Dear Representative Livingstone & Senator Kennedy:

On behalf of Health Leads and The Neighborhood Food Action Collaborative, we wish to extend our deepest support of S.76/H.135 - An Act establishing basic needs assistance for Massachusetts immigrant residents. This bill would provide $15 million in critical nutrition benefits (SNAP) to legally present immigrants ineligible for federal SNAP and $3 million for legally present families with children who cannot get transitional DTA cash benefits.

Health Leads is a national nonprofit and innovation hub that has worked in Boston communities for over 20 years and seeks to unearth and address the deep societal roots of racial inequity that impact health. Health Leads serves as the backbone organization for the Neighborhood Food Action Collaborative (NFAC), an equity-oriented, community-led network working to expand access to healthy and culturally appropriate food resources, education, and benefits in Boston.

In Boston, thousands of families are forced to navigate a fragmented, inequitable and under-resourced food system just to put food on the table. These challenges disproportionately harm families of color and immigrant communities in Boston and food insecurity remains a major barrier to health. In 2020, Health Leads led a community assessment commissioned by the Boston Mayor’s Office of Food Justice which brought together over 100 community members, organizations, and stakeholders, that identified several main challenges in the food system. A key theme focused on the complex and disjointed public assistance application processes as well as program barriers preventing immigrant families from accessing SNAP benefits. Strong support emerged for the need to improve and expand the SNAP program to legally present immigrants, especially newly arriving immigrants and those who were closed out from accessing benefits due to their pending status.

As an organization, Health Leads understands that health starts with the essentials we all need to thrive, such as having access to nutritious food. Yet, even with trillions of dollars behind them, healthcare and social services & public benefits are often too complex and siloed to help those most in need. These systems often exclude and oppress people of color, especially immigrant populations, and as a result the health of these communities in the U.S. are defined by

seemingly immutable forces like limited and restricted nutritional benefit access and more. Access to SNAP for immigrant families is critical and there is an urgent need for expanded policies that provide food assistance to immigrant communities.

Although SNAP is a federal program, states can expand eligibility using state funds, including noncitizens. We have done something similar before; between 1997 and 2002, Massachusetts provided state-funded nutrition and cash benefits to immigrants who lost coverage after the 1996 Welfare Reform Law. Especially now, needs for basic assistance exacerbated by the pandemic continues and S.76 and H.135 would provide SNAP nutrition benefits to roughly 8,000 to 12,000 legally present immigrants, many who have low pay jobs, with critical nutrition benefits for their families. This includes newly arriving immigrants who have U Visas (victims of violence); pending asylum, Humanitarian Parole, Temporary Protected Status, Dreamers/DACA. Amendment #98 would also provide basic cash assistance to roughly 1,000 to 1,500 immigrant children and require DTA to more robustly screen immigrant households for federal benefits for which they or their dependents are eligible.

The Neighborhood Food Action Collaborative comprises more than 30 community-based organizations, 50+ community residents, local health systems, and grassroots advocates. Last year NFAC created a peer-to-peer SNAP education and enrollment program, particularly for immigrants that needed language assistance and specialized support to understand what they qualified for. The SNAP advocates who provided benefit education and enrollment support found that one of the biggest barriers to helping their fellow community members was that even though the immigrant families they worked with were legally present, they did not qualify for benefits. They would process applications only to find that community members were denied because of their status, and as a result these immigrant families then had to navigate a complex system to access food through pantries, food banks, and from community-based programs that were already resource constrained. Here are two examples of the immigrant families NFAC has worked with.

• Esther, single mother of 3, Hyde Park resident, and NFAC SNAP Advocate noted that "SNAP benefits have made it possible for me to buy healthier food for my family that I otherwise could not afford. But what hurt me the most was that I was not able to help many of my fellow community members in accessing these same benefits that have helped my family. One mother I was trying to help was here legally with work authorization, she qualified for a U visa as a victim of a violent crime within the US. She originally fled her country due to violence there and was retraumatized again. I did my best to connect her to other food resources, but I knew that this only added new stressors to her situation as she now had to visit multiple pantries to make ends meet.”

• Felisha, Roxbury resident, noted that "during the pandemic I worked with NFAC as a SNAP Advocate and the people I helped would come back to events and tell me how much of a support SNAP benefits were to their family now that they were able to purchase more healthy food, but I also had to hear from many families who said they were denied because of their immigration status, even though they had employment authorization. These were good families who were here legally working low-wage jobs and they needed support - but I could not help them because of eligibility rules."

On behalf of Health Leads and the Neighborhood Food Action Collaborative (NFAC), we urge you to support S.76 and H.135 establishing basic needs assistance for Massachusetts immigrant residents. Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Sarah Primeau, MSW, MPH
Program Director, Health Leads

Stephanie Campbell, MPH
Program Director, Health Leads