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The Business Council of NYS strongly supports the Chef to Community Tax Credit (A.9055 (Fall)/S.8719 (Hinchey)). This would create a tax credit to encourage charitable food donations by offering restaurants and businesses a non-refundable tax credit of up to $10,000 annually per location.
With new work requirements for SNAP that will soon be going into effect, thousands of New Yorkers are at risk of losing coverage. This will be a time where access to food banks and other similar food programs run through non-profit organizations will be key to help supplement the loss from SNAP benefits. Current centralized food programs are not always able to reach vulnerable populations due to multiple factors outside of their control such as lack of donations, lack of access to reliable transportation and so on. However, local restaurants, already embedded in every community, have untapped capacity to prepare nutritious meals at scale.
The Chef to Community Tax Credit offers a non-refundable tax credit of up to $10,000 annually per location for donating prepared meals to independent 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Contributions are compensated at 50% of fair market value, capped at $7 per meal with an estimated total annual cost of $20 million or less.
Organizations such as Rethink Food that partner with local restaurants and food businesses to provide chef-crafted, nutritious meals to communities in need, have proven how impactful a partnership between local restaurants and non-profits can be. In New York City, Rethink Food has already delivered over 35 million meals to 282 community-based organizations. Rethink Food has also launched successful pilot programs in Arkansas, South Carolina, and South Dakota, demonstrating that this model is a powerful tool for economic and health improvement, from the most rural to urban communities. To date, Rethink Food has directed over $135 million to local restaurants. The Chef to Community Tax Credit ensures the Rethink model will be replicated to help meet the needs of the current of the most vulnerable communities
Programs such as Rethink Foods has proven to have provide various benefits, not only do they assist with combating food insecurity by leveraging existing restaurant infrastructure for immediate, scalable meal production but has also helped boost local economies and overall community health by partnering with these local restaurants. For every $10,000 invested they generate 24% higher returns as well as creating local jobs. The majority of participating restaurants nationwide source locally, keeping 80-100% of purchases in-state. The meals are also nutritiously balanced, which can have a long-term impact on lowering health costs for both New Yorkers and the State.
New York has already seen success from similar programs such as the Restaurant Resilience Program that provided grants to restaurants to prepare and deliver meals to food-insecure individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the Farm to Food Bank Tax Credit incentivizes farmers to donate surplus agricultural products to food banks and pantries by offsetting the costs associated with harvesting, packaging, and transporting these donations.
The partnership between business and non-profits is crucial and very beneficial to the economy but more importantly the people of New York. This will help ease the burden of the most vulnerable New Yorkers during a sever affordability crisis.
For theses reasons, The Business Council supports A.9055 (Fall)/S.8719 (Hinchey).