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Speaker 1: From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.

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Speaker 1: Each week right here, we come together, we talk about

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Speaker 1: all the topics important to you and the place where

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Speaker 1: you live. It's great to have you back with us

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Speaker 1: this week. I'm Nicole Davis. Here in Massachusetts and all

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Speaker 1: over the country, local officials, food banks, and advocates have

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Speaker 1: been scrambling upon word that November Snap assistance may not

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Speaker 1: be funded by the federal government. Members of the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration have been citing the ongoing government shutdown for this

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Speaker 1: and refusing to tap into federal contingency funds. State leaders

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Speaker 1: say the hundreds of millions of dollars a month, despite

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Speaker 1: there being a rainy day fund, cannot be covered by

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Speaker 1: local budgets. With this developing story, in the Conversation, I

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Speaker 1: wanted to bring back two local leaders in the food

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Speaker 1: insecurity space. They've been here before. They're here to answer

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Speaker 1: some questions that I've been getting in seeing about the

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Speaker 1: situation and questions you may have as well. Aaron mcle

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Speaker 1: president of Project Brett, and nonprofit in Boston working to

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Speaker 1: end hunger. Andrew Morehouse is the executive director of the

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Speaker 1: Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. In chickapee and a programming

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Speaker 1: note here. The following discussion was recorded earlier this week.

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Speaker 1: The situation around the shutdown and SNAP is developing by

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Speaker 1: the hour, but despite some of these particulars changing, the

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Speaker 1: information here is still relevant. So let's get to it.

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Speaker 1: Thank you both for coming back to the show. Let's

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Speaker 1: just jump right in. Aaron, give us a quick rundown

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Speaker 1: about what SNAP is and what led up to this situation.

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Speaker 2: Sure.

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Speaker 3: SNAP is the supplemental nutrition assistance program. It used to

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Speaker 3: be called food stamps, and a lot of folks still

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Speaker 3: know it as that term. So it provides that supplemental

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Speaker 3: benefits for folks that need help putting food on the table.

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Speaker 3: It's really intended for certain populations. Children, one of the

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Speaker 3: biggest ones with disabilities, senior citizens' veterans, and then people

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Speaker 3: who are working but not making enough money to get by.

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Speaker 3: So people in the service sector who their wages are

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Speaker 3: just not you know, consistent or high enough, consistently high

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Speaker 3: enough to meet their basic needs, and so this program

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Speaker 3: allows them to put food on the table. It's on

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Speaker 3: an electronic card and people can go to the grocery

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Speaker 3: store and purchase food with their card. That way, so

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Speaker 3: with that approach, it's the most effective and efficient solution

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Speaker 3: because people are able to go to the fifty five

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Speaker 3: hundred retailers in our state and purchase their food there,

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Speaker 3: and it puts money back into the economy by doing that.

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Speaker 3: For every dollar spent on SNAP, a dollar fifty is

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Speaker 3: generated in economic activity. So this program is also an

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Speaker 3: economic engine and economic stimulus.

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Speaker 1: Now, how many people would you say in Massachusetts are

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Speaker 1: currently using Snap at this point.

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Speaker 2: One point one million.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot of people. And you know, people talk

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Speaker 1: all the time. I see a lot of talk online.

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Speaker 1: Never read the comments, but I do because apparently I'm

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Speaker 1: a masochist, and people are saying, Oh, these people don't work,

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Speaker 1: they're lazy, they're this and that. Give me, I guess

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Speaker 1: you're rebuttal to that.

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Speaker 3: Sure, well, there's a work requirement, so people are working, right,

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Speaker 3: And the folks who are not working are those groups

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Speaker 3: I just mentioned to you children, you know, people with

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Speaker 3: disabilities and senior citizens. And I think we would agree

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Speaker 3: that they don't need to be working or not. You know,

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Speaker 3: it should be part of the exemption. But there's this

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Speaker 3: huge misconception. We're actually hearing it coming out of Washington, DC.

