Background
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In 1985, the Commissioner of the New York
State Department of Health (DOH) created a Nutrition Outreach
Pilot Program to address the problem of increasing hunger
and the underutilization of government nutrition programs.
As a result of the pilot’s success, state legislation
was adopted in 1987 to establish the Nutrition Outreach and
Education Program with a state appropriation of $500,000.
When federal matching funds became available for food stamp
outreach as a part of the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988, a
portion of the existing state monies earmarked for nutrition
outreach was used to obtain federal matching dollars. This
brought state and federal funding available for the NOEP to
a total of $1.3 million.
Since 1987, the Nutrition Consortium of NYS, Inc. has administered
the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program (NOEP) under
contract with the New York State Department of Health. The
fundamental goal of NOEP is to increase the availability and
utilization of federal nutrition assistance programs as a
means to ensure better nutrition and reduce the incidence
of hunger among low-income populations. In order to achieve
this goal, the Nutrition Consortium subcontracts with community-based
agencies to conduct outreach at the local level to promote
fuller implementation and utilization of federal nutrition
programs in underserved areas across the state. Subcontracting
agencies are awarded contracts under a competitive bid process
conducted every three years.
Currently, the Consortium subcontracts with various community-based
agencies across New York State. All of these agencies implement
local strategies to assist eligible individuals and households
to access the Food Stamp Program (FSP), and some also work
to increase participation in the Summer Food Service Program
(SFSP), and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). Strategies
include networking with an array of local service providers,
conducting outreach through traditional and nontraditional
media outlets to potentially eligible individuals and the
community at large, providing training and technical support
to human service agency workers, encouraging the establishment
of food programs in eligible areas where they do not exist,
and reducing local barriers to participation in the Food Stamp
Program and other government nutrition assistance programs. |
NOEP Today
Funding sources |
Today, NOEP continues to be funded with a combination
of federal and state dollars. As part of New York’s annual
budget process, the State Legislature appropriates state general
funds to NOEP. Federal food stamp outreach monies match a
portion of these state funds. When these federal dollars are
received by the state, they first flow to the state’s
food stamp administering agency — the Office of Temporary
and Disability Assistance (OTDA). OTDA keeps a portion of
the funds to conduct a statewide commercial campaign, and
the remainder is transferred to the DOH to contract for the
administration of the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program.
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