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Boston Globe
24-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
What Trump's ‘beautiful bill' means for Medicaid, food stamps, and Massachusetts
Advertisement This disruption of the social safety net could cost Massachusetts more than $1.5 billion a year by increasing state contributions for these benefits and penalizing the state for continuing to use its own funds to Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up House Republicans say the restrictions in President Trump's The extension of the tax credits in the bill would also disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans. The fifth of residents earning the least would get just 1 percent of the bill's net tax cuts next year, according to the Advertisement 'The purpose of this bill is to give tax cuts to the richest people in the country,' said Viviana Abreu-Hernandez, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. 'They are doing this by cutting the budget for services that the most vulnerable populations in the country need to be able to survive.' The bill would require Work requirements don't increase employment, however, according to Work requirements would also be levied on more recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In addition to those already required to work, recipients with children above the age of 6, including grandparents up to age 65, would have to work — or be enrolled in job training or community service — at least 20 hours a week to receive benefits for more than three months. For parents who can't afford child care or don't have transportation, this is untenable, advocates say. Advertisement Immigrants here legally would also become ineligible for SNAP under the House bill. Undocumented immigrants are already barred from benefits. All told, more than 250,000 Massachusetts residents, including children, are at risk of losing some or all of their SNAP benefits, according to the For the first time in the program's history, states would have to pay for a portion of SNAP benefits, ranging from 5 to 25 percent, depending on their payment error rate. States' share of administrative costs would also rise, from 50 to 75 percent. The federal SNAP program, known colloquially as food stamps, has been a stabilizing force during recessions, supporting families and, in turn, local economies when state resources are dropping. In Massachusetts, SNAP adds more than $2.6 billion a year to the economy, benefiting more than 5,500 farmers and retailers. The proposed cuts — which Erin McAleer, chief executive of the anti-hunger nonprofit Project Bread calls 'the most devastating attack on food assistance in our lifetime' — would force the state to absorb $710 million in new costs each year, the organization said. Some states might even opt to stop offering SNAP benefits entirely. With fewer people on MassHealth, hospitals, nursing homes, and community health centers would get less revenue; people would get sicker and crowd emergency rooms — changes that would also impact patients without MassHealth. Administrative costs for tracking work requirements, more frequent eligibility renewals, and other changes will put an additional burden on state coffers. To compensate for these changes, states may cut back on benefits or tighten eligibility requirements, advocates said. Some might raise taxes. Advertisement What isn't in doubt is the effect the bill could have on income inequality. The House measure would decrease household resources in the lowest tenth of the income distribution by 2 to 4 percent over the next eight years — mainly due to the loss of Medicaid and SNAP — and increase resources for households in the top 10 percent by the same margin — largely because of tax reductions — according to the 'It's going to make sick people sicker,' said Kate Symmonds, a senior health law attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. 'It's going to make poor people poorer. … It's going to make wealthy people richer.' Regardless of what the Senate does, the bill will cause harm, said Victoria Negus, senior economic justice advocate at the institute, following an election in which one of voters' biggest concerns was the cost of groceries. 'This package as a whole says to the American people: We are prioritizing the needs of the wealthy and the few, the well connected and the privileged, over every family in this country who is working hard to get by and does not make enough money to put food on the table or afford health care,' she said. 'It is a monumental step back in efforts to end hunger and poverty and improve health outcomes.' This story was produced by the Globe's team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter . Advertisement Katie Johnston can be reached at
Boston Globe
13-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Making America healthier or cutting food stamps? MAHA and RFK's targeting of SNAP is more complicated than meets the eye
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But those who use and defend the current SNAP structure say the issue is more complex than portrayed by MAHA and fear Kennedy's push is a rebranded effort to cut SNAP, which serves nearly 42 million Americans and has a more than $110 billion yearly budget. Paired with other moves by the administration to end programs that helped low-income Americans access fresh produce, they question the government's core commitment to improving American diets. Advertisement 'There are so many other ways they could try to 'make America healthy again,'' said Janin Otero, 46, a SNAP recipient who works part time as a food service worker and works with Project Bread, a local antihunger nonprofit. She supports promoting healthy eating, but with high food prices, families' practical needs, and the limited SNAP benefit, she worries further restrictions would only make life harder for those on the program. Advertisement 'I want to believe that there are good intentions behind it, but ... there's a punishing effect to it,' she said. 