If enacted, this rule will target households with an average income of $557 per month, which in New York City means that about 70,000 will be affected. While neither hunger nor SNAP utilization discriminates, this rule will also disproportionately hurt people of color and the local grocery stores that are able to stay open with help from customers using SNAP.

People in many high-cost-of-living areas and economically distressed communities won’t be protected from this ruthless policy, even as the average cost of a meal in Manhattan approaches $6 — nearly double the national average.

While the rule will not affect SNAP recipients with dependents, those over age 50, pregnant women or people with disabilities, it will affect many other vulnerable people, like poor college students and people who need to care for a family member and cannot work. It will impact more people than live in the city of Boston. And it will create hunger, not a work incentive. Job training makes for better job candidates — hunger does not.

SNAP is our nation’s first line of defense against hunger. When people cannot get this crucial support, they are forced to turn to the emergency food network. Unfortunately, charity support cannot make up for the impact created by bad policy. Food Bank for New York City’s soup kitchens and food pantries are already stretching their resources trying to meet rising need and often coming up short. Our recent report found that 85 percent of soup kitchens and pantries cited an increase in first-time visitors this year, and more than half said they ran out of food in a given month last year.

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I was at our soup kitchen in Harlem attempting to calm people waiting in a line that stretched down the street. When a donor asked me if the crowd was due to the upcoming holiday, I explained that no, the line is about growing poverty in an increasingly expensive neighborhood. That line was just one of hundreds across our city.