New York City has announced it will end its year-long pilot program that provided food vouchers to migrant families in city-funded hotels. This program, intended to reduce food waste and lower expenses, issued prepaid debit cards to roughly 2,600 migrant families, allowing them the flexibility to purchase food and essential supplies. Each family of four received approximately $350 per week under the initiative.
Launched to address the inefficiencies of boxed meal deliveries, the voucher program was estimated to cut costs in half by enabling families to buy food aligned with their cultural preferences rather than receiving prepackaged meals. Despite its cost-saving design, the program faced repeated criticism, particularly from conservative voices who viewed the expenditure as excessive.
Mayor Eric Adams’s office confirmed that, as New York City moves toward more competitive contracting for asylum seeker services, it has opted not to renew the emergency contract for the food voucher program, set to conclude in January 2025. The city has allocated over $2 billion in migrant support over the last two years while striving to manage resources more effectively for its 222,000 recent arrivals.
The decision underscores New York City’s ongoing balancing act between providing essential support for migrants and managing escalating costs.
🚨#BREAKING: New York City has just announced that they are ending its food vouchers for migrants
New York City has announced it will no longer provide vouchers to migrants for food, ending a pilot program that had faced repeated criticism from… pic.twitter.com/8OytLmF02F
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) November 8, 2024
New York City ends voucher program that provided taxpayer-funded food vouchers for illegal immigrants.
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— AF Post (@AFpost) November 8, 2024
Sources:
- CBS News – NYC ending controversial debit card program for migrants
- MSN – NYC ending voucher program for migrants
- PIX11 – NYC to end migrant debit card program