Challenged local eatery with a determined owner can now accept benefits for meals under new program, by Brian Abate

Jam’It Bistro, a Jamaican restaurant at 367 Columbia Street, down the block from DeFonte’s, is making history as one of the first restaurants in New York City allowed to accept Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments under the Restaurant Meals Program (RMP.)

Last month politicians and locals gathered there with the bistro’s owner Dawn Skeete to celebrate.
“This has been a long journey for us,” said State Senator Roxanne Persaud. “In 2021 when we started this program, I had colleagues who said ‘What do you want to do; have people buy a lobster meal and spend all their money?’ That’s the mentality of the people we were dealing with. They thought people would splurge and spend all of their SNAP benefits on one meal and we had to explain to them that that’s not what it’s intended to do.

“There are folks who cannot prepare a meal because of their situation. These benefits go to the homeless, the disabled, and to the elderly who are unable to prepare a meal. I would love it if the program started in Brooklyn rather than Monroe County but we’re excited to be in Brooklyn now and this is a great day.”

SNAP helps low-income working people, senior citizens, those with disabilities, and others feed their families. Eligibility and benefit levels are determined by household size, income, and other factors. The RMP is considered a key part of SNAP and is designed to provide vulnerable populations with access to nutritious, hot meals.

In addition to Jam’It Bistro, Court Street’s Brain Food is also part of the new program and owner Ana Cabrera was also in attendance to celebrate.

Many of those in attendance spoke about Skeete’s perseverance to keep Jam’It open despite some difficult circumstances.

“I remember during the pandemic that Jam’It was such a huge supporter of mutual aid here in Red Hook,” said Carlos Calzadilla, district director for Senator Andrew Gounardes. “Dawn worked so hard to make sure there were hot meals for the community during such a difficult time.”

“I want to say on behalf of myself and Redemption Church, like Carlos, I remember Jam’It was always there during the tough times during the pandemic no matter where things were being set up,” said Dashana Gooding. “Dawn has been a staple of the Red Hook community, she hires from the Red Hook community, and she supports the Red Hook Community.”

Others who credited the work of Skeete included Maria Sanchez from the Red Hook Senior Center and Carly Baker-Rice of the Red Hook Business Alliance.

“Me and my dad took Dawn around the neighborhood when Jam’It opened up and I’m proud to say we’ve been her business acceleration consultants,” said Robert Guddahl. “The irony of it is this has been a long, hard, treacherous road. When there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic, she moved to catering, and then COVID happened and that was a big challenge. It has been a struggle, a fight, and the tenacity Dawn has is amazing. She has always been able to improve quality. She has been able to stay in business by making changes and in turn, created jobs and improved the community.”
Skeete spoke about the challenges she faced in a Star-Revue story last November and she has had to remain flexible and make a lot of changes to keep Jam’It going. Some of the changes she mentioned included making more non-Caribbean foods as well as preparing smaller meals that people could buy for lunch.

Yum
We had excellent food from Jam’It, which included, chicken, oxtail, and my personal favorite, salmon, as well as vegetables.

“What we’re going to give you today is not traditional Jamaican food,” Skeete said. “We have to diversify our options in the different neighborhoods that we feed. For example, one of the neighborhoods that has a lot of qualified individuals for this program is Bensonhurst. My thought is to let people from Bensonhurst know that I don’t just do Jamaican food. The goal is to show it’s not just one type of food and to provide a healthy, delicious, hot meal.”

Brian Abate