As New Federal Law Reshapes SNAP Eligibility and Safety Net Programs, Robin Hood Invests $38.6 Million in Q3 Grants to Fight NYC Poverty

Robin Hood’s Poverty Tracker projects new federal SNAP work requirements will push 70,000 more New Yorkers into poverty annually, with NYC’s safety net also facing cuts to emergency housing vouchers, health insurance, and Medicaid, and other support programs

Q3 investments bring 2026 YTD grantmaking total to approximately $71 million

NEW YORK — Robin Hood, New York City’s largest local poverty-fighting philanthropy, today announced its third round of grantmaking for 2026, totaling $38.6 million across 95 grants to direct-service, nonprofit organizations serving all five city boroughs. The investments span five thematic areas — early childhood, school-age learning, young adult opportunity, household and housing stability, and public policy — with key funding to expand emergency food access, preserve affordable housing, elevate child care quality citywide, and continue Robin Hood’s three-year, $15 million commitment to scale a proven teacher training model boosting student achievement in literacy and math.

The backdrop to this quarter’s grantmaking is the ongoing rollout of a sweeping federal law reshaping eligibility for SNAP food assistance, Medicaid, Essential Plan coverage, emergency housing vouchers, and other safety net programs. As those changes take effect, this quarter’s grant investments underscore the renewed urgency of making New York City more affordable for its nearly 5 million residents living near or in poverty.

“New Yorkers are feeling the squeeze from two directions at once — rising costs and a shrinking safety net. Our research projects that new SNAP work requirements alone will push 70,000 more New Yorkers into poverty every year, and that’s before you count what’s coming for Medicaid and housing vouchers,” said Richard R. Buery, Jr., CEO of Robin Hood. “This $38.6 million investment is about being here for New Yorkers when they need us most, supporting families who are losing ground, and strengthening the organizations and institutions standing between them and the edge.”

Early Childhood ($6,983,000, 12 grants)

This quarter’s grants in the Early Childhood portfolio focus on a simple goal: making sure New York City’s fast-growing child care system delivers quality in the classroom, not just more seats. As the city expands seats for three-year-olds and launches its new 2-K program for two-year-olds this September, Robin Hood’s investments aim to ensure every child’s classroom experience builds the foundation they need to succeed in school. New and renewed investments this quarter include:

• $1,000,000 to Bank Street College of Education, the city’s original quality-training partner from the rollout of universal Pre-K. This new grant will train early childhood staff citywide in infant and toddler development — filling a gap city officials say puts quality at risk as the 2-K program grows. New York City is investing $1.4 million alongside Robin Hood’s support.
• Renewed support continues for proven programs, including New York-Presbyterian (maternal and child health), Teaching Matters and Teaching Lab (early literacy coaching), the Association to Benefit Children, One Brooklyn Health System, and others.

School-Age Learning ($$10,592,500, 23 grants)

Grants in the School-Age Children portfolio sustain academic, social-emotional, and post-secondary supports. This quarter’s new investments include:

• $300,000 to the City University of New York (CUNY) to scale a proven model pairing AI-powered civic technology with trained student navigators to drive benefits enrollment and retention for 73,000 low-income CUNY community college students and 220,000 family members across all seven campuses.
• $75,000 to Chalkbeat to produce high-impact journalism that deepens public understanding of literacy instruction in New York City.
• Renewed investments continue support for Relay Graduate School of Education, Teaching Lab, Coney Island Prep, iMentor, CAMBA, Good Shepherd Services, Big Picture Learning, and a range of benefits-access partners, including the Child Center of New York, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, and WHEDCO.

Young Adult Opportunity ($6,756,000, 19 grants)

Robin Hood’s Young Adult grant portfolio focuses on college completion, career pathways, and justice-system diversion. This quarter’s new investments include:

• $200,000 to the College Persistence Coalition for the Gateway Math Lab, aiming to boost pass rates in Gateway Math — a required course with just a 48 percent pass rate at LaGuardia Community College and a leading cause of dropout, even among students otherwise on track to graduate. The model is being piloted at LaGuardia, MESA Charter High School, and DREAM Charter High School to train adjunct professors and raise pass rates. If successful, the Coalition plans to expand to two CUNY colleges and five high schools by 2027–28.
• $100,000 to Shared Horizons to support a seven-month cross-sector planning process that will produce a shared, measurable, population-level goal for young adult economic mobility in NYC — for example, all young adults employed in a mobility-wage job, or zero percent disconnection among young people ages 16–24.
• Renewed support continues for Per Scholas, The HOPE Program, Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, Commonpoint Queens, Chinese American Planning Council, BronxWorks, Center for Justice Innovation, and Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO), among others.

