. Good afternoon, Council President Johnson, Chairperson Ahmad and members of the committee. Very, very grateful to you for calling this hearing and just to be able to share this testimony with you today. My name is Dr. Senbagam Virudachalam and I am a general pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm also a member of The Food Trust Board of Directors and City Council's Food and Nutrition Security Task Force. And I'm the granddaughter of small family farmers, the daughter of immigrants and I was raised in the Midwest. All food traditions through my upbringing have really shaped me, as I'm sure they have all of us. Just to pause for a moment and think about how hungry we all are right now, right. And for those of us that broke the rules and bit into that apple, how much relief we felt just to have that little bit of sugar, little bit of nutrition, right. And so, that's what really brings all of us here today. I have been a pediatrician for nearly 20 years, more than 15 of those in Philadelphia. I'm also a scientist. I study nutrition, health and the systems that reach children and families. In my clinic this week, nearly every family I have seen has shared that they do not have enough money for food. I have never before in my career seen this level of need. Food is really a fundamental manifestation of love, nourishment and compassion. Every child and every family deserves to have enough food and to have nutritious food. One argument I often hear in a crisis like this one is that it doesn't matter what food we provide to hungry people. We just have to give them something. I would posit that especially in a crisis like this one the type of food we provide and where it comes from matters a great deal. The lack of SNAP funding will also have an enormous impact on our local economy, as we've just heard, with tens of millions fewer dollars being spent on groceries. This lost revenue is going to strain farmers and vendors who produce and sell food, eventually making it economically untenable for them to continue to provide food as they currently do. And ultimately, all of us will be impacted, not only those who depend on SNAP. The last several years have shown us how fragile our food system is and periodic emergencies may be the new normal. To weather this crisis and those that follow, we have to ensure that every Philadelphian is connected to a strong and resilient, local and regional food system. What does this mean practically speaking and why is it important? In order to thrive, children and adults must eat mostly whole plant foods, so that means vegetables, fruits, grains and beans. Americans as a whole don't eat anywhere near the recommended amounts of these foods. One study in 2021 showed that half of 1 to 5-year-old kids in this country were not even eating one vegetable a day, let alone multiple. The current food system, which contributes to at least a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, offers abundant, processed, highly palatable and cheap foods and at the same time, makes fresh, healthy foods inaccessible and unaffordable. And this ultimately affects eating habits across generations. As a result, many people have replaced eating whole, fresh foods with high fat, high sugar, high salt foods that cause illness instead of supporting health. We do have reason to hope. Philadelphia and Pennsylvania have an abundance of natural resources and the capacity to grow food nearly year-round. There is a thriving grassroots network of farmers markets, urban farms and community gardens in this city. And the people and nonprofit organizations who have built this network have worked very hard to ensure that it reaches all Philadelphians, especially those with low incomes. We need city level and institutional support to strengthen and expand the breadth and reach of the system, both during this crisis and going forward.

