A federal program helps NYC families eat healthy meals. Trump's new legislation cuts it.

On a sweltering afternoon this week, Ana Garcia, 41, and her 3-year-old son, Elliott, arrived at the Goodhue Community Center on Staten Island to pick up their weekly haul of fresh, affordable produce.

- By ELIZA FAWCETT AND AMY ZIMMER

Garcia tasted a sample of tabbouleh salad. She and her son surveyed a spread of leafy greens, zucchini, summer squash, and peaches. For eight years, her family has returned regularly to buy a box of locally sourced produce. This week's box — priced at $14, or $7 for those with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits — included a bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables, plus a recipe for tabbouleh.

“It's awesome,” Garcia said. “We love coming here.”

But the Food Box program, administered by the nonprofit Children’s Aid, may not exist much longer. President Donald Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress and signed by Trump last week — eliminated funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed, and made other changes to SNAP. SNAP-Ed, which funds nutrition education and anti-obesity initiatives nationwide, is set to expire on Sept. 30.

That will mean the disappearance of programs that help people on a limited budget eat healthier and shop smarter, teach children and families how to cook meals from scratch, and promote physically active lifestyles. Those efforts seem to align with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, initiative, but will be impacted nonetheless.

Advocates are bracing for how the legislation will affect childhood hunger across the city and state. Changes to SNAP, including new eligibility rules, could result in hundreds of thousands of parents losing their food benefits. In all, New York state is facing up to $1.4 billion in annual SNAP cuts and cost shifts, with the state expected to start covering $1.2 billion for the program by October 2027.

“Not just in New York, but nationwide, we will see increases in child hunger,” said Dr. Jennifer Cadenhead, a research assistant professor at Columbia's Teachers College, who focuses on diet, food quality, and food insecurity issues. “That really makes me sad.”