Recap of the Rally for SNAP: Hunger Is Not a Choice, But Inaction Is

"Do not look at us as numbers. Look at us as human beings. We are parents fighting every day to keep our families standing. SNAP is not a charity. It’s justice! It allows us to survive with dignity. Taking away SNAP, it doesn’t just take food off our table. It affects our health, our minds, our hearts, and the future of our children. I’m very sorry, but I depend on it, and I’m just very worried about what I’m going to do for my kids.”

These emotional words were delivered from the steps of the State House on Tuesday, October 28 by Iris Ivette Montfar, a mother from Chelsea who stood beside Project Bread, the Make Hunger History coalition, and hundreds of anti-hunger leaders, advocates, allies, and legislators for a Rally for SNAP. Just four days before SNAP benefits are expected to be cut off for over one million Massachusetts residents—including 342,155 children— because of the federal shutdown and the Trump Administration’s refusal to release SNAP contingency funds.

These aren’t statistics. They’re our neighbors. Our coworkers. Our loved ones. 

This would be the first time in our nation’s history that this critical nutrition program goes unfunded. SNAP is not a line item. It is a lifeline for more than a million people right here in Massachusetts.

Hundreds of advocates assembled to insist: hunger is a policy choice we don't have to make! Advocates demanded the USDA act now to release funds and keep food on the table come November. And if they won’t, implored Massachusetts to step up to protect families from hunger by using state resources.

All major media outlets were present and waiting to hear Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announce the lawsuit that she and 22 other state Attorneys General and three governors are filing against the Trump Administration for allegedly unlawfully suspending November SNAP benefits.

“It is an inhumane and cruel decision to suspend SNAP benefits for millions of Americans,” AG Campbell said. “The federal government absolutely has the money to continue SNAP benefits.”

“Our federal government has an absolute obligation to ensure that these working families, struggling to make ends meet, are able to put food on their table. And to not punish them for circumstances outside of their control.”

Her message was clear: Massachusetts will not sit quietly while its people go hungry.

Representative James Arena-DeRosa echoed this call to action, reminding everyone that this rally was only the beginning. He emphasized that keeping food on every table in Massachusetts will take ongoing advocacy, vigilance, and collective strength, decrying, “We must hold them accountable in the days and months and years ahead.”

Next, Erin McAleer of Project Bread took the mic and painted a vivid picture of what families are facing as SNAP hangs in the balance. Instead of celebrating the fall season or preparing for the holidays, many are “filled with anxiety, staring down November 1st, which is only 4 days away. And wondering, ‘will I have enough to feed my family next week?’”

She reminded everyone that this crisis is manmade. “This isn’t an inevitable consequence of a government shutdown. It’s a political choice, and it is completely preventable.”

Erin shared the stakes: “The US Department of Agriculture could act today, and use its Contingency Fund to keep food on families’ tables. Choosing not to act means letting millions go hungry. Without action, 1 in 7 people in Massachusetts will lose food assistance.”

Nationally, SNAP helps feed more than 42 million Americans, including over one million right here in Massachusetts. It’s a lifeline for children, families, seniors, veterans, and people working through tough times. Never in our nation’s history has anything, not even a government shutdown, stood between our neighbors and the benefits they need to stay fed. Until now.

Erin discussed the economic consequences we all stand to face, “not just for the 1.1 million people in our state most directly impacted.” She explained that, “​​$1 out of every $5 that comes into grocery stores comes from SNAP. When those dollars disappear, so does revenue, and so do jobs.”

1,069,234 people in Massachusetts rely on SNAP to eat:

• 32% of recipients are children(under 18) = 342,155 children

• 24% of recipients are seniors (60 and older) = 256,616 seniors

• 28% of recipients are people with disabilities = 299,385 people with disabilities
   

Source: August DTA report and recently released DTA data

Despite this, the Trump Administration has chosen not to use existing funds to continue benefits during the shutdown. Choosing not to act means choosing to let families go hungry. Hunger isn’t a choice — but inaction is.

Yet Erin reminded everyone: there’s still hope. “Massachusetts has always been a leader.”