'It's just way too nuanced to just be like, yeah let's just make everything healthy.' The concept is not exclusive to MAHA. An effort by officials in New York state to restrict 'sugar-sweetened beverages' from SNAP benefits The most recent changes proposed by Republicans in the House and Senate, the In the meantime, Kennedy is urging states to request federal waivers to restrict soda and more from SNAP purchases, and has been visiting states already moving to do so, including West Virginia, Utah, and Arizona. 'Every American who wants to eat a doughnut ought to be able to eat it, or drink a Coke, but the federal taxpayers should not be paying to poison our children,' Kennedy told reporters at a recent press conference. 'We're going to end that.' Advertisement Calley Means, a health care entrepreneur and argued reorienting SNAP will solve for many of ills of the food industry, including lowering the cost of healthy food and increasing grocery store access. SNAP accounts for about 10 percent of US food and beverage sales, 'The SNAP program ... causes massive distortions in overall food prices,' Means said. 'When you have a $120 billion program and the majority of that program through lobbying in the food industry goes to ultra-processed food and sugary food … that is a subsidy for that food and creates food deserts.' Means said the arguments against banning soda from SNAP originate from soda lobbyists, and that antihunger groups are just a front for the food industry (some, but not all, antihunger groups do receive funding from the food industry). 'Anyone who suggests that the government should fund soda is deliberately or un-deliberately engaged in evil, because our kids have a metabolic health crisis,' Means said. But SNAP beneficiaries and antihunger advocates argue that healthy food is pricier and harder to prepare for low-income families who face other obstacles, such inadequate transportation and access to grocery stores. And even just banning certain beverages such as soda, they say, could cause difficulties for retailers and users to navigate: It could potentially lead to to lower participation in the program by both, as well as result in the policing of eating habits of low income people more than other Americans, without increasing their resources for healthier options. The Advertisement 'The reality is it is more expensive to be able to follow a healthy diet in this country,' said US Representative Jim McGovern of Worcester, a longtime antihunger advocate. 'We should do everything we can to encourage people to move in that direction, but to not acknowledge that resources play a role in this is just ridiculous.' Carolyn Barnes, a University of Chicago researcher who interviews SNAP recipients, called the MAHA push an 'elite-driven, in some ways a paternalistic discussion.' 'We're policing what low-income moms feed their kids with the assumption that they don't know,' Barnes said. 'People [in poverty] buy food the way that everyone else does, they just ration.' Barnes' said her research has shown that when SNAP recipients receive large benefits, they buy healthier food. And when programs are more complicated to navigate, she said, participation tends to plummet. Those who use SNAP in Massachusetts agree. Alexandra Mello, 49, a mom from Northampton who works with Project Bread and uses SNAP, said she remembers the difficulty of using the more-restrictive Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program benefits when her children were young. 'It would cause more stigma, more stress for people to be able to already on a budget try to go and navigate the grocery store, and that's if the stores even stock the products their family would eat,' Mello said. Advertisement Massachusetts pioneered the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), which gives SNAP users more money for buying produce from local farmers. The program Despite Kennedy's focus on healthy food, the Trump administration has Meg Bantle, 32, runs an organic produce and flower farm in Adams and is also a SNAP recipient. Bantle's business has boomed with the Masachusetts healthy foods program, which has helped it sell CSAs and produce at farmers markets to SNAP users. 'They never turn down the opportunity to fill their basket with that much money worth of food,' Bantle said of shoppers finding out about their HIP benefits. With the recent cuts to the Massachusetts and federal low-income produce programs, Bantle fears what's ahead for their business and the impacts to people reliant on the program. 'We are on the front lines of seeing how these cuts affect people in our community,' Bantle said. 'I get emotional thinking about these programs getting cut, because ... it's not state legislators and it's not people in MAHA who have to turn people away who are trying to buy food for their household — it's me.' Tal Kopan can be reached at
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Advocates speak out on the possibility of SNAP and other food security benefits facing cuts
CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – SNAP and other food security benefits are expected to face cuts by the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans. Senator Ed Markey, Congressman Jim McGovern, and advocates met virtually yesterday to discuss this issue. The proposal to cut SNAP benefits has deeply concerned many of these advocates, as it could lead to increased hunger and food insecurity. 'We've made great strides, but there are still too many people in the United States going hungry every single day,' said State Senator Edward Markey. Nearly 1 in 5 families in Massachusetts report struggling with food access. And more families could struggle if billions of SNAP benefits are cut. The proposed reduction in SNAP benefits equals 118 million meals lost throughout the state. State Senator Markey adds, 'This week, I heard directly from Massachusetts early educators, community college students, food bank leaders, and advocates why SNAP is a critical lifeline for families in our state. SNAP helps one in six Massachusetts residents, or about 670,000 families, put food on the table, but nearly 20 percent of families in Massachusetts still report struggling with food access. If Republicans want to make these cuts, I'm going to make sure every American knows that they are the ones taking food from people's dinner tables to fuel billionaires' tax breaks.' 