What We Do
Policy Priorities
2025-2026 Policy Priorities Coming Soon
2024 Policy Priorities
Our Local Priority Areas
As a next step in creating a vibrant urban agriculture environment, we are advocating for the city to develop and enact a Backyard Chickens Ordinance, which will allow residents to raise and keep chickens on private property.
We continue to advocate for more affordable housing in the city by monitoring the implementation of the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, and working with aligned organizations to incentivize the development of policies that encourage affordable rents and more inclusionary zoning.
Taking lessons learned from the rollout of the 2023 Summer Meals program, we will work with Worcester Public Schools and other site providers to ensure a smoother rollout, improved communication, and better outreach for the 2024 Summer Meals program.
Good Food Procurement policies help ensure that city agencies and local organizations source food in ways that are sustainable, healthy, and resilient.
State Priorities
Feed Our Neighbors Campaign: Restore state-funded SNAP/cash benefits to legally present immigrants excluded from federal benefits: Fill out this form to learn more about the Feed Our Neighbors Campaign bill and FY24 budget campaign.
An Act Providing Affordable and Accessible High Quality Early Education and Care to Promote Child Development and Well-Being and Support the Economy of the Commonwealth | Common Start | S.301/H.489 | This act builds a framework to provide high-quality, affordable early education and child care to all families in the state. |
Hunger Free Campus Campaign: Support MA’s public 2 and 4 year colleges and minority serving institutions to address student food insecurity on campus. Check out the MA Hunger Free Campus Campaign HERE.
Permanent Farm to School Grant Program | Farm to School | S243/H.558 | Establishes permanent Farm to School grants, which support efforts by schools and districts to include more healthy, locally grown foods in school meals, as well as strengthen relationships between children and local agriculture |
Lift Our Kids Campaign: Boost TAFDC/EAEDC benefits for extremely low income families to at least 50% FPL. Check out the Lift Our Kids Campaign HERE . | |||||||
Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) Campaign: Put HIP into state law (enabling legislation) and support FY24 funding at $23M. Check out the Mass Food Systems Collaborative webpage on HIP Campaign HERE
FeedKids Campaign: Continue Universal Free School Meals for all Massachusetts K-12 children. Check out Project Bread’s webpage #FeedKids Campaign HERE
An Act encouraging the donation of food to persons in need | Encouraging Food Donation | S.920/H.1594 | Provides protection for businesses that donate food to people in need, reducing food waste and increasing food donatons |
Our Federal Priorities
The Farm Bill provides the infrastructure and funding for many of the food assistance programs that people rely on to put food on the table for themselves and their families. Our priority is to protect SNAP, WIC, and emergency food programs and resist any attempts to weaken them.
Closing the Meal Gap Act | Closing the Meal Gap | H.3037/S.1336 | Replaces the Thrifty Food Plan with the Low-Cost Food Plan as basis for SNAP allotment, eliminates the cap on SNAP excess shelter deduction, and streamlines medical deductions for older adults and those with disabilities |
Improving Access to Nutrition Act Fact Sheet: https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/Improving-Access-to-Nutrition-Act-_FNL.pd1 | End Time Limits | HR.1510 | Ends the 3-month time limit for participating in SNAP for adults who cannot document sufficient hours of work |
Enhance Access to SNAP Act: (EATS Act) https://legiscan.com/US/bill/HB3183/2023 makes it easier for college students to access SNAP | EATS Act | HB.3183/S.1488 | Makes it easier for college students to enroll in SNAP |
Hot Foods Act | Hot FoodS Act | HR.3519 | Permanently removes the ban on buying hot prepared foods from food retailers, e.g., rotisserie chicken at grocery store |
Lift the Bar Act to lift the 5-year residency bar to SNAP and other public benefits that applies to many non-citizens | Lift the Bar | Eliminates the 5-year waiting period and other restrictions that prevent immigrant families from accessing SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, and CHIP |
•H.R. 2837/S. 2667 to remove restrictions on SNAP and TANF for people with prior drug felony convictions (41 House cosponsors) | •H.R. 2837/S. 2667 | Removes restrictions on SNAP and TANF for people with prior drug felony convictions |
Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act of 2023 | S.949 / H.R.253 | Enables Puerto Rico to participate in SNAP as a state |
Healthy Meals Help Kids Learn Bill | HR1269 | Permanently increases federal reimbursements for school meals |
The American Family Act | HR.3899 | Restores the expanded, fully refundable Child Tax Credit |
Past Policy Priorities
Growing food in the City benefits everyone. Whether you’re a full-time farmer, or you garden as a hobby, an Urban Agriculture Zoning Ordinance can benefit you and your community. We are working with City of Worcester Departments, City Councilors, Farmers, and Non-Profits to craft an ordinance that promotes health, food safety, good neighbors, and access to land so that those who would like to farm in the city and sell their produce, can do so. Contact us to learn more
SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, assists nearly 46 million people nationwide with providing food for themselves and their families. Roughly 1 in 10 Massachusetts residents relies on the SNAP program, and 75% of those that benefit from SNAP are seniors, children, and people living with disabilities. We work with advocates to make sure the program is functioning with the best interests of those that need it in mind. We do this work with partners around the state through the Central MA SNAP Coalition and our sister coalitions in Boston and Western MA.
For the last 30 years, wages have not kept pace with the rising cost of living, and as a result people making minimum wage or slightly higher, are not able to afford the basic costs of living without relying heavily on government programs or community services like food pantries. We believe that all work deserves a living wage, and that is why we have joined this national campaign and work locally with Raise Up MA and the Worcester Community Labor Coalition to fight for higher wages.
To us, healthy food access means that everyone can access healthy, culturally appropriate foods where they live, work, learn, or play. We support policies that make this possible, like the federal Child Nutrition bill that supports healthy foods in our schools and in Summer Feeding programs, or the Health Incentives Program here in Massachusetts which will give incentives to SNAP users at Farmers Markets (coming 2017).
We support the work of our partners, like the REC and Division of Public Health, in making more healthy food available through mobile farmers markets, farm stands, CSA’s, and corner stores. We also work with partners like the Massachusetts Public Health Association to pass legislation like the Food Trust so that we can build on these efforts, as well as promote new ones, such as the Worcester Regional Food Hub.
We're excited to announce the upcoming launch of Main South Grown, a new Healthy Food Retail initiative.
