Lawmakers in New York are seeking to allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients to use the benefits in restaurants.

“I think it’s important, particularly now when our small businesses have been suffering and our restaurants have been suffering, to provide them with another source of revenue so our folks could use their SNAP benefits to buy some hot, prepared healthy options at our local delis and our local restaurants,” said Democratic Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, who sponsored the legislation.