'If you cut those even further, that will cause families to make impossible choices between feeding themselves or paying their rent, paying their utility bills on time,' said Rebecca Miller, the Policy Director at the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative. Last year alone, Project Bread, a food security organization in Massachusetts, handled more than 7,000 SNAP pre-screens and nearly 700 SNAP applications over the phone. 'Right now in Massachusetts, our levels of food insecurity are the same as they were at the peak of the COVID crisis. We are in crisis right now in our state and across the country when it comes to hunger. And it is not the time to be cutting back the programs that we know are most effective in responding to that crisis,' said Jennifer Lemmerman, chief policy officer for Project Bread. Food banks and pantries will also see an increase in more people seeking food assistance. 'And quite frankly, food banks across the country won't be able to make up for the loss of SNAP benefits people rely on to put food on their table,' said Andrew Moorehouse, the Executive Director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The Western Massachusetts Food Bank currently provides food to local line food pantries across the region. This includes the Parish Cupboard in West Springfield. 'You know, in the short term, we will probably weather the storm. In the long term, it's going to hurt our services,' said Bob Fastie, West Springfield Parish Cupboard Executive Director. For every dollar of SNAP spent, it can impact the economy by nearly 2 dollars. So that means in Massachusetts, that's about $4 billion in economic activity in the year. These snap benefits not only support 194,000 individuals in western Mass. but bring in around 35 million dollars to the region. This means farmers, local economies, and small businesses that depend on these federal dollars could be impacted. 'So for Congress to consider decimating this program would be both unprecedented and horrifying,' expressed Victoria Negus of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. Negus says delegates with the Massachusetts Law Reform Insitute are speaking up for everyone in Washington D.C. to urge Congress to reject these cuts. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
11-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Meet the high school student who wants to bring plant-based eating to the masses
'This started as my concern for how animals were being treated. But [these practices] are really terrible for the environment in a lot of ways, from the massive amount of water used to the waste that it produces,' Pfeffer says. 'For example, eating a plant-based burger instead of an actual one can save up to the equivalent of driving 60 miles in a car in terms of carbon emissions.' Advertisement Pfeffer cold-called several restaurants throughout the city or visited in person to explain her mission. It was nerve-racking at first, she says, but many businesses were encouraging. Currently, Althea, Base Crave, and Le Macaron are serving plant-based specials at her urging. At Althea in Central Square, owner Greg Reeves now serves a local fried enoki mushroom with basil lemon puree ($13) and harissa cauliflower with smoky cashew romesco and garlic chips ($18) alongside smoked beef brisket and pork chops. 'It's a cool idea and a fun challenge to how we normally choose and create menu items, and it's really cool to see the impact it has on the environment. Plus, it's always great to help and be part of a local cause,' he says, saying the dishes have sold well, with a boost in reservations thanks to Dine Out Boston. Base Crave, an Asian fusion restaurant, now serves plantain basil curry and shiitake mushroom chili. Pastry shop Le Macaron added lemon ginger and elderberry raspberry tarts. Advertisement Smoked beets and escarole with black garlic, yogurt, and pumpkin seeds at Althea in Central Square. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Pfeffer launched the effort through Planted Society, a multi-city organization that, among other initiatives, partners with local restaurants to introduce plant-based specials as a monthly challenge. When the challenge ends, the group produces a report to highlight environmental benefits achieved during the month, quantifying significant reductions in greenhouse gasses — and hopefully reshaping menus in the long term. To prepare, Pfeffer also conducted a fellowship through the New Roots Institute, an organization that empowers teenagers to educate peers about factory farming by launching sustainable food campaigns on their campuses. She recommends the program for other young people interested in food activism. 'We all have the power to make change within our communities. I really want to remind young people that they have the power to educate themselves and other people, to learn how to work with others, to do something they really believe in. I think this is really important work,' she says. Today, Pfeffer's favorite dishes are pasta alla norma with eggplant, and she's experimenting with okra. Her family typically shops at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. But she also understands that many people live in 'food deserts' — areas with limited access to grocery stores selling fresh foods. As of September 2024, about 21 percent of Massachusetts households with children reported food insecurity, according to Project Bread. But, in Cambridge, Pfeffer hopes that more restaurants will set the tone for plant-based eating as a legitimate and beneficial way to consume food. Much as frozen or prepackaged meals are the default for many, she hopes that someday, plant-based foods will become the accessible, affordable norm. Advertisement 'I hope that the campaign is able to show people that plant-based food can be absolutely delicious, and that it's really important to be mindful of the impact of the choices that we make,' she says. 'We need more role models of what delicious plant-based food can be — which is exactly what these amazing restaurants are providing.' Kara Baskin can be reached at
