Free nutrition programs for low-income NYC families are closing at four public hospitals

Longtime food and health programs that serve thousands of low-income families free of charge are closing as of Saturday at four public hospitals across New York City, according to state and city officials and documents reviewed by Gothamist.

While the programs are expected to resume at other locations, the closures risk cutting vulnerable New Yorkers off from key benefits, including food assistance, health screenings, and nutrition counseling.

Many of the benefits have been paid out through November, but it is unclear exactly where the new locations will be, and the closures could sow confusion for families who rely on them.

“When you take that away, it leaves families to fend for themselves,” said Felicia Singh, director of policy and government relations at the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, a statewide nonprofit advocacy group with more than 80 member organizations.

The programs are part of New York’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a federally funded, state-administered effort carried out by more than 200 local agencies, nearly half of them in New York City. To qualify, a family of four must make less than $56,000 annually, and the program is open to non-citizen residents.

Proponents say WIC is vital for pregnant women, new mothers and young children in under-resourced communities — particularly communities of color, where food insecurity and maternal mortality rates tend to be disproportionately high. On average, the program provides around $68 per participant in monthly food aid, as well as breastfeeding support, medical referrals, and health education.

The affected hospitals include Jacobi and North Central Bronx in the Bronx, Kings County in Brooklyn, and Gouverneur in Manhattan. Since 2009, they have received more than $79 million in state grants to offer WIC, with about half that going to Kings County, according to public records.

As of May, the hospitals had more than 10,700 WIC participants, state health officials said. But following a monthslong competitive bidding process launched in 2022, none of the hospitals were awarded new contracts to provide program services for the next five years, the officials confirmed.

Now, because of the closures, many New Yorkers of color may have a harder time obtaining health and social services beyond WIC, said Karina Albistegui Adler, senior advocate with the Health Justice program of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a nonprofit civil rights organization.

“The public hospitals are such a hub for communities, where all the services can be accessed in one go, the referrals are more seamless, people don’t have to go from office to office,” she said. “It’s unfortunate these programs are being removed.”

In response to questions from Gothamist, the state health department said bids were selected based on criteria in a request for applications and that some of the winning bidders are located near the hospitals where WIC programs are ending. But spokespeople declined to name those agencies, noting that contracts were still being finalized and the procurement was in a “blackout” period restricting public disclosure of the grant awards.

Without that information, some WIC recipients may be left unsure about the best place to transfer to after the current contracts expire on Sept. 30. The state health department said, for now, overall funding for the program will remain the same — roughly $147 million for the federal fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 — as will the number of program sites in New York City.

Asked about the closures, the department insisted participants would be connected with other local agencies and maintain “uninterrupted access to WIC resources” under orderly transition plans. Many participants’ benefits have been issued through November, and staff are helping coordinate transfers, including by sending targeted text messages and emails with alternative agencies listed.

Still, as of Sept. 21, more than 3,500 participants had yet to schedule an appointment with a new agency, the spokespeople acknowledged. Another 9,900 participants’ records had been transferred to other agencies since June, when participants began to be notified of the closures during regular appointments.

Over the summer, participants were sent letters announcing the closures and providing basic information on different WIC programs to which they could transfer. At Jacobi, which runs its program jointly with North Central Bronx, staff put up a large sign advertising similar information outside the WIC office. All four of the alternatives identified were at least two miles away, on the other side of the Bronx River Parkway.

NYC Health + Hospitals, the city’s public health care system, told Gothamist in a statement it was “disappointed” the state did not re-up the programs, but said it would refer patients to the nearest alternatives and work with state officials to ensure patient access to critical resources.

Health + Hospitals also said it was adding a site to its South Brooklyn Health (formerly Coney Island Hospital) WIC program, and that the Metropolitan WIC site in East Harlem — today part of Eastside WIC — would become its own program. The health system did not respond to questions about how these changes, in tandem with the closures, would affect its overall capacity for WIC participants or the staff who supported the programs.

Meanwhile, the state health department said another agency would take over one of Kings County's three WIC sites, in East Midwood, and that participants could continue receiving services there. The department did not specify the agency but said participants can choose the most convenient location for them and many access services remotely.

The axed programs began winding down earlier this month, weeks before the Sept. 30 end date of the hospitals’ state contracts, which were enacted in 2020.

In one example, the Jacobi and North Central Bronx program posted a “farewell video” on YouTube on Sept. 1, the same day the director featured therein said the program would start “closing its doors” to more than 5,000 families served yearly. But it wasn’t until Sept. 7 that the two hospitals shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and in an email to staff, a screenshot of the email obtained by Gothamist shows.

Alongside an animated illustration of an orange hand, the video’s title reads: “Waving Goodbye to our WIC Department.”

The closures come as the national WIC program faces steep funding cuts in House Republicans’ spending plans — a major point of contention in discussions around the looming government shutdown.

Anti-hunger advocates, the White House, and Democratic lawmakers say the program’s nearly 7 million enrollees would be among those most harmed by a shutdown. But many people eligible for WIC do not participate because of bureaucratic and practical barriers and confusion and stigma about the program.

As of 2019, about 206,000 people in the city were receiving WIC, per a 2020 report from the state and city. Statewide enrollment and benefits costs have each jumped by double-digit percentages in the years since due to “pandemic-related challenges and [program] flexibilities,” the state comptroller’s office found in March.

“It was a very busy WIC office,” said Alexandra Boni, a pediatric resident physician at Jacobi who has referred multiple patients to the program, filling out countless forms on children’s health. “It doesn't seem like they were closed because of a lack of business.”

People interested in finding WIC programs in New York can use the WIC2Go mobile app or call the state health department’s Growing Up Healthy Hotline at 1-800-522-5006.