Legislature approves $2,500 and county review to reprint food‑access guides as SNAP interruption continues

Tompkins County legislators voted unanimously Nov. 6 to authorize up to $2,500 from the contingent fund to reprint five regional food‑resource guides created by volunteer organizer Barbara Lang, with the Ithaca Times serving as the fiscal sponsor.

Barbara Lang told the legislature the pocket guides (also available by QR code at impactithaca.com) were produced to make local food pantry and resource information more visible in rural and urban neighborhoods and asked for $2,500 to print 10,000 copies. "Take these guides. Look at them," Lang said during her presentation, and offered to supply PDFs for distribution to legislators and staff. The motion was amended to require review and coordination with the county attorney, county administration (including Department of Social Services) and the Food Bank of the Southern Tier before payment and printing contracts are finalized.

The vote followed county administration updates that emergency funding authorized earlier by the legislature was being allocated to the Food Bank of the Southern Tier while staff continue to convene partners to address gaps in food access amid a statewide interruption to SNAP benefits. The deputy county administrator told legislators the county was working with DSS and community partners on short‑term distribution and longer‑term coordination. "The emergency funding that was authorized by this body is in the process of being allocated to the Southern Tier food bank," the deputy administrator said, adding that Code Blue sheltering and other hunger‑response actions were underway.

Legislators pressed for coordination to avoid duplication with materials already distributed by the food bank and local pantries and asked that political sponsor language be removed from reprints; the amended motion tasks county staff with vetting drafts and distribution plans before the county contracts for printing.