Furhan Ahmad pushes Albany to expand food support for seniors

New York Assembly District 66 candidate Furhan Ahmad is urging stronger state backing for older adults in Lower Manhattan who cannot afford food and are stuck on service waitlists. He is also supporting funding for senior centers and bills aimed at protecting meal programs and in-home care. Why it matters: - Older adults in Lower Manhattan are facing rising food insecurity even in a district often seen as affluent. - Ahmad is making senior hunger and aging services a campaign issue in Assembly District 66. - The debate is about whether state funding is keeping pace with a growing senior population and rising need. What happened: - Furhan Ahmad, a candidate for New York State Assembly District 66, called for stronger state support for older New Yorkers who are struggling to afford food. - AD66 includes Greenwich Village, the West Village, SoHo, NoHo, TriBeCa, Hudson Square and the Meatpacking District. - Ahmad said many older residents live on fixed incomes and are being squeezed by rent, medication costs and grocery bills. - Ahmad said seniors who worked their whole lives in the district should not have to skip meals. The details: - Across New York State, one in 10 older adults is food insecure, and more than half report difficulty affording quality food, according to the New York Health Foundation. - In Manhattan, about 18% of residents age 65 and older lived below the poverty line in 2023, according to the Center for an Urban Future. - In Lower Manhattan, nearly 14% of residents are now 65 or older, up from under 11% a decade ago, according to the Center for an Urban Future. - Citywide, New York City’s 65-and-over population has grown by roughly a third over the past decade to an all-time high. - Citymeals on Wheels delivers more than 2 million meals a year to about 22,000 homebound older New Yorkers. - Greenwich House has run older adult centers in the neighborhood since the early 20th century and provides daily hot lunches and care connections. - EVLovesNYC has cooked hundreds of thousands of meals for food-insecure New Yorkers since 2020. - Ahmad praised this year’s enacted state budget, which added $45 million through the State Office for the Aging for older New Yorkers awaiting services. - That funding brought total support to $68 million, up from $33 million the prior year, according to NYSOFA. - Ahmad called the budget increase real progress and the right direction. - A 2025 report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that state funding for major aging programs grew 88.5% since 2019. - The same report said roughly 16,000 older New Yorkers were on waitlists for in-home care, meals and other services in 2023. - Ahmad said that waitlist is the core problem. Between the lines: - The campaign is tying local senior hunger to a broader state policy fight over aging services, not just neighborhood charities. - The message suggests that even record funding can fall short if demand keeps rising faster than service capacity. - Ahmad is positioning senior centers and home-delivered meals as essential infrastructure, not optional add-ons. What’s next: - Ahmad said he will fight to close the waitlist and keep senior centers open. - He backed legislation to create a Senior Center Council within the State Office for the Aging to plan for the long-term sustainability of senior centers statewide. - That measure has passed both the Senate and the Assembly. - Ahmad also supports proposals to increase food assistance for seniors and remove barriers to in-home services, including home-delivered meals. - The campaign is expected to keep pressing Albany to expand support for aging services as the senior population grows. The bottom line: - Ahmad is using the race to argue that Lower Manhattan’s seniors need more than symbolic concern: they need sustained funding, fewer waitlists and a stronger state safety net.