The Food Trust, as you just heard, has invested a great deal in ensuring that fresh produce is available at farmers markets and corner stores throughout the city. The Food Bucks program is amazing. And I agree that expanding it in this moment of emergency is a really incredible way, not only to bring food dollars back to local farmers who need it, but to provide people with dignified -- the ability to get food in a dignified way at the places where everyone else shops and choose food according to their family's preferences. The city should support farmers markets that bring local and regional produce to every neighborhood in the city year-round and provide subsidies in an ongoing way to low-income residents to purchase this produce. Health care providers also have a critical role to play. Like all my physician colleagues, I took an oath at the start of my career devoting myself to this calling. The Hippocratic Oath states, I will prevent disease whenever I can for prevention is preferable to cure. Health care systems, including insurers, must help ensure that families feel they can make use of available fresh whole foods to ensure food security and prevent and treat diet-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease. At CHOP, I've led the development of a program called Home Plate, which is a family-based group virtual food skills program that has shown improvements in young children's diet quality and household food security in two randomized trials. Home Plate is a six-week long program and we use shared cooking to build community connectedness and practical skills to support food security and healthy eating habits, especially among families with limited resources. I want to share just a couple of quotes from the evaluation that we did of Home Plate really to bring families voices to what this program meant to them. One parent said, I was so happy to meet some of the other ladies and hear their stories and share mine and just let my hair down and have a little bit of fun. It's been a struggle. I've been dealing with life lately so it's been a really good experience. Everybody is laid back. We could talk comfortably, laugh. Everybody did something different too. It made it fun to see everyone else's dishes. Another parent shared, I enjoy it because my little one, she gets to pick out certain fruits and vegetables she likes. She even helps me cook it. So as far as her eating skills, it's gotten a little better because she gets to taste- test all the different fruits and vegetables. So it's good for her and I like it too cooking different foods. And that parent was referring to being able to pick out fruits and vegetables. That happened through a partnership with the Food Trust, where we were able to offer produce prescriptions to families. The city really needs to invest in programs like this one to ensure long-term food and nutrition security for children and families. To further strengthen the local food system and support the health of its citizens, the city and its anchor institutions should source sustainably grown, local and regional produce to be served in schools, hospitals, universities and other institutions. Philadelphia's urban agriculture plan called Growing from the Root, which was published in 2023, provides a 10-year roadmap to enact such policies. I encourage every member of Council to support actualizing this plan through allocation of funds and coordination across city agencies. Stronger local coordination between the city, nonprofits, hospitals and schools could really reduce our reliance on federal programs and protect us during crises like this one. We must meet this moment with every tool at our disposal and ensure that we're better prepared for future emergencies. Philadelphians deserve to eat fresh food that tastes good and nourishes their bodies and minds. Regardless of income, every Philadelphian should be afforded the dignity of choosing fresh foods that meet their preferences.

We need a long-term strategy to ensure food and nutrition security for all Philadelphians that centers people and the earth that sustains us. Despite the crisis that we're now in, I remain very hopeful that we're going to find our way through this moment and emerge stronger and more connected to one another. Thank you.

Please state your name and proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Kate Colyer and I'm the Senior Regional Director for Greater Philadelphia at Food Connect. We are a local logistics and technology nonprofit working to bridge the gaps in our food system to build healthier communities. Food Connect was founded by our CEO Megha Kulshreshtha, who grew up in a family that relied on social safety nets to survive. She built this organization to make those systems stronger, faster and more equitable, especially in moments of crisis like this one. Since 2014, Food Connect has focused on the hardest part of getting food to people who need it, most commonly known as the last mile. That's the final stretch of connecting food from donors, warehouses, community partners, directly into the homes of families, seniors and residents who can't easily reach traditional food pantries. Today we deliver over 250,000 meals each month across 70 cities nationwide, including right here in Philadelphia. Each month in our city we complete more than 800 home deliveries for families through CHOP's food pharmacy program and distribute over 1300 food boxes to seniors through the Commodity Supplemental Food program. We're also honored to be part of the One Philly Produce Project, an initiative led by Mayor Cherelle Parker and the Mayor's Office of Education and Office of Children and Families. This project brings together multi-sector partners to distribute fresh produce to all community schools, ensuring children and families continue to have access to fresh healthy food. With the federal SNAP funding lapse creating uncertainty for millions, Food Connect has activated our rapid response infrastructure to ensure no one in Philadelphia goes hungry. We're working daily with city agencies, food banks and local organizations to expand delivery capacity, track food flow and ensure meals reach home-bound residents within to 48 hours. 12 In October alone, we 13 delivered over 200,000 pounds of 14 food across the Philadelphia 15 region, which was a 23% increase 16 from our average volume monthly. 17 We also want to recognize the 18 incredible coordination happening 19 across the city, fueled by the Food 20 and Nutrition Security Task Force, 21 which we are a member of and by 22 Mayor Parker's leadership through 23 the One Philly SNAP Support Plan. 24 We especially applaud the city's launch of the Emergency Food Security Grant program, offering micro grants through a simplified two-page application and swift review process. This mirrors the community-rooted rapid relief model Food Connect has been recommending, and we're encouraged to see these principles reflected in city policy so quickly. As we look ahead, we urge the city to keep building on this foundation. Food Connect recommends three priorities to strengthen long-term readiness. First, direct relief stipends so families can buy the food they prefer from local stores, preserving dignity and choice while supporting small businesses. Second, community-rooted rapid relief sustaining a standing fund centering systems, level solutions, by supporting both large food banks and smaller, independent organizations that serve millions outside of traditional networks. And third, realtime feedback and data using live community input and partner updates to ensure every decision follows evidence and the community's voice. This crisis reminds us that while our safety nets may be fragile, our communities are strong. Philadelphia's swift coordinated response shows what's possible when government, philanthropy and community organizations work as one. Food Connect stands ready to keep serving, coordinating last mile deliveries, supporting data and feedback systems and helping design equitable funding models so every household in Philadelphia has access to nutritious food both now and in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Would you please state your name and proceed with your testimony.

