More New Yorkers are running out of food to feed their families — an uncertainty that was exacerbated this month after an unprecedented freeze on federal food assistance left people in limbo for two weeks.
With Thanksgiving approaching and SNAP funds resumed, families are figuring out how to stock their fridges, pay their end-of-the-month bills and still enjoy holiday meals. A new report by the anti-poverty group Robin Hood and Columbia University last week found families with children facing food insecurity are short an average of $205 a week. The report found more than one in three adult New Yorkers and four out of 10 families with children need more money for food.
“The data confirms that we are in the midst of an affordability crisis where New Yorkers even well above the poverty line are increasingly struggling to afford food,” said Ryan Vinh, one of the authors of the report and a research analyst at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.
Gothamist asked our audience for tips on a Google form and on air, and more than a dozen readers and listeners responded with their best strategies from asking grocers for a deal to substituting pineapple juice for maple syrup. Reporters also interviewed shoppers outside stores for their best tips.
People shop at a grocery store in Brooklyn on May 13, 2025 in New York City. The Labor Department's Consumer Price Index (CPI), released this morning, rose 0.2% month-over-month as consumers continue to see a rise in items such as groceries and clothing.
Go to multiple stores
New Yorkers say they use the city’s diverse ecosystem of grocery stores — from wholesalers like BJ’s and Costco, to national chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, to the locally owned Foodtown or C-Town — to their advantage.
“We go here, there, everywhere,” said Harold Ryan, who was shopping with his wife Pam Ryan at Scotty’s Marketplace in Tottenville on Staten Island.
The Ryans said they live 15 minutes away in Great Kills, but they don’t mind driving to “follow where the sales are.”
Smaller markets might have better deals on some produce, though shorter shelf lives, while wholesale stores might offer bulk meats that you can freeze and store. Specialty stores or ethnic markets could also offer cheaper items that are popular in certain communities.
This time of year, you're going to start finding some walnut sales.
Registered dietician Marty Davey said you shouldn't be afraid to try something you’ve never made before if you find it for cheap.
“ That's why God made apps on your phone,” she said, adding that it’s how she discovered celeriac.
Find the deals
Mariette Brathwaite-Best was shopping at the Key Food in St. George, Staten Island on a Wednesday morning. The store was one of three or four stops on her shopping trip. She said she scans flyers for the best deals and strategically plans her shopping trips.
“When you look at the flyers that you get at your doorstep, you see which one has the best price,” she said. “Because we all know how prices are in this economy.”
Most stores offer weekly deals on different products, shoppers and grocers say that’s the best way to save. A grocery store might be offering a good deal to draw customers to their store, or trying to sell avocados before they go bad.
Avocados imported from Mexico are for sale at a grocery store in New York on April 8, 2025.
Some shoppers advised asking your local store manager for a discount or asking when coupons or other deals will drop. Stores like BJ’s and Costco have coupons on their apps. Try the farmer’s market at the end of the day to see if a seller will give you a discount on what’s left.
New Yorkers on SNAP can also benefit from the city’s Health Bucks program; for every $2 spent at farmer’s markets, recipients can get $2 back in coupons they can use to purchase more produce. The state also expanded its similar FreshConnect program last week that allows SNAP recipients to get up to $20 coupons a week at participating farmer’s markets.
Plan your meals
If you know what you want to make for the week and go to the store with a list of ingredients, you’re less likely to impulse buy, and get things you don’t need, some shoppers said.
Brathwaite-Best, who just lost her job, has been planning her meals more meticulously. She spends Sunday preparing all her meals for the week and comes to the store with a list of ingredients.
Eat your leftovers. That’s all I got.
Other New Yorkers say don’t buy items just for one specific meal but rather ingredients that you can turn into several meals for the week, like beans, ground beef, onions, potatoes and frozen veggies.
Keep it simple
Shoppers suggested using what you have in your pantry to cook. They said to make your own spice mix with what you have. Having rice and beans or a more simple meal without a complicated sauce or additional garnishes can save you money on ingredients you may only use once or use a small portion of, they said.
“I love an accoutrement, I love, like a garnish on or an extra, a salsa or something that goes on the meal,” said Grace Katzmar, 33, who lives in Harlem. “I just find that delightful. But it is expensive because each of those little extra things is a cost.”
Keeping recipes simple also means making a meal will require less effort and time, which will make it more likely that you’ll cook more throughout the week, shoppers who spoke to Gothamist said.
Get creative
Davey, the dietician, said she learned to substitute different items that she already had on hand to save buying additional ingredients. For example, using the juice from canned pineapple as a replacement for maple syrup, or making a paste with ground walnuts and water to use as a thickening agent.
“ This time of year, you're going to start finding some walnut sales,” she said. “ Make sure that your nuts and seeds are either in your refrigerator or your freezer, because the oils will go bad.”
Turn it into a soup or smoothie
Eggs are displayed for sale in a Manhattan grocery store on February 25, 2025 in New York City.
If your fruit is about to go bad or you’re not sure what to do with a leftover bag of spinach, make a smoothie, one shopper said. Or, if you're unsure about what to do with your veggies, you can turn them into a soup. That avoids waste, she advised.
“Instead of finding a bunch of different ways to cook it into the food, which can be difficult and time consuming, I normally just blend it into a very big smoothie,” said Leandro Arenas, 22, who lives in Bayside.
Opt for foods that are filling
Make meals with high nutritional value that are filling, not just cheap, shoppers said. They said that will save you money by keeping you healthy while also leaving you feeling full.
Davey said her go-to is lentils with potatoes, cabbage, onions, garlic and caraway seeds.
“The potatoes are very filling. The lentils have a whole lot of protein and iron in them. And then the cabbages are cruciferous, which is really healthy for you,” she said.
“Iron and calcium are increased when you cook with onions. So the absorption rate is increased. Just spiking your food up with some onions actually increases the availability of the nutrition that you're getting,” Davey said.
Cut down food waste
The Ryans said preventing food waste was also a way to make their dollars stretch.
According to a 2023 study conducted by the city’s sanitation department, New Yorkers discarded 1.2 billion pounds of food in 2022. More than 86 million pounds were still in intact packaging.
To reduce waste, Brathwaite-Best said she’s no longer buying in bulk and only shopping for a week at a time.
“Before we used to buy large amounts and spend $300 or $400,” she said. “Now we are picking up necessities and going shopping weekly versus doing big bulk shopping.”
Jeff Baratta, another Staten Island shopper, put it more concisely.
“Eat your leftovers,” he said. “That’s all I got.”
