Tuesday, February 11, 2020
SNAP Gap
I met today with Sarah Grow, Director of Advocacy and Development of The Open Door, and guest from Cape Ann, to discuss the important issue of nutrition and access to food.
To help more low-income families purchase the food that they need, I have sponsored legislation to help address a problem called the SNAP Gap. SNAP is the federally-funded supplemental nutrition assistance benefits program and the gap is the difference in the number of income eligible people enrolled in MassHealth or the Medicare Savings Program who are not also enrolled for the federal nutrition program.
By establishing a coordinated process for federal applications we could generate $2 billion in economic stimulus to our local economies and secure nearly $1 billion in federal SNAP nutrition dollars for those most in need. Senate bill 678, which I have co-sponsored, will create a common application for this important safety net program and help hundreds of thousand of people in households across our state.