Yes. Good morning. My name is Chris Bolden-Newsome and I'm the Co-director of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartrams Garden in Southwest Philadelphia. First and foremost, giving honor to the Almighty and to our ancestors. I want to wish a very good morning to all of my sister and brother workers out here, activists, faith leaders, farmers and of course, to you the city fathers and city mothers, our City Councilpeople and wish you all continued blessings. I am, as I said, Chris Bolden-Newsome and I'm a Co-director alongside Ty Holmberg at the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartrams garden, located in sunny Southwest Philadelphia. S. south of Africa and the Caribbean. We serve the Lower Kingsessing area in Southwest Philadelphia through two weekly farm stands in three different locations, a community garden, regular classes, neighborhood garden bed programs, where we go and actually build garden beds in the front yards of our neighbors in Southwest, and a student-strong youth farmer 18 intern program as well as a 19 culinary culture program. So we're 20 doing a lot. 21 I want to just stop 22 right there for a second and just 23 say that I was rocked by the third 24 panel a little bit, in which all of those discussions were coming out about the waste in food. I didn't even know if I could get up and continue to talk. I want to be honest because that was so much to think about, right. And so, what it reminded me is that education is absolutely key. And listening to Dr. Sebagam's words as well to the fact that Americans don't eat vegetables. I think there's a lot to be done. And so, what our farm and our community is doing about it is providing these education opportunities and education programs. They are crucial. Otherwise, you can throw all the food that you want at people, and I will tell you all that nobody wants to talk about this and we can find 100 different reasons why food isn't eaten and why it's left on the plate, and yet we're still saying that people are hungry. I remember seeing boxes laid out, you know, on the street during COVID with the commodity food, and it was because people didn't recognize it as food. Now, I think that that says a lot about where the culture has gone and what we who are responsible have to do about that, but also too about education. So that for me is really important. But in Southwest Philadelphia, it's about 76% African descendants. Most adults are employed according to the statistics. But over a quarter of our residents live below the poverty line, over a quarter, and many are managing chronic illnesses as they're raising their families. So about 40% of our customers at our farmers' market use SNAP for purchases. That's been an increase, so that's a lot. That's a lot of SNAP. And that is where we're at, at this point. SNAP presents working-poor families in our neighborhood as steps towards sovereignty in their food decisions. Many of these families that our farm serves are cash- strapped and having the freedom of choice, you mentioned choice around being able to buy what they prefer, but having the freedom of choice in their SNAP purchases allows them to choose fresh, local and chemical- free food fresh from the farm over what they might find in the very few grocery stores in our area. Our farm sets up markets in three different locations, as I mentioned earlier, throughout West and Southwest Philadelphia to help our neighbors have access to the diverse, variety of high quality and affordable produce that we grow. Full service grocery stores in our area of Southwest are rare and they're not often in easy walking distance. They can't be the solution. Grocery stores and corner stores cannot be the only solution, I will repeat. One of the major 24-hour grocers in our neighborhood recently closed, leaving hundreds of families now without food stamps, a sensitive decision over the weekend, and now without an accessible place to use any of the remaining funds on their cards.

