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Hello Canarsie,

I hope you are all well. I am happy to invite you to the next Jamaica Bay Greenway Coalition meeting, which will be held on November 2, 10:30 am at the Ryan Visitor's Center. This will be a very special coalition meeting because as Alice Friedman (from NYCDOT Greenways Department) will join us to introduce DOT's Jamaica Bay Greenway Implementation project and planning process. This is an amazing first step to begin to address some of the greenway issues that have been discussed in previous meetings and workshops. Also, during this meeting we wanted to focus sometime to defining our role(s) in this process as well as how we all mutually benefit from coming together.

As was discussed in the last meeting, we ask that you think about the following and come prepared to discuss:

o Your interests & goals for being part of this project & Coalition

o How you feel the Coalition can help your goals

o What you can do to contribute to the Coalition

Benefit cuts to food stamp recipients kick in Friday, a move by Congress that will siphon $5 billion off a program that helps one in seven Americans put breakfast, lunch and dinner on the table.

As president of the Food Bank for New York City, Margaret Purvis expects those cuts will draw even more people to organizations that already provide 400,000 meals a day to hungry city folks.

"Our members are panicking," she said as time wound down before the benefit decreases go into effect. "We're telling everyone to make sure that you are prepared for longer lines."

Needy Americans who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are expected to suffer an average loss of $36 a month from a $275.13 per household benefit. There are a near-record 47.6 million Americans, representing 23.1 million households, on the program. The cost of the program will hit $63.4 billion in 2013.

SNAP allocations built into President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill are coming to an end, leading to the cuts. Over the past few years, a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans have voted in favor of the cuts in exchange for increased education funding and school nutrition programs.