Watch video of Erin delivering her hopeful message from the State House steps

SNAP provides 9 meals for every 1 that a food pantry can offer, and gives people dignity and choice in what they eat. That said, according to a recent study from the Greater Boston Food Bank, 80% of SNAP recipients also go to food pantries in order to have everything they need. Like Maria Torres, a SNAP participant from Chelsea. 

If next month's benefits are not available, and SNAP participants turn to the statewide food pantry system to cover the gap, the four MA food banks would have to provide up to 56 million more meals in November – an impossible outcome. That’s more than 4 times what the food bank system currently distributes in an average month on top of the increased demand for food assistance that our network experiences around the holidays.

Julie LaFontaine, CEO of The Open Door, described how SNAP cuts ripple through the community. “When federal SNAP benefits are cut from the table, we feel it immediately. We see it in the growing lines outside our doors, and in the worried voices asking us, ‘What am I going to feed my family?’”

She shared a story that’s sure to stick with all of us, about an elderly veteran named Leonard who came to The Open Door for food. When Julie asked Leonard how he was doing, he let out a tired sigh and said, “Sometimes there’s just too much month left at the end of the money.”

In Massachusetts, around 256,000 seniors like Leonard rely on SNAP to keep food on their table. Grandparents, neighbors, pillars of households and entire communities. Even with full funding, the average benefit amount is $10.70 per household every day, or $327 each month. But when you’re living off fixed income, the loss of any support is felt deeply.

Julie finished with a hopeful, yet pointed message, “We’re all here today because it’s the right thing to do, but we cannot do it alone. We need bold leadership. We need policy that reflects the reality on the ground. We need resources that match the scale of the need…We need the federal government to do its job and serve its people.”

David has worked at Kimball Fruit Farm since he was 15, and has owned it with his wife Amanda for the past 4 years. He was already in the neighborhood, taking time to join the rally in the middle of a busy day at Copley Square Farmer’s Market. David reminded everyone that SNAP funding isn’t only critical to support families, but to sustain local farms, too. 

Like many farms, Kimball Fruit Farm accepts SNAP benefits. Through the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), SNAP households receive additional funds to help them eat healthy while supporting local agriculture.  

At Kimball Fruit Farm, about 10–15% of daily sales come from SNAP. Understanding that dollars and cents don’t always offer the best visual, David shared some more tangible examples of the amount of business SNAP has brought to just his farm, just this year:

• 38,745 pounds of apples

• 30,442 heads of lettuce

But it’s not just about the produce. It’s also about revenue that allows David to pay his farm laborers for all the important and tedious work they do so their families and their communities can eat. At the current rate of pay for a farm laborer, SNAP has helped to pay for 5,643 hours of work. That’s 141 full-time work weeks, or 2.71 years of work.

Since we’re in Massachusetts where you can’t farm year-round without a greenhouse, David explained that the produce his farm should be selling in November was paid for and planted all the way back in June. With fewer people able to afford the fresh produce that farms like David and Amanda’s, that’s a cost that they, and many farms in their position, are going to have to absorb while our neighbors go without the nutrition they need.

SNAP brings in $2.7 billion federal dollars annually, which is spent at over 5,500 MA retailers like Kimball Fruit Farm. But when that funding runs out, so will much-needed revenue for grocery stores and farm stands and local businesses. Shifts will be cut, jobs will be lost, and even more people will struggle. This is the reality that lawmakers are creating through their inaction.

Despite the burden on his business, Dave expressed that most of his worries are for his customers. People he’s seen each week for years, and who will now be among those most impacted by this choice by our elected officials. “There’s a difference between what we sell and what people are buying,” Dave often tells his farm staff. Farms are selling produce, but families are buying the food they need to survive.

Children’s HealthWatch has studied policies’ effects on children and family health for decades. The research shows that even a one-month delay in benefits increases food insecurity and harms children’s health for years to come.

Through Project Bread’s own research, we know that food is the medicine that everyone, especially children, need to live a healthy life. Dr. Diana Cutts elaborated on this truth, saying “There is something uniquely unforgiving about the biology of early childhood. The first 1,000 days are a period of rapid brain and body growth. And growth does not wait for Congress to get its act together. There is no “pause” button on a child’s nutritional needs.”

