The city is ramping up an effort to reach out to some 100,000 Bronx households that might be eligible but are not currently enrolled in the city’s food stamps program.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Bronx Council Members Oliver Koppell and Joel Rivera announced the push last week at the POTS (Part of the Solution) soup kitchen on Webster Avenue. POTS is the only seven-day-a-week soup kitchen in the northwest Bronx.

The outreach effort comes on the heels of a study completed by the Human Resources Administration (HRA) that identified more than 600,000 New York City households, 100,000 in the Bronx, that were on Medicaid but not enrolled in the food stamps program. City officials say eligibility requirements for Medicaid and food stamps are similar.

They are calling the effort, which will begin in earnest in August, the “Medicaid food stamp data match initiative.”  

“With skyrocketing food prices adding to the burden of rising rents, gas prices, and other costs, hardworking New Yorkers are forced to stretch their dollar further,” Quinn said in a statement.

“Today’s announcement is welcomed news and an important step in the efforts to combat the constant battle against hunger,” Rivera said in a statement.

After running a data matching analysis this month, HRA found 111,869 eligible households in the Bronx. In August, HRA, in partnership with the City Council, will begin mailing letters encouraging those households to enroll in the food stamps program.