NYC expands migrant debit card program for food, baby supplies

NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) – The city will significantly increase the number of migrant families receiving prepaid debit cards to buy food and baby supplies, a program that drew significant criticism at its launch.

Now, debit cards will be handed out to 7,300 more people over the next six months, according to a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office. Since its launch, the program has served about 900 families.

The cards, initially launched in February, which will replace city-provided food boxes handed out at hotels. The expansion will include 14 hotels housing migrant families across the city.

Families are given debit cards with a 28-day allowance distributed over four weeks. For a family of four with two children under 5 years old, the cards are loaded with $350 a week, according to city officials.

“[The city is] enabling newly-arriving families the ability to make choices for themselves and their children by using these cards. They can buy from local shops, support small businesses, and manage their own resources,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said in a statement.

It’s been met with some pushback, but city officials have said the debit cards will end up saving the city up to $4 million by the end of the year.

“This is not something extra that we’re doing, this is us trying to think of an innovative way to make sure that we are giving people what we’re required to give them but that we are being efficient and not wasteful,” Williams-Isom told PIX11 News in March.

New Jersey-based company MoCaFi is working with the city on the program, and was awarded a $53 million emergency contract to administer the program – around $2 million of which would ultimately go to the company, city officials said.

And, the program has features built in to prevent misuse and fraud, Williams-Isom told PIX11 News.

“We are making sure we are putting in guardrails so people can only buy food and baby supplies,” Williams-Isom said. “So if you try to go to Bloomingdale’s and use it for shoes, it will be rejected. If there are things where we see people abuse it, we can take the card back.”

Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter from Los Angeles who has covered New York City since 2023. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here .

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