“I have cared for children born this year whose hearts will beat into the next century,” she said to a captivated audience, “Their futures are shaped right now by what we do, and what we fail to do, in their earliest days. We owe them something better than preventable harm. We owe them food, not excuses."

She concluded powerfully with her message to our state and federal leaders, “Do not ask infants and toddlers to absorb the cost of political games. Step up and fund SNAP. Fund it fully, and fund it on time. Our children’s lives quite literally depend on it.”

Representing nearly 20,000 human service workers and educators across Massachusetts, Dave Foley of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 509 spoke about the impact of SNAP cuts on both workers and families. 

First, from a powerful letter from a colleague, Tinika Dottin, Dave read, “The work we do is not just about providing benefits. It’s about upholding dignity, stability, and opportunity for every individual we serve.”

 “Cuts to programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and access to education are not merely decisions. They are actions that threaten the very foundation of equity and justice that we fought so hard to build in our commonwealth. These cuts risk undoing years of progress for our most at-risk populations.”

In his own words, Dave called on the crowd to keep pushing, “I don’t think the administration’s gonna listen to me, but they have to listen to all of us.” Dave called on the entire audience, from advocates in the crowd to lawmakers watching from across the country, not to give up on the fight for food justice. Because, in Tinika’s words, “When we fight, we win.”

Gladys Vega brought energy and truth to the rally, reminding us that hunger affects not only low-income families but also the working poor. People who have to work multiple jobs, for whom one cut shift could leave them unable to make rent or buy food. “By the first two weeks of food stamps, they’re gone.”

She told us about a father who came to La Colaborativa for food one morning, and shared that he was unable to eat the night before because all he had was stale cereal which he fed to his kids.

Representing La Colaborativa, a non-profit that supports Latinx immigrants in Greater Boston in a number of ways including food pantries, Gladys told us that they’re already seeing the increased need. Just last weekend, when the food pantry was only open for 2.5 hours, there were over a thousand people waiting in line to get the food their family needed.

Mother of two, Iris, spoke to the crowd at the rally, sharing that SNAP is critical in keeping her family fed. “[SNAP] is the only way I can make sure that there’s bread, milk, beans, something warm on my table. Because of this program, my children can go to school with a full stomach, and I can have a little peace in the middle of so many severe struggles.”

You could feel her worry as she continued, “If SNAP is taken away from us, my life will fall apart. I already live on the edge with severe health issues,” Iris then presented a printed list of the medications she’s required to take, which took up an entire page. “It’s not that I don’t wanna work, it’s that I can’t work.”

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reports that most SNAP participants who can work do so. CBPP analysis shows that in 2023, 82–91% of SNAP households with working-age adults had earnings at some point during the year. Many work unstable jobs with fluctuating hours and high turnover rates. SNAP supports them through periods when their hours are cut or they are between jobs.

The crowd offered claps and cheers as Iris went on, "Do not look at us as numbers. Look at us as human beings. We are parents fighting every day to keep our families standing. SNAP is not a charity. It’s justice! It allows us to survive with dignity. Taking away SNAP, it doesn’t just take food off our table. It affects our health, our minds, our hearts, and the future of our children. I’m very sorry, but I depend on it, and I’m just very worried about what I’m going to do for my kids.”

As the days go on, this worry only grows. Nonetheless, she spoke powerfully to lawmakers through the camera, “Do not make mothers choose between paying rent and feeding our children. Do not let fear and hunger go into our homes.”

Right now, Iris is just one of hundreds of thousands of parents who is unsure and unnerved about whatever is going to come next for her family, and how she’s going to keep food on their table, let alone give her kids the fun childhood they deserve. Through tears, Iris shared, “Today is my son’s birthday, and I can’t even have a pizza party for him.”

Project Bread’s Resilience Fund is a dedicated, strategic initiative created in response to unprecedented attacks to federal nutrition programs. It is a vehicle for both immediate hunger relief, giving us the flexibility and capacity to support our communities as the full impact of this crisis unfolds.