When President Donald Trump signed his administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law last July, leaders in human services braced for the worst, anticipating massive cuts to benefits supporting America’s most vulnerable. 

This month, after a three-month grace period, the cuts to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), sometimes referred to as food stamps, are going into effect, and with the potential to affect over 40,000 vulnerable New York City residents, the UJA-Federation of New York announced on Wednesday that it has committed $5 million to 17 local nonprofits.

The funding will go towards workforce development, job training, placement, retention and helping recipients find ways to enroll for benefits under SNAP’s current eligibility rules if needed, according to the federation.

“There have been conversations in anticipation about this coming,” Shana Dunn, planning director of the caring department at the federation, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Maybe we weren’t 100% sure when, but we knew it was coming.”

In New York, most SNAP recipients need to recertify for benefits every year, meaning the effects of the cuts will be ongoing based on when recipients need to renew. Under the new eligibility rules, beneficiaries need to work over 20 hours per week or volunteer to qualify for assistance.

“There’s no way that philanthropy can fill this gap of what will be cut from people’s income for food,” Dunn said, reiterating the message told to eJP many times over the past year about the Trump administration’s social service cuts. “This is one way that we can be like moving the needle a little bit.”

The 17 nonprofits receiving the one-year grants include agencies in the five boroughs, Staten Island, Long Island and Westchester, including the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island, YM & YWHA of Washington Heights & Inwood, Commonpoint, the Marion and Aaron Gural JCC, Westchester Jewish Community Services and STEM Alliance of Larchmont-Mamaroneck. Organizations will have the opportunity to renew the grant, with support expected to run 3-5 years. 

While some of the nonprofits receiving grants are new partners, most are established UJA partners, meaning UJA didn’t need to create new programs, just bolster existing ones.

A 2023 UJA study found that 1 in 10 of the city’s 74,000 Jewish households that UJA serves receive some form of government food support.“UJA, since its founding, has been committed to supporting low-income Jewish communities and the greater New York City community, and this is a change that’s going to affect thousands and thousands of people across the city, so being able to provide additional resources and capacity to our nonprofit partners, we hope will make a big difference,” Dunn said.