Food is a Human Right– Massachusetts Can Act Now​

Across Massachusetts, families are facing an escalating hunger crisis, not because food is scarce, but because compassion has been.

We recognize and appreciate that Governor Healey has acted to protect SNAP benefits in the month of November. That action matters. It shows that Massachusetts can choose care over cruelty, and that our state has both the power and the resources to feed its people.

But the crisis isn’t over. Federal funding remains unstable, and new eligibility restrictions continue to cut off vital food assistance for thousands of immigrants, refugees, and working-class residents. Families who work hard and give so much to this Commonwealth are still being left behind by federal policy.

This is not a bureaucratic failure, it is a moral emergency.

While families struggle to eat, the federal government is pouring billions into ICE, mass detention and deportation. Immigrants are being treated inhumanely, targeted because of the color of their skin, and separated from their families. This is morally wrong, and it needs to end.

At the same time, our national spending priorities are upside down. We are footing the bill for 10,000 new ICE agents, deploying the National Guard to cities to accelerate deportation and adding billions to ICE’s budget, even as programs like SNAP and Medicaid are being cut. That doesn’t make moral or fiscal sense.

Meanwhile, hunger is already at a crisis level in Massachusetts:

1 in 3 households experience food insecurity in 2024.

46% of Black and 62% of Latino households reported going hungry.

New federal rules now exclude refugees, asylees, survivors of trafficking and domestic violence from food assistance.

We know money is available in our state to fund food security. Our state has an $8 billion Rainy Day Fund, money meant for moments exactly like this. At the same time, Massachusetts is currently planning to spend $360 million on a new women’s prison, which could be redirected to care for families that actually need it. We demand that our state’s resources be used to feed, support and defend residents, not put us in cages. It would take just 3% of that fund (about $240 million per month) or a portion of the $360 million currently allocated for a new women’s prison, to keep food flowing to every family in the Commonwealth during the federal shutdown.

Our values, care, safety, education and feeding people, must outweigh cruelty, neglect and division.

We, the undersigned, call on Governor Maura Healey to:

Commit to continue bridging the SNAP funding gap in the coming months if federal resources are cut or delayed.

Cancel plans for a new women's prison and reinvest those funds into SNAP and food security programs.

Protect immigrant, refugee, and working class families from being left behind by federal roadblocks.

Invest in care, safety, and food security, not in cruelty, exclusion or bureaucracy.

Governor Healey, your leadership has already made a difference this month. Now, we’re asking you to make that commitment long-term.

For just 3% of the Rainy Day Fund, and by redirecting the $360 million planned for new women's prison to address food security, you can prevent hunger, uphold Massachusetts values, and show that this state chooses compassion over cruelty.

Add your name. Tell Governor Healey: Feed the People. Fund Food, Not ICE.