New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani explained Friday that business owners, particularly bodegas, are scrambling to comply with new USDA requirements for what they must stock in order to accept SNAP benefits.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a deal with President Donald Trump on Friday that would give small business owners who accept SNAP benefits an extension of a new rule requiring certain items to be stocked.
“I have spoken to President Trump and United States Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) Brooke) Rollins, and as a result of those conversations, the President has agreed to give small business owners at least an extension of at least 90 days to comply with a rule that would have affected tens of thousands of grocery stores and bodegas accepting instant products across the country,” the mayor said at City Hall.
Mamdani thanked Trump and Rollins “for their consideration of New Yorkers and the hardship this would have imposed on millions of Americans. And in doing so, President Trump has brought relief to small business owners in our city and across America.”
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani holds a news conference to announce a deal with President Donald Trump to secure a 90-day delay on new Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) rules Friday at City Hall. (Adam Gray/Getty Images / Getty Images)
On Sept. 4, the USDA released new rules requiring at least seven different varieties of foods in four different categories of dairy, grains, proteins and fruits and vegetables, he said.
“For the corporate grocery giants, these requirements posed little challenge, but the situation was different for our neighborhood convenience stores and bodegas,” he explained. “Many New Yorkers use their Snap benefits at the bodegas that line our streets and sit on the corners of our intersections, the beating heart of so many of our neighborhoods.”
Originally, the USDA said businesses must comply with these new standards by November 4 or they would no longer be able to accept SNAP.
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Mamdani on Friday thanked Trump and Rollins “for their consideration of New Yorkers and the hardship this would have imposed on millions of Americans.” (Adam Gray/Getty Images / Getty Images)
“In an instant, the lives of more than a million New Yorkers and tens of millions more across America were thrown into chaos,” he said. “Workers, already facing a shortage of affordable places to buy everything they need for their home, skyrocketing prices at the checkout, and food deserts across the five boroughs, now feared that the few local places they could shop would no longer be able to accept their benefits, and that small business owners would struggle to meet these new requirements in an incredibly short period of time.”
Mamdani said that in the Bronx, SNAP can account for up to 30 percent of a bodega’s sales.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appears at a news conference to announce that he has reached a deal with President Donald Trump to get a 90-day delay on new rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. (Adam Gray/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Companies will now have three additional months to comply.
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“When I ran for this office, I promised New Yorkers that I would work with everyone to lower costs in our city and improve the lives of New Yorkers,” Mamdani said at the end of his speech. “I want to thank New Yorkers for their trust and President Trump for working with us to do just that.”
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