Coalition TOMORROW- Agenda, Hunger Free Campus in Senate Econ Dev Bill!

SNAP Coalition meeting tomorrow, July 26 @10!

Looking forward to seeing you at tomorrow’s SNAP Coalition meeting - starting right at 10 AM!  Here’s the Zoom link.  DTA will be participating and the agenda includes the following:

• Legislative updates

• Skimming of EBT benefits - what to do and how to advise clients to protect their SNAP

• Summer P-EBT food dollars (including P-EBT issued TODAY to kids under 6 on SNAP!)

• Extension of the federal public health emergency and reminder about maximizing deductions

• Restaurant Meals Program application for vendors through August 31. 

• Overview of a new DTA video option to meet with certain specialized DTA staff 

Also, reminder we will have a special "second Tuesday" meeting on Tuesday, August 9th from 10-11:30, with DTA and the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). DTA and MLRI will share information about the new SNAP medical deduction self-declaration policy. EEC and DTA will present on free child care for SNAP Employment and Training participants, and also on how getting SNAP automatically qualifies families for Head Start pre-K. Here is the Zoom link for that meeting. 

There will be no fourth Tuesday Coalition meeting in August.

Hunger Free Campus Initiative passed in the Senate Economic Development Bill!

While we will discuss a range of important legislative updates tomorrow, we wanted you to know that the MA Senate adopted Senator Harriette Chandler’s Amendment for a Hunger Free Campus initiative! This is HUGE and a great success. We are a big step closer to getting this done.The language is now included as Section 5A in the Senate Economic Development Bill (aka Senate 3030 available HERE. scroll to page 82 of the PDF, starting at line 1844).

What's next?  The Eco Dev package is now in “Conference Committee" where appointed members from the House and Senate work out the differences between both sides this week. The House and Senate are appointing members today.  (The House did not include the outside section language). You can see Senator Chandler’s powerful speech on Amendment #398 here (part 2 of 3 at the 2:28:25 mark), where she also gave a loud shout-out to the Hunger Free Campus Coalition. 

Action Steps:  We need community orgs, students, and college presidents to reach out to both 

a) THANK the Senate members for including this language and 

b) URGE House members to urge the Economic Development Conference Committee to cede (agree) to the Senate's language in the Eco Dev bill. Please urge your campuses to ask House members to adopt the Senate HFCC language!  

More updates tomorrow.