Food is a Human Right– Massachusetts Can Act Now
Governor Maura Healey
Across Massachusetts, families are facing an escalating hunger crisis, not because food is scarce, but because compassion has been.
Federal SNAP funding has stopped, and new eligibility restrictions are cutting off vital food assistance for thousands of immigrants, refugees, and working-class residents.
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.
Yet our state has a $8 billion Rainy Day Fund, money meant for moments exactly like this.
It would take just 3% of that fund (about $240 million per month) to keep food flowing to every family in the Commonwealth during the federal shutdown.
Massachusetts has both the resources and the responsibility to lead with compassion.
Our values, care, safety, education and feeding people, must outweigh cruelty, neglect and division.
We, the undersigned, call on Governor Maura Healey to:
- Use a portion of the Rainy Day Fund to continue SNAP benefits for all eligible Massachusetts residents during the federal shutdown.
- 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, you have the power, and resources, to act now.
For just 3% of the Rainy Day Fund, 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.
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To:
Governor Maura Healey
From:
[Your Name]
Across Massachusetts, families are facing an escalating hunger crisis, not because food is scarce, but because compassion has been.
Federal SNAP funding has stopped, and new eligibility restrictions are cutting off vital food assistance for thousands of immigrants, refugees, and working-class residents.
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.
Yet our state has a $8 billion Rainy Day Fund, money meant for moments exactly like this.
It would take just 3% of that fund (about $240 million per month) to keep food flowing to every family in the Commonwealth during the federal shutdown.
Massachusetts has both the resources and the responsibility to lead with compassion.
Our values, care, safety, education and feeding people, must outweigh cruelty, neglect and division.
We, the undersigned, call on Governor Maura Healey to:
Use a portion of the Rainy Day Fund to continue SNAP benefits for all eligible Massachusetts residents during the federal shutdown.
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, you have the power, and resources, to act now.
For just 3% of the Rainy Day Fund, 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.