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Speaker 3: Right now, I've heard some US senators say, you know,

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Speaker 3: this will get people back to work by cutting off

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Speaker 3: these benefits for forty two million Americans.

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Speaker 2: That is just not true.

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Speaker 3: Most of the people on this if they're not one

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Speaker 3: of those groups, are working. They're just not making enough money.

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Speaker 3: So it's not going to result in any positive outcome. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 3: it's only going to result in people who are working

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Speaker 3: hard not being able to feed themselves and feed their kids.

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Speaker 3: That might mean they're not able to show up to

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Speaker 3: work right because they can't meet that basic need. People's

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Speaker 3: health is going to be compromised, and then all of

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Speaker 3: this money in our economy is going to go away.

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Speaker 3: And so even if you know, even if you're not

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Speaker 3: going about the one point one million people like Andrew

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Speaker 3: and I are, you should be concerned about what this

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Speaker 3: means for our economy, both here in Massachusetts the nationally.

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Speaker 1: Well, then people would, then, I think, come back to

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Speaker 1: that and say, well, why don't you just get another job,

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Speaker 1: or why don't you just work more put the kids

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Speaker 1: in daycare? But it's not that simple.

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Speaker 3: It's not that simple. So I think work more. We

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Speaker 3: know people that are working eighty hours a week and

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Speaker 3: are on snap. They are working the day shift, the

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Speaker 3: night shift. They're just not making enough money to get by.

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Speaker 3: And so it's not a matter of working more hours.

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Speaker 3: It's a matter of the fact that their jobs are

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Speaker 3: not paying them enough. And there's lots of macroeconomic forces

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Speaker 3: contributing to that. And then childcare one is really really challenging.

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Speaker 3: We have the most expensive childcare in the country. And so, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I know from our fours hotline, We've talked to moms,

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Speaker 3: and I have friends in my own circle who want

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Speaker 3: to be working. They're teachers, they're social workers, they love

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Speaker 3: they want to be in the classroom that they want

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Speaker 3: to be working with folks. But when your salary is

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Speaker 3: less than the cost of child care, you got to

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Speaker 3: make an economic decision for your family. Right if I

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Speaker 3: go back to work, does that mean that we're actually

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Speaker 3: going to be hemorrhaging.

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Speaker 2: Money for me to be able to work.

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Speaker 3: And so that's the childcare crisis that we have in

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Speaker 3: our state and in our country. And I think it

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Speaker 3: all goes back to this has been unfairly painted as

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Speaker 3: individual failings. Right, this narrative of get a job, don't

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Speaker 3: be lazy, go back to work.

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Speaker 2: And it's just not true. It's just it's actually inaccurate.

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Speaker 3: And the truth is that these are systemic challenges that

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Speaker 3: we're facing, this systemic challenges of rising inflation and wages

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Speaker 3: having kept paid. So even if you're somebody in the

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Speaker 3: past five years who just hasn't gotten a raise, but

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Speaker 3: the cost of everything around you has gone up significantly,

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Speaker 3: you're probably struggling. So it's not an individual failing, it's

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Speaker 3: really a larger systemic one.

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Speaker 1: Not to mention that we live in one of the

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Speaker 1: highest cost of living states in the entire country, top three,

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Speaker 1: I'd have to say, so that's a doesn't help the

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Speaker 1: situation either. In Andrew, you know, talk to me a

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Speaker 1: little bit about the demand you're now seeing at the

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Speaker 1: Western Massachusetts Food Bank and your other pantries are seeing

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Speaker 1: as well because of that.

