Coalition Hosts Legislative Briefing on Restoring Basic Benefits for Immigrant Households
Members of the media and public were invited to attend a legislative briefing on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 to raise awareness to the plight of the immigrant community who lack access to basic food assistance and other key benefits. This event highlighted the need for both legislation and funding to restore basic food and cash assistance benefits for legally present immigrants, and included presentations from medical professionals and organizations working with immigrant families.
“Children should not go to sleep hungry.” said Gladys Vega of La Colaborativa, whose food pantry feeds around 7,000 people a week but is feeling the pinch of inflation. “I missed a lot of food when I was young…my mother tried, but we were just extremely poor. We have to do better for our society and for our children.”
Estela, a widow who fled gang violence in Columbia with her two children, spoke about being unable to access SNAP, despite having a pending application for humanitarian parole and asylum. “I felt I was being discriminated against, because everyone else was getting [food stamps], but I wasn’t getting them,” Estela said. “All I want to do is feed my kids and give them a good future.”
“Studies have shown that food insecurity is associated with chronic disease and increased healthcare expenditures, whereas receiving SNAP has been shown to correlate with better medication adherence, less obesity and heart disease, fewer low birth weight infants, and better long term educational attainment,” said Dr. Fiona Dahaner, the Director of the Mass General Hospital Center for Immigrant Health. “Food is medicine, and it is far more cost effective to feed people well than to pay for their preventable chronic medical conditions down the line.”
“We know that food insecurity impacts the health of the pregnant person and the health of their child,” said Anissa Dickerson, the Director of the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic at Boston Medical Center. “Denying SNAP and cash benefits to immigrant families exacerbates health inequities and contributes to preventable health costs.”
Read coverage of the briefing from State House News Service.