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A report released last week by the City Council and FoodChange, an anti-poverty organization, said that nearly 70,000 eligible immigrants in Queens do not participate in the federal Food Stamp program.

In a meeting and discussion last Monday at the Queens Museum of Art, several council members, along with members of FoodChange, held a public strategy session and discussion in an attempt to increase immigrant participation in the program.

The event was attended by legislators from all over Queens as well as Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).

Speaker Quinn characterized the meeting as a way to “take City Hall out of City Hall, and into our districts and our neighborhoods.”

According to the report, 25 percent of Food Stamp-eligible but non-participating New Yorkers are immigrants. The City Council is encouraging increased participation, because Food Stamps are a federal program, and money unused is left on the table. The initiative to increase Food Stamp participation is a part of the “Food Today, Healthy Tomorrow” initiative that the City Council began in September of 2006.

“The problem of hunger in New York City is a problem that every New Yorker should care about,” said Councilman Eric Gioia (D- Sunnyside). Gioia went further, saying that increasing participation in the program increases the buying power of New Yorkers, bringing more money into the City at large.

“New York City should be leading the nation in increasing Food Stamp participation,” added Nicole Christiansen, Director of Food Access at FoodChange. Adam Gurvitch, Director of Health Advocacy with the New York Immigration Coalition, agreed.

“This is exactly the kind of action that our City Council should be taking,” Gurvitch said.

As far as non-participation was concerned, the study found a number of reasons for the lack of immigrant participation, but chief among them was a lack of awareness in the immigrant community itself, as well as common misconceptions about the purpose of programs.

“They’re just afraid of everything, they’re afraid of being deported for any reason,” said Sandy Moya, Coordinator of the Single Stop Program at the Woodside Family Development Center. Moya says the key to getting word out among immigrant communities is establishing the idea that programs like Food Stamps are only designed to help. “If they learn to trust you, I think that’s the most important thing,” Moya continued. “I think it’s going to take time, I think they’re taking the right approach by talking to community groups.”