So for majority of our African American neighborhood, the trauma generations of systemic injustice, de facto segregation, economic and health care, apartheid, all of that gets to be addressed in small but powerful ways when folks can go and make their purchases with SNAP. We can't imagine if we haven't been in the situation, what it means to be able to have even that sense of agency over what you feed your children, right, when you don't feel that you have that agency in other parts of your life. And so, these SNAP benefits are so helpful to our neighbors, especially to our elders who can purchase with their SNAP benefits. The seeds, plants, a lot of folks don't know this. You can buy seeds and food plants with SNAP. Let me remind everybody, y'all, SNAP was a USDA program. And so, it was set up for farmers to feed their families when they weren't making enough to be able to do so. I want to remind everyone it was a program for poor farmers originally, which means that you can buy seeds and plants, right. So there is an element of sovereignty to it. Let's promote that. Sankofa Farm at Bartram Gardens has been blessed to be able to accept SNAP benefits at our weekly markets for now over a decade. Every season we've seen an increase in the purchases using SNAP. What once was a little trickle of users, barely acquainted with farmers markets, became now a significant part of our farms earnings. And with these cuts, how will our people get fresh, local, healthy produce to nourish their families and to continue their cultural heritages. Our farm has a yearly Thanksgiving You Pick event where neighbors come and they can pick their own holiday greens for a small fee, fill up a bag. We've come to rely on our ability to help our neighbors, especially our seniors and families, purchase the best quality, chemical-free produce for their holiday kitchen. And now, what I'm praying about is how we will serve those people in the next coming weeks. We've already increased our donations to feeding sites and we may have to use some of our earnings at higher markets, higher income markets, to supplement our neighborhood sales. We are looking for solutions right now. And if we can be creative of what little we have as a small farm in Southwest, I know that you, our city fathers and mothers, can figure out how to provide significant support in the most creative and legal ways possible. The drastic, inhumane cut to SNAP while Washington Administration sends billions to prop up other causes in other countries is an affront to the dignity, both of our nation in general and of the working poor, especially our elders and our young people. I want to keep the light on for our elders who keep our economy going and who absolutely depend on SNAP funds to eat every day. As farmers, we've been quietly feeding our city for 14 years. And I ask you what would it take for our city government to fund feeding sites to purchase healthy food during this crisis? What would it take to support our city's farmers with reasonably accessible funding to offset reasonably accessible funding to offset the cost of fresh local produce that we sell? What would it take to provide employment opportunities for young families to supplement their lost food funding and the effects of other cuts that are on the way? What could it take to incentivize the million and billion dollar industries that call Philly home to help in this effort? I don't know all the ways, but I know that we elected you in part for your wisdom. And I believe in that wisdom, so I invite you all to be courageous in your wisdom. I invite you all also to think about the ways that we can support education. I thank you for the words that have come before that are speaking to this, because it reminds me that all the food in the world means nothing if you don't know how to use it, if you have been estranged from a generation or two from the kitchen or from fresh food.

So we have to do a little bit more than just providing money, be it food bucks or other supplements or even just fresh food. So on behalf of Sankofa Farms at Bartrams Garden and the families that we serve, I thank you for your time and your careful consideration about work.

Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate all of you. Council President -- just want to acknowledge our colleague Councilmember Driscoll, who's joined us. He's part of our committee.

I just want to personally say I thank all three of you for your participation on the task force dedicating your time, your expertise, your information and most importantly, your commitment to this issue. So I just want to publicly acknowledge you. I know it's a lot of hard work separate from the work that you're doing day in and day out. And so again, I have to remind everyone who is here, this is the last panel. We're going to do public comment. We've been working on this issue and this is just something we're addressing in a moment in time. We have to come up with a concrete strategy, a long-term plan to address the issue of food security. And I thank you for being a part of that solution and that process and we will work in partnership with our Mayor and the Administration to make sure we have a long-term plan to address this issue. Thank you very much.

I have a question about to Kate Colyer about the last mile, covering the last mile. I'm wondering if this model of covering the last mile, meaning having an Uber-like resource to deliver food obviates the issue around people having the ability to come to spaces or even the shame associated with having to go to a food bank. And if there's a relationship with those who have the produce or the food like the Sankofa Farms, is there a way to actually get it to people through sort of the system you mentioned?