Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York on Friday said he had made a deal with President Trump to give bodegas and other U.S. retailers more time to increase their stock of fresh meat and vegetables to stay in the federal food stamp program.
New rules, which originally took effect on Nov. 4, require retailers to stock at least seven varieties of food staples in several categories, such as meat, dairy, grains and vegetables. The rules also set a minimum requirement for the amount of fresh food sold. Stores that did not comply would lose authorization to accept food stamps and would have to wait six months to reapply.
Mr. Mamdani said on Friday that small businesses nationwide would have another 90 days to meet the requirements.
The deal comes after Mr. Mamdani wrote a letter this month to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asking for a six-month delay. The mayor said that thousands of bodegas and corner stores in New York City depend on revenue from customers who receive benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and that losing SNAP authorization could put those stores out of business.
“We share U.S.D.A.’s goal of improving the quality and variety of food available to SNAP participants,” he wrote. “But a policy designed to expand access to nutritious food must not inadvertently make that food harder to obtain.”
The mayor noted that the Agriculture Department, which oversees SNAP, did not issue guidance on the new requirements until Sept. 4, and said that many of the affected stores were struggling to comply in time. A group of 12 Senate Republicans asked the department for a similar six-month implementation delay on Sept. 29.
At a news conference at City Hall on Friday afternoon, the mayor called the deal a “victory” for small business owners and another example of the benefits of his relationship with Mr. Trump.
He said he told the president pushing the rule now “would throw the lives of so many working New Yorkers into a real place of anxiety and chaos.” A group of supporters stood behind him on Friday holding signs that read “Protecting Our Bodegas.”
A White House spokeswoman, Allison Schuster, said in a statement that Mr. Trump was “always willing to work with those interested in helping their business community.”
There are about 1,100 grocery stores in the five boroughs and about 10,000 bodegas, according to a July report from the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Food stamp purchases account for 15 to 20 percent of a typical bodega’s sales, and as much as 30 percent in some Bronx neighborhoods, the mayor’s office said on Friday.
The announcement comes as more and more Americans are losing SNAP benefits after a tightening of work rules for able-bodied adults under the Trump administration. About 26,500 New Yorkers have lost benefits under the new rules, the mayor said last month.
The Trump administration this week also proposed changing rules that allowed states to expand who was eligible for SNAP. The change could prevent 6.3 million people from receiving benefits.
Many states could also be forced to shoulder a share of SNAP costs for the first time under the administration’s new rules.
Gina Plata-Nino, interim director for SNAP at the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, welcomed the delay on Friday but said it did not change the scale of Mr. Trump’s cuts to the program.
“It offers, like, a tiny Band-Aid on a heart surgery,” Ms. Plata-Nino said.
Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, and Mr. Trump are ideological opposites who have nonetheless established a surprisingly warm and productive relationship in the past year. The two men have had three meetings, and the mayor has said they also speak by phone occasionally.
While some of the mayor’s supporters have questioned his friendliness toward Mr. Trump, Mr. Mamdani often cites the benefits of having a direct line to the president. He used it to secure the release of a Columbia University student from federal immigration custody, and the two leaders have discussed federal assistance for a long-delayed housing development in Queens.
But their relationship has limits. After federal immigration agents shot and detained a man in New York City last month, the mayor appealed to Mr. Trump to release the man but was not successful.
Mr. Mamdani said at the Friday news conference that he had brought concerns over the food stocking rules “directly to President Trump” and that the president “took that concern seriously.”
The mayor said the city would work with the U.S. Agriculture Department and with the city’s health department and Department of Small Business Services to provide store owners with guidance on the new requirements.
Radhamés Rodriguez, the president of United Bodegas of America, an advocacy group, said the delay would give business owners a chance to “better understand the new requirements and regulations” and adjust.
“Our bodegas are more than businesses: We are part of the neighborhood where we serve,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “And for many families, we are their closest and the most convenient sources for fresh food.”
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