Action steps

In light of the federal cuts to SNAP as a result of the harmful Republican Megabill (H.R. 1), the Coalition is focused on securing state-funded SNAP benefits for humanitarian immigrants now losing SNAP as their cases come up for SNAP renewal. DTA projects roughly 9,500 legally present Massachusetts refugees, asylees, victims of human trafficking, battered immigrants and humanitarian parolees will lose access to SNAP in the next 1-2 years (as their SNAP case comes up for renewal). Note, Immigrants who have successfully secured legal permanent residency (“green card” status) or are U.S, citizens should not lose benefits.

Although the Coalition was successful in securing state funding in FY24, there was NO funding included in the FY26 State Budget (released on 7/4/25.) and we are concerned that the Governor has not prioritized funding in her FY27 budget to be released end of January.

Action Steps

  1. Contact your State Rep and State Senator to share stories of how the lack of food benefits has impacted humanitarian immigrant families in their districts. Urge them to a) include funding for state SNAP in their FY27 Budget Priorities and b) include immediate funding in the FY26 Supplemental Budget. See Fact Sheet here.

  2. Contact Governor Healey and urge her to agree to funding state SNAP benefits in both a Supplemental FY26 budget (which would fund state SNAP sooner than July of 2026).

  3. Send a letter in support of state-funded SNAP to Governor Healey’s Anti-Hunger Task Force. Even after the Task Force makes its recommendations, the Governor should hear from community orgs!

  4. Build support through community outreach! Check in with your local health centers, food pantries and faith communities. Encourage them to contact their Representative, Senator and the Governor to fund state-SNAp benefits.

    We encourage you to include in your letters individual stories or case examples as those are the most powerful. Here’s examples of testimony, examples of individual stories we've posted and research documenting the harm.

Contact your legislators.

Questions? Email Pat Baker or Tasmiah Ahmad, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, at PBaker@mlri.org. or TAhmad@mlri.org