August 1st Coalition Meeting; Action Alert on WIC cuts; National Sign-On letter to Protect SNAP

SNAP Coalition August 1st:

Our next Coalition meeting (our last meeting before Labor Day) is Tuesday, August 1st from 10 to 11:30 AM. We’ll swing back into 4th Tuesday meetings in September. Here is the Zoom link. 

The AGENDA will include:

• Federal updates -  Farm Bill 2023 and “recess” activities with Members of Congress; Ag Comm deliberations on WIC 

• State updates including a) status of the FY24 state budget and  b) testimony for important legislative campaigns/upcoming hearings

• DTA updates, including Summer PEBT issuance on 7/25; new arrivals and closing out of state SNAP or TAFDC benefits,  and more

• Other updates from partners 

Urge Congress to Protect the WIC program against cuts:

Our national partners at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) have alerted us to potential floor action on the House’s Agriculture Appropriations bill this week that may cause significant funding cuts and harmful changes to the WIC program.

 Between 14K and 98K Massachusetts residents could be denied or lose WIC benefits: Here’s the CBPP report with state by state details: Hundreds of Thousands of Young Children and Postpartum Adults Would Be Turned Away from WIC under House and Senate Funding Levels.

CBPP has a tweet thread on the key take-aways from the paper if you’d like to lift on social media. And here’s Congressman McGovern’s tweet from yesterday.  Please amplify!

Given the most recent data, we estimate that the House bill would require states to turn away 650,000-700,000 eligible young children and postpartum adults and would slash science-based fruit and vegetable benefits for another 4.6 million kids and pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum participants. In total, the House bill would cut the WIC benefits of, or take away WIC altogether from, about 5.3 million young children and pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding adults. Unfortunately, even the higher funding level included in the Senate bill is still too low to avoid turning eligible people away because participation and food costs have risen more than anticipated.

ACTION STEP: Call your Member of Congress TODAY and urge them to  provide sufficient WIC funding to serve all eligible families who apply and provide participants with the full science-based benefit, including healthy fruits and vegetables. #NoWICcuts!

Farm Bill Gender Justice Sign on Letter - Deadline August 8th:

Our colleagues at FRAC, the National Women’s Law Center and Mom’s Rising are circulating this very important sign on letter to defend and protect the SNAP program during the Farm Bill deliberations. Here’s their request and links to see the letter and sign on. 

With SNAP at risk of cuts in the upcoming Farm Bill – as well as potential opportunities to strengthen SNAP and invest in child care and public health- we hope you will join National Women’s Law Center, MomsRising, and Food Research in Action Center in signing onto this gender justice letter to the House and Senate Agricultural Committee leadership. You can sign on here.

Hunger is a gender justice issue with women and LGBTQIA people experiencing higher rates of food insecurity and disproportionately relying on SNAP to put food on the table. We hope to galvanize a strong showing of support by underscoring the importance of protecting and strengthening nutrition assistance – and to making investments that advance family economic security and health - to organizations dedicated to promoting gender justice and working to ensure all women, LGBTQI+ people, and their families can live their lives with dignity. 

We welcome sign-ons from both national and state organizations and ask that you sign-on by August 8. If you have any questions, please contact Delaney Wallace at dwallace@nwlc.org.