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Speaker 4: Sure, well, the Food Bank Western Massachusetts serves the four

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Speaker 4: counties of Western Massachusetts, and in fact, a recent study

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Speaker 4: by the Greater Boston Food Bank estimates that Hamden County,

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Speaker 4: which is a more urban area that has spring the

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Speaker 4: city of Springfield, which is the third largest city in

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Speaker 4: the Commonwealth, and Franklin County, which is a very rural

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Speaker 4: community between that they have the highest food insecurity rates

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Speaker 4: of all counties in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So this

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Speaker 4: is a problem that people across the commonwealth face, even

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Speaker 4: out here in Western Massachusetts where we're providing food assistants

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Speaker 4: to over one hundred and twenty four thousand people every

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Speaker 4: month and there are one hundred and ninety one thousand

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Speaker 4: SNAP recipients, So that immediately tells you that there are

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Speaker 4: moreople who receive SNAP then go to seek food assistance,

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Speaker 4: and that maybe because they don't need it, but more

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Speaker 4: often than not, that same Greater Boston Food Bank studies

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Speaker 4: showed that seventy five percent of people who receive SNAP

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Speaker 4: benefits also need to seek out food assistance. And it

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Speaker 4: could be maybe just at the end of the month

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Speaker 4: when their SNAP benefits have run out, or you know,

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Speaker 4: an emergency that can take place in anybody's live, a

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Speaker 4: car lives, a car can break down, you know, there

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Speaker 4: can be other issue, family issues that happened, and you know,

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Speaker 4: that just reminds me of a story that a good

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Speaker 4: friend of the Food Bank told me yesterday, who was

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Speaker 4: food and secure and homeless when she was a young mother.

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Speaker 4: Her kids now are in their early twenties, and she

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Speaker 4: shared with me that she's going through a really rough

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Speaker 4: time now because her kids, who are at a stage

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Speaker 4: of their lives where they're understanding their childhood a little better,

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Speaker 4: are actually facing trauma, are and hearing the stories of

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Speaker 4: the Snap benefit cuts. They are really traumatized because all

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Speaker 4: these memories of their childhood are coming back and that's

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Speaker 4: causing her our front of the food bank to have

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Speaker 4: to deal with that. And so these kinds of issues

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Speaker 4: that people face who you know, live with food insecurity

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Speaker 4: can be long lasting. So we're very concerned about the

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Speaker 4: long term impact of this cut of SNAP benefits on

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Speaker 4: people who are trying to put food on their table

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Speaker 4: and their mental health and their family unity over time

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Speaker 4: and over generations, you know. And to just follow up

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Speaker 4: on something that Aaron said, you know, the economic impact.

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Speaker 4: You know, we're talking about two hundred and twenty million

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Speaker 4: dollars worth of SNAP benefits in one month alone. That's

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Speaker 4: the equivalent of two point six billion dollars over the

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Speaker 4: course of the year, which translates into over four billion

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Speaker 4: dollars of economic activity. When you think of that multiplier

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Speaker 4: effect of you know, businesses receiving that income, which represents

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Speaker 4: twenty percent of food retailer's income, and then of course

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Speaker 4: paying their employees, paying suppliers, those employees in turn going

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Speaker 4: and spending it in the local economy. All that economic

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Speaker 4: activity is really really important to our economy, and without

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Speaker 4: which we're going to feel the impact of it. It's

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Speaker 4: going to hit people really hard, not only food retailers,

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Speaker 4: but farmers and of course the people who work for them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, eron, I want to bring up a point connected

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Speaker 1: to that, because we've heard a lot of people talking about, well,

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Speaker 1: the state has a rainy day fund, right, why can't

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Speaker 1: the state tap into the money that we have set

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Speaker 1: aside to cover this What is the rising behind that?

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Speaker 3: Well, first of it's a federal nutrition program, right, and

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Speaker 3: so you know this program started during the Great Depression,

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Speaker 3: was first piloted then and then during the Kennedy a

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Speaker 3: year after Kennedy was assassinated, it was formerly passed by Congress.

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Speaker 3: The federal program the intention has always been that the

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Speaker 3: federal government pays for these benefits. It's also an entitlement program,

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Speaker 3: and what that means is if you're eligible, you get it, right,

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Speaker 3: and so during economic recessions, a lot more people are

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Speaker 3: getting it during when the economy might be in a

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Speaker 3: boom period. So all of those factors and the other

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Speaker 3: thing I just want to say, and just you know,

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Speaker 3: Andrews already said that part of the reason this program

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Speaker 3: was also developed by our government was certainly because nobody

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Speaker 3: in America should go hungry, but also because it is

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Speaker 3: an economic engine and an economic stimulus. It was purposely

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Speaker 3: crafted in a way to feed people and put money

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Speaker 3: back into our local economies and help drive the economy.

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Speaker 3: And that's a federal strategy of when our you know,

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Speaker 3: we're facing you know, federal inflation or federal cost of

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Speaker 3: living and other strategies. The federal government is the one

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Speaker 3: who Congress is allocating the resources to pay for this program.

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Speaker 3: It's never before in the history of the United States

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Speaker 3: been shut down this program, not during any previous government

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Speaker 3: jet down, not for you know, any other reason.

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Speaker 2: So it absolutely should be that.

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Speaker 3: Said, I think we are calling on the governor to

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Speaker 3: pull from the Rainy Day Fund to pay for it

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Speaker 3: because the consequences are so big if we don't pull

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Speaker 3: from the Rainy Day Fund to pay for this program,

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Speaker 3: if come November fir second, third fourth, people aren't getting

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Speaker 3: these supports those fifty five hundred retailers and farmers are

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Speaker 3: not getting the business. The economic implications will be bigger

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Speaker 3: than the actual draw from the rainy Day Fund.

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Speaker 4: You folks know, and hopefully all our listeners know, and

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Speaker 4: if they don't, they they're going to hear it now

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Speaker 4: that you know, the Attorney General of Massachusetts and twenty

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Speaker 4: one other attorney generals of twenty one other states has

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Speaker 4: filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture to

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Speaker 4: reinstate those funds should indeed they continue to be prohibited

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Speaker 4: from being issued. And you know, that's really really important

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Speaker 4: for people to know, and it was only if that fails,

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Speaker 4: do we urge the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to dip into

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Speaker 4: the Stabilization Fund otherwise known as the Rainy Day Fund,

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Speaker 4: which we should remind ourselves you know, is currently at

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Speaker 4: around eight billion dollars, and the governor at last week's

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Speaker 4: press statement said, well, you you know, we really have

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Speaker 4: to subtract three billion dollars from the rainy Day Fund

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Speaker 4: that we may have to dip into to pay for

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Speaker 4: federal funds that were clawed back, so that leaves about

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Speaker 4: five billion. And we know, as we've been talking about

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Speaker 4: that that two hundred and twenty million dollars will you know,

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Speaker 4: generate thirty four million dollars in economic activity. And in fact,

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Speaker 4: you know, Moody's, which is a financial investment firm, you know,

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Speaker 4: hardly a bastion of left leaning politics, you know, has

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Speaker 4: said that the SNAP program is the most powerful federal

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Speaker 4: economic stimulus program of the federal government. So why wouldn't

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Speaker 4: we want to leverage that for the benefit of everyone

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Speaker 4: across the United States of America?

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Speaker 3: Right? And I mean I get where the governor this

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Speaker 3: is frustrating. This money's already been allocated. This money is

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Speaker 3: sitting at the US Department of Agriculture. But as Andrew said,

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Speaker 3: I just want to echo, the consequences are too big

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Speaker 3: of not right. And it's for those one point one

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Speaker 3: million people, it's for the places that they work, It's

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Speaker 3: for the three hundred and seventy thousand kids that are

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Speaker 3: included in that one point one million who you know,

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Speaker 3: kids need food to grow, right, and if they're going

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Speaker 3: without the health consequences and the health costs associated with

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Speaker 3: not doing something or just too big.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk more about the food banks for a second, Andrew,

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Speaker 1: because I'd really like to hear more about the demand

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Speaker 1: that you all have been seeing, not just because of

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Speaker 1: this potential snap crisis, which of course is a big deal,

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Speaker 1: but over the past few months, I mean, inflation has

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Speaker 1: been tough. You've got furloughed federal workers, You've got people

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Speaker 1: getting laid off left right sideways from businesses all over

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Speaker 1: the Commonwealth. Tell me about the demand and how you're

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Speaker 1: able to try and keep up with all of this

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Speaker 1: demand or are you not at this point able to

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Speaker 1: do so well.

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Speaker 4: We're definitely able to keep up with the demand, and

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Speaker 4: we're grateful to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for its investment

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Speaker 4: in the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides funding

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Speaker 4: to the four food banks of the Commonwealth to purchase food,

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Speaker 4: much of which is purchased from local farmers and other

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Speaker 4: wholesalers or manufacturers in the Commonwealth. And that's critically important,

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Speaker 4: as is the federal government's t FAT program, which is

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Speaker 4: the Emergency Food Assistance program.

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Speaker 2: Between the two.

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Speaker 4: In our case, that constitutes almost half of all of

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Speaker 4: the food that we provide to one hundred and ninety

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Speaker 4: nine food pantries and meal sites and ultimately over one

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Speaker 4: hundred and twenty four thousand individuals every month. You know,

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Speaker 4: the other half of our inventory comes from the very

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Speaker 4: important private food industry that provides us with donated food

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Speaker 4: that we're again able to receive, store and distribute through

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Speaker 4: our respective warehouses. And by respective, I mean the four

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Speaker 4: food banks of the Commonwealth, the Greater Boston Food Bank,

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Speaker 4: the Merrimack Valley Food Bank, the Worcester County Food Bank,

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Speaker 4: and ourselves the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts that combine

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Speaker 4: provide food to over eight hundred local, independent, nonprofit and

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Speaker 4: faith based food pantries, meal sites, and shelters, and ultimately

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Speaker 4: to over a million people across the Commonwealth, the equivalent

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Speaker 4: of over one hundred and eleven million meals. But again

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Speaker 4: that's dwarfed by the SNAP program. For every meal that

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Speaker 4: we provide, SNAP provides nine meals, so there's no way

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Speaker 4: that we could make up for the loss of SNAP benefits.

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Speaker 4: We will do our best, and we're reaching out to

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Speaker 4: our individual donors and private food retailers and foundations to

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Speaker 4: support us. I know there's a United Way Response Emergency

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Speaker 4: Response Fund, but we also encourage people to go to

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Speaker 4: our respective websites to learn about the issue. Of food insecurity,

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Speaker 4: including Project breads, because without that, people won't realize how

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Speaker 4: it affects people in three hundred and sixty one municipalities

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Speaker 4: across the Commonwealth, people who might live nearby you, or

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Speaker 4: sit in the pew next to you, or go to

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Speaker 4: this YMCA that you go to, or so on and

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Speaker 4: so forth. So we are definitely going to be stretched thin,

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Speaker 4: and we are already receiving calls left and right, as

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Speaker 4: I'm sure Project bread is as well. People are confused,

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Speaker 4: they're scared, they're angry, they don't know where to turn to.

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Speaker 4: We're providing expanded distributions and amounts of food to pantries

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Speaker 4: and meal sites, but again, we don't believe that we'll

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Speaker 4: be able to meet the demand that's likely to unfold

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Speaker 4: in the coming weeks, especially with not only the high

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Speaker 4: cost of living that's stubbornly high, but the loss of

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Speaker 4: the Snap benefits for the month of November.

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Speaker 1: Now, Aaron, I saw something going around online. I kind

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Speaker 1: of want to talk to you about this really quick. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So here in Massachusetts we have the hip program through

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Speaker 1: the farmers' markets. I saw something where if you have

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Speaker 1: even just a dollar left on your Snap benefits, you

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Speaker 1: can access this money. Kind of break this down for

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Speaker 1: me really quick. It seems like a really good program

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Speaker 1: to have.

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Speaker 3: It's an awesome program. So the HIP, it's called the

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Speaker 3: Healthy Incentives Program, it's the Massachusetts program where the goal again,

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Speaker 3: you know, just like SNAP, it's about feeding people, but

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Speaker 3: also helping a key industry in our stay, which is

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Speaker 3: our farmers, our local farmers. And so for people we're

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Speaker 3: on SNAP, for every dollar they spend on local produce

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Speaker 3: at a farmer's market in Massachusetts that HIP certified, they

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Speaker 3: get twice the money back, right, And so it's it's awesome.

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Speaker 3: It's state funded and that's why that program can keep

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Speaker 3: going even when the federal money is suspended.

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Speaker 2: But I just I also I want to just say.

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Speaker 3: This because it's we're having this conversation and I'm listening

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Speaker 3: to all the stuff Andrew is doing, and I've been

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Speaker 3: on the phone with the other food bank leaders this

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Speaker 3: morning about all the work that we're doing. We're in

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Speaker 3: crisis mode. This is all man made. We are not

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Speaker 3: This is not the hurricane that is in the Caribbean

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Speaker 3: right now. This is not a global pandemic. We we

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Speaker 3: will rise to the occasion in those moments, and we

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Speaker 3: have and we always will, and we're rising to the

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Speaker 3: occasion now. But this is somewhat insanity, if I can

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Speaker 3: just name it, that this is all of us working

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Speaker 3: around the cloth to buill in the gap for a

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Speaker 3: program that has never been shut off before in the

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Speaker 3: history of the United States, that the funding has already

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Speaker 3: been allocated for, and it's sitting in a fund, but

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Speaker 3: the Trump administration is refusing to release and coming up

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Speaker 3: with ways like this hip strategy of helping people stretch

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Speaker 3: their dollars. I mean, this is the most preventable crisis

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Speaker 3: I've worked on in my entire career.

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Speaker 4: We know, and we kind of Aaron kind of touched

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Speaker 4: on it, that the reason why people are food and

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Speaker 4: secure is because there are so many barriers to opportunity

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Speaker 4: and to just survive. And we know that that many

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Speaker 4: other federal programs are being slashed as well, that that

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Speaker 4: support housing, affordable housing, transportation utilities including heat as we've

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Speaker 4: approached the winter season, childcare. The list goes on and on,

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Speaker 4: and we're hearing it from our colleagues, and we're hearing

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Speaker 4: it from people as we have for some time and

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Speaker 4: without which you know, these are the re reasons why

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Speaker 4: people seek food assistance because they're unable to perhaps earn

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Speaker 4: a wage that supports their family. And in the absence

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Speaker 4: of that, now on top of it, and for some

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Speaker 4: time actually, there hasn't been adequate federal and state investments

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Speaker 4: in programs to ensure that people can access affordable housing, transportation, childcare,

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Speaker 4: et cetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a systemic issue. And then we're seeing

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Speaker 1: the cracks in the system here. Where do we go

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Speaker 1: from here?

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think, you know, we say it at

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Speaker 3: Project Bread constantly that hunger is a policy choice, and

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Speaker 3: I think that this moment really emphasizes that more than

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Speaker 3: any other moment and probably in the history of our country.

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Speaker 3: You know, this is not you know, this is something

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Speaker 3: that we could solve. Right if the federal government said

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Speaker 3: to me and Andrew, hey, we're going to solve hunger.

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Speaker 2: What do you guys need to do? We actually don't

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Speaker 2: need that much time to figure that out.

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Speaker 3: Right. This isn't like, you know, a disease that we

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Speaker 3: don't know what the cure is and there needs to

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Speaker 3: be more research.

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Speaker 2: We know exactly what needs to happen, and the foods

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Speaker 2: the easy one. The food is.

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Speaker 3: There, the retailers are there, the distribution methods are there.

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Speaker 3: It's all a matter of political will. So where we

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Speaker 3: go from here, I think it's what are the Americans

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Speaker 3: going to do? What are the forty two million Americans

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Speaker 3: who are losing the support? Are they going to say

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Speaker 3: enough is enough? Are they going to stand up? And

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Speaker 3: that's why it Project Bread. In addition to working on

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Speaker 3: the programmatic response to alleviate the suffering of people, we

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Speaker 3: are also simultaneously focused on the movement, building the coalition,

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Speaker 3: building the policy work to make sure that we are

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Speaker 3: you know, building that political will to never let this

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Speaker 3: happen again and to solve in the first place.

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Speaker 4: I do believe we have a challenge, many challenges ahead

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Speaker 4: of us, and one of them is is in public

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Speaker 4: education and awareness because we need to have the social

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Speaker 4: will as well. And you know that, really I believe

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Speaker 4: crosses all political divisions and economic class when we realize

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Speaker 4: that ultimately, if we're going to be a strong nation,

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Speaker 4: we have to have strong economies, we have to have

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Speaker 4: strong families. So there's the intersection of family values and

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Speaker 4: strong economies. You know that are really, you know, very

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Speaker 4: conservative principles if you think about it, and values that

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Speaker 4: stem that undergird that that I think, you know, people

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Speaker 4: from both sides of the aisle, let's just say, can

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Speaker 4: agree upon it. We just really have to be able

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Speaker 4: to sit down and think about it and realize that,

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Speaker 4: you know, if we're going to have a strong America,

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Speaker 4: we have to have strong families, we have to have

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Speaker 4: strong communities, and to do that, we have to invest

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Speaker 4: in them just like we would in a business. And

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Speaker 4: the way to do that is to have you know,

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Speaker 4: a federal state and private partnership. And by federal and

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Speaker 4: state I mean government, of course.

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Speaker 2: And I believe we.

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Speaker 4: Can do that if we, you know, get cut through

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Speaker 4: the noise and the myths that have been persisting for

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Speaker 4: far too long, many of them which step back to,

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Speaker 4: you know, the the period of of of the you know,

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Speaker 4: the the industrial air of our country, and we're far

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Speaker 4: beyond that, you know, we're you know, two hundred years later. Uh,

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Speaker 4: these these myths are still persisting, and we really need

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Speaker 4: to cut through them and think about them and what's

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Speaker 4: important to us as a society and as a nation.

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Speaker 4: When we're increasingly faced by a competition from from abroad

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Speaker 4: that's challenging you know, our UH, our credibility UH and

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Speaker 4: our ability to compete at a global level.

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Speaker 1: What is your message to people listening who are concerned

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Speaker 1: about the situation that's unfolding right now.

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Speaker 3: Well, there's organizations like Project bread and the Food Bank

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Speaker 3: of Western Masts that are preparing and fighting at the

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Speaker 3: same time, fighting against this.

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Speaker 2: Policy decision and ask for help.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: I think that that's a big piece of this is

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Speaker 3: one point one million people across our state. Resources like

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Speaker 3: Project breads Food Source Hotline which is one eight hundred

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00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,159
Speaker 3: six four five eight three three three were there to

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Speaker 3: provide confidential support to help you identify food resources. And

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Speaker 3: if you're able to help, I would say, get in,

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00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,920
Speaker 3: get in the fight with us, right, join me hunger

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00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 3: history and just as Andrew is saying, this is an

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00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:29,520
Speaker 3: issue we shall all come together around, right, this is

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00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 3: an issue that we should all agree that everyone in

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00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,399
Speaker 3: America should have access to food and if you have

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Speaker 3: the resources, donate to the organizations who are leading this

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Speaker 3: work across the state.

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Speaker 4: Well, we believe that everyone should have access to nutritious

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Speaker 4: food without barriers and stigma, and so people should feel

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00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 4: free to reach out to us to learn about the issue. Again,

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Speaker 4: if you're not one who experiences or live with food

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Speaker 4: and security, and if you do, we're available to connect

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00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,439
Speaker 4: you with food resources in your community. You can go

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Speaker 4: to our website foodbank WMA dot org. We have a

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Speaker 4: food finder, and we have telephon numbers for lots of

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Speaker 4: other resources in Western Massachusetts.

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Speaker 1: Thank you both for your time, for your education, for

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Speaker 1: your efforts on this and it's really going to be helpful,

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Speaker 1: I think for a lot of people who have a

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Speaker 1: lot of questions about what's unfolding right now. So thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for both being here having us have

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Speaker 1: a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again next

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Speaker 1: week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis

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Speaker 1: from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.