Queens Council Member Sandra Ung partnered with a local nonprofit organization to provide relief to elderly victims of a benefits scam that left them without essential resources ahead of the holiday season.
Ung partnered with the Met Council, a Jewish nonprofit organization dedicated to combating poverty, to deliver 54 boxes of food to residents of the B’nai B’rith Queens Apartments at 138-49 Elder Ave. in Flushing on Friday, Dec. 20. The senior living community, which houses 190 units, includes 24 residents who fell victim to a widespread EBT scam earlier in December.
According to Ung, the scam deprived the victims of their benefits, leaving them unable to purchase food just weeks before the holidays. The council member said the collaboration aimed to ensure that the impacted seniors had access to food and support during an otherwise challenging time.
Ung reached out to the Met Council, who subsequently distributed food to the victims of the scam. The Met Council, recognized as one of the largest Jewish charities in the United States, played a key role in organizing the delivery and providing resources to support the affected residents.
“These are our neighbors, who were left wondering how they will put food on the table during what should be one of the happiest times of the year. Thankfully, we have great organizations like Met Council that can come to their aid,” Ung said in a statement.
The Met Council, which operates the largest kosher food pantry network in the country, also made a “critical” food delivery to residents last year after a similar incident at around the same time last year, Ung said.
She added that the non-profit provided cleaning supplies, hats and gloves during the recent delivery to help keep residents warm during the winter months.
Ung said there were a number of boxes left over following the recent delivery, which were subsequently taken back to her office and distributed to other people living in the local community who had been impacted by similar benefits scams.
Ung said her office was “inundated” throughout December with people in need of assistance recovering their food benefits, stating that members of the community lost their benefits when the information on their EBT cards was stolen through a practice known as “skimming,” a practice that commonly sees thieves place a device on a store’s EBT card-swiping machine located at the checkout. The machine then allows thieves to swipe EBT information from SNAP recipients when they swipe their cards at the checkout.
“My office saw a big uptick in constituents who came to the District Office seeking assistance in applying for replacement funds,” Ung said in a statement.
She said she recently met with Inspector Kevin Coleman, commanding officer of the 109th Precinct, to discuss the issue of EBT skimming and the theft of benefits. Ung said her staff has narrowed down most of the skimming incidents to a few hotspots in Downtown Flushing, adding that the 109th Precinct has alerted owners of impacted businesses to the issue.