Household and Housing Stability ($8,624,000, 27 grants)

As housing and other essential costs continue to weigh heaviest on New York City households — and as federal changes to SNAP and Emergency Housing Vouchers threaten to add further strain — grants in the Adults and Housing & Homelessness portfolios meet the moment: stabilizing housing costs, preventing displacement, and expanding access to safe, affordable homes so working families can put down lasting roots in the neighborhoods they call home. New investments this quarter include:

• $500,000 to West Side Campaign Against Hunger to distribute emergency food in high-needs communities via The Roundtable: Allies for Food Access.
• $355,000 to the Research Foundation of CUNY to research and design a pilot to help adult learners re-enroll at CUNY and complete an associate or bachelor’s degree.
• $325,000 to the Corporation for Supportive Housing to implement an alternative-to-incarceration housing program for mentally ill individuals.
• $250,000 to Sharing Excess to fund the purchase of a new refrigerated trailer and expanded transportation and delivery capabilities for emergency food distribution.
• $50,000 to Change Capital Fund to preserve affordable housing through support for community land trusts and community ownership models.
• Renewed support continues for a wide range of benefits-access, legal services, and housing partners, including the Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, Urban Justice Center, Center for Urban Community Services, Make the Road New York, Women in Need, and Breaking Ground.

Public Policy ($5,658,270, 14 grants)

Robin Hood’s Public Policy grant portfolio strengthens cross-sector research, advocacy, and infrastructure — work made more urgent as federal policy changes ripple through New York’s safety net. This quarter’s new investment:

• $50,000 to the Public Policy & Education Fund of New York for Citizen Action New York to support organizing to improve wages for child care workers.
• Renewed investments continue support for Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy (Poverty Tracker), the Vera Institute of Justice, New Yorkers United for Child Care, the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, City Limits, the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Moms First, the Education Trust-New York, Educators for Excellence, and the Human Services Council.

Federal Policy Backdrop

Recent federal legislation is beginning to change the shape of New York’s safety net across several fronts:

• SNAP: According to analysis by Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy and the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Robin Hood-funded report found that new work requirements, eligibility restrictions, and anticipated cuts to the SNAP program are projected to push 100,000 New York state residents into poverty annually, 70,000 of whom live in New York City.
• Emergency Housing Vouchers: While media reports note that about 5,000 to 7,000 households rely upon emergency housing vouchers to remain housed, Robin Hood’s Poverty Tracker also found that Section 8 programs and CityFHEPS keep 150,000 New Yorkers above the poverty line and spare another 140,000 New Yorkers from deep poverty. Threats to voucher programs add new pressures to the local rental market, where median rents are already above national baseline averages.
• Health Coverage and Medicaid: New York’s health-insurance safety net has already begun to shrink. Robin Hood’s Poverty Tracker report projected that nearly half a million New Yorkers were at risk of losing coverage under the state’s Essential Plan — which, alongside Medicaid, provides low-cost health insurance to low-income residents — because of federal cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That risk materialized on July 1, 2026, when the state confirmed approximately 450,000 New Yorkers lost Essential Plan coverage after federal funding cuts forced a scale-back of the program. Separately, shifts in federal policy will continue to push more uninsured people onto Medicaid, driving up the state-funded portion of Medicaid by as much as $53 billion over the next three years, even as federal support shrinks.

Robin Hood’s Q3 grant investments are aimed squarely at absorbing pressure where this shift will land hardest — food and income supports, housing stability, and health care coverage. This quarter’s grant docket also invests in child care quality, student achievement, college access, workforce development, and the public-policy infrastructure that helps effective solutions to poverty reach scale.

About Robin Hood
 We are NYC’s largest local poverty-fighting philanthropy and since 1988, we have invested $3 billion to elevate and fuel New Yorkers’ permanent escapes from poverty. In 2025, through $291 million in fundraising and $140 million in grants to 295 community partners, we created pathways to opportunity through strategic partnerships on child care, child poverty, jobs, living wages and more. We are scaling impact at a population level for the 2.2 million New Yorkers living in poverty. At Robin Hood, we believe your starting point in life should not define where you end up. To learn more about our work and impact, please visit robinhood.org and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and X.

Media Contact

Kevin Thompson/Crystal Cooper, press@robinhood.org