New York, NY —

The City Council and the Bloomberg Administration say they've identified hundreds of thousands of households who may be eligible for food stamps but aren't receiving them.

WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports:

In order to find these struggling New Yorkers, the city's Human Resources Administration searched its database of more than two million Medicaid recipients to see which ones are without food stamps.

More than 635,000 households were identified. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says requirements for the two programs are similar and there's a good chance if you're getting one benefit you likely qualify for the other:

QUINN: We now know in what zip code those individuals live. This is literally a road map to help us reduce hunger in the city of New York.

REPORTER: Starting in July letters will be sent out informing families they could be eligible for food stamps. HRA officials estimate about 60 percent will ultimately meet all the requirements. For WNYC, I'm Cindy